STEP:Guide-Development Workflow

From Step Mods | Change The Game

Template:TOC right A broad overview of how we do things here at STEP -- by z929669 & the STEP Team

GUIDE FORUM THREAD


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STEP Community Member Roles[edit | edit source]

STEP is a community-driven project. This means that the community at large is the mechanism by which STEP evolves. Following are the site administrative roles. Each of these roles are defined in the forum groups. Some of these roles are currently filled to maximum necessary capacity, but others are excruciatingly vacant, so we could use help from qualifying members with nothing better to do:

  • Members - Registered site users.
  • Mod Authors - Members that are authors of any Skyrim mod.
  • Contributors - Users who have donated significant time or funding to the project at any time in the past.
  • Mod Testers - Our "first rung" of site staff roles. Users that help with mod & Pack testing.
  • Wiki Staff - Users who have donated significant time or funding to the project at any time in the past.
  • Wiki Developers - Users assisting on particular development projects relating to the STEP Wiki.
  • Forum Staff - Users who have donated significant time or funding to the project at any time in the past.
  • Moderators - Forum moderation of specific forums. and general administrative assistance.
  • Super Moderators - Forum moderation of all forums, moderator oversight, and general administrative assistance.
  • STEP Staff - These are the most senior administrative staff after Administrators. They oversee STEP release coordination and general wiki/forum maintenance and administration.
  • Senior Administrators - In charge of STEP website maintenance, update management and ultimately all site content and direction.
  • Site Founders - Members of the original founding group of the STEP Community no longer active on the project.

Furthermore, group membership is not exclusive. A given member can belong to more than one of these groups. The display group may be based upon user preference in some cases (e.g., Mod Tester versus Mod Author).

STEP Development[edit | edit source]

Synopsis[edit | edit source]

The STEP forums serve as the vehicle for STEP release development. Any registered site members may post a new topic in the Mods forum. (posting instructions are displayed on the forum be allowed to post). These topics serve as the "catch-all" for information and feedback relating to the mod. Mods being actively considered for STEP will be tagged with a yellow "Testing" pre-fix within the Mods Forum. These mods can be filtered by clicking on the pre-fix tag or visiting here. All testing feedback is done on the individual topic for that specific mod. If a given mod "passes" mod testing, then its topic will be moved to the STEP Mod Anthology forum. Each mod within Anthology also has a corresponding Wiki Mod Page; links can be found in the topics opening post. The wiki pages directly feed the official STEP Guide via our custom Semantic Mediawiki infrastructure.

Thus, in order for the STEP Guide to remain current, it is imperative that this generalized workflow be maintained by the community. Certain parts of the current workflow are restricted to Administrators and STEP Staff; however, most of the workflow is exposed to community members. It is this functionality that is presented here along with the linear breakdown of the update workflow. It is important that the community help drive the process, because it takes a lot of time to maintain the entire workflow and all of the quality assurance that goes along with it with only a few part-time administrators and staff.

Release Workflow Details[edit | edit source]

  1. Community Members post threads on the Mods forum according to the posting guidelines.
    • This is a continuous process, and many mods currently exist in MS, so please search before posting!
    • Any mod can be posted in MS, but they must be of a specific quality in order to be considered for STEP. Hosever, all mods are considered for Packs.
    • These threads contain community feedback pertaining to the mod.
  2. Community Members post on the current release vx.x.x Development Thread, calling out specific mods in MS that are particularly "hot" for STEP inclusion. These mods should be fairly well researched by the poster.
    • Anyone posting in the Development Thread should be prepared to act as Mod Testers for any mods being advocated or disavowed. ALL Members can act as mod testers. These members will be credited accordingly for their work within the STEP Guide for that release.
  3. Administrators or STEP Staff determine which mods in the Mods forum will be called out for testing based largely on mods called out by Members on the Development Thread.
    • Administrators or STEP Staff will tag these mods for Testing by appending the [ TESTING ] tag
    • Knowledgeable community members will post some minimum criteria for testing, and Moderators, Super Moderators, STEP Staff or Administrators will update the testing topic's OP. It is expected that the community provide the mod testing detail that is requested in the OP (particularly the Development Thread advocates). A mod will remain in the testing phase until the minimum testing criteria have been met.
  4. Once adequately "tested", mods under testing will be either tagged as [ ACCEPTED ] OR moved back into the Mods forum.
    • [ ACCEPTED ] mods:
      • Mod Testers or other advocates of accepted mods must CREATE THE CORRESPONDING MOD PAGE on the STEP Wiki PRIOR TO RELEASE. Moderators, Administrators, or STEP Staff will update the OP and the wiki mod page with these notes. NOTE: Mod pages must also be created if they do not already exist for inclusion into any Pack.
      • Mod Testers or other advocates of accepted mods must specify any pertinent installation notes pertaining to the mod ON THE MOD'S TOPIC. PRIOR TO RELEASE.
      • Administrators or STEP Staff will move accepted mods into the STEP Mod Anthology on the release date (the original Mod topic redirect will remain and point now to the Anthology).
    • All threads, regardless of acceptance into STEP, will continue to be used for posting as per usual, since the Mods forum should, theoretically, house all mod topics.

Once mods are accepted and the corresponding mod pages created, Administrators and STEP Staff are able to incorporate new mods into the current STEP Development Guide. Workflow-related activities combined with site & workflow maintenance, Guide upkeep, and Nexus upkeep require almost all of the senior staff's time, therefore, we ask that the community help out by supplying the needed information and contributing to site maintenance wherever possible.

Thanks!