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Keep The Ball Rolling
#1
Greetings, everyone.
As you no doubt read last month, Ares is dancing on the precipice of discontinuity.

I don't normally make news posts, but times are calling for it. Simply put, without support from the community, there will be neither enough manpower to muscle out a release of Ares in a reasonable timescale, nor a reason to even continue developing it.

After all, why spend hours coding, testing and debugging a product if no-one's going to use it.

Therefore, this post is a Kitchener-esque call requesting applicants for the following positions on the Ares team.

Documentation Maintainer:
  • Basically, you'll have to update, append to and correct the manual.
  • You should be able to write in clear and readable English, as the manual will be read by any user of Ares, and it needs to be understandable.
  • You should have an idea of what HTML is, since the manual is an HTML document. Help on this can be given, however.
  • You should also be active both on the forums and on the IRC channel, as the manual will need updated quite often.

Promo Material Creator:
  • Basically, you're the people who make screenshots, videos, creative crop circles, anything needed to spread the existence of Ares to the masses.
  • Knowledge of image editing would be an obvious necessity, and preferably you'd know how to create and edit videos.
  • Constant activity is not as pertinent a requirement here as it is for documentation maintenance. However, when it comes close to a release time, we will expect you to be able to turn out material quickly and on time.
  • Expect to be issued with deadlines, and we will in turn expect you to meet them. However, you can take pride in having your work on show around the community to advertise Ares.

Project Ambassador:
  • Public Relations. PR. Whatever you want to call it. You'll be the people who drum up support for Ares among the general proletariat.
  • This will involve posting news on community sites, creating the odd teaser topic for a modding forum, and generally spreading information and answering inquiries on Ares on sites around the community.
  • You should ideally be friendly people who can communicate well with random members of the community. To this end, a good command of English is preferred, as almost all major community sites operate in English.
  • You will work with the Promo Material Creators to help devise interesting news posts for display around the community.
  • Basically, Ares needs support and attention. You will be the people who will go forth and bring it.

User Support Agent:
  • Not everyone is a brilliant modder. Some need a little bit of help to get going. That's where you come in.
  • User Support Agents should have a good working knowledge of the latest stuff in Ares - after all, how can you give advice on a product without knowing how to use it yourself?
  • Basically answer any member queries about how to accomplish something in Ares, how to get it installed, how to make mods compatible with it, etcetera.
  • Again, a friendly and approachable persona is preferred. Being able to communicate well is also recommended.

Active Testers:
  • We've had an endemic problem with testers throughout Ares' lifetime - they simply can't be bothered.
  • Out of the many testers currently on the roster, only a minutely small fraction of those do any regular testing. This will change - inactive testers will be culled, and we will be looking for replacements.
  • Do not think of this as easy access to Ares. You will be working with potentially unstable beta versions - not the best thing to base a mod on.
  • Your holding of the "tester" title is entirely dependent on your activity. If you behave like our many previous testers, i.e. appear for a week, test some issues you have interest in, then bugger off and don't show up again, we will fire you. Simple as.
  • As an active tester, you will be expected to be active. Additionally, you will be required to test all and any issues to their fullest and to the best of your ability. Don't just stick a couple of values in rulesmd and observe the result - push those values to their limits, observe the effects, make sure we've got our theories correct.
  • Modding experience is a necessity, and preferably you've used Ares before.
  • Keeping a frequent presence on our IRC channel is recommended.
  • Ares development will halt if we do not have a quorum of active testers.
  • Do not apply to be an Active Tester if you will not be able to live up to the title. We will not look back if we have to cut you loose.

I know I'm hardly selling these positions, but I'm not going to hide the facts from you.

And in a similar vein, without these people, Ares 0.2 will be the final release of Ares.

If you're interested, send me a PM with some information about who you are, what you're applying for, and why you'd be good for the role.
We may be in need of people, but that doesn't mean we're opening the floodgates - applications will be strictly vetted: if we don't think you're suited for the job, we're not going to give you it.

The existence of a 0.3 version is entirely dependent on whether anyone steps up to the plate.

The ball is in your court.

Nighthawk.
Ares Project Manager.
Ares Project Manager.
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Open Ares positions: Documentation Maintainer, Active Testers.
PM if interested.
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#2
I've been real busy with college work. But I am trying to make up as much time for testing Ares as possible.

Also, is it possible to spread the message beyond our community? Such as CNC world, Revora, etc?
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#3
(14.02.2011, 03:29:50)Drogan Wrote: Also, is it possible to spread the message beyond our community? Such as CNC world, Revora, etc?

I fear this is the main issue, no one really stays informed. Added to the slow release of features (the speed up after 2.0 should remedy that). Another thing is the lack of the main useful features like new super weapons and more than 2 weapons, you seem to be doing a lot of features that, while great to have, aren't really vital or ground breaking.

Despite not really testing in the past, I'll see what I can do, I really don't want to see Ares go.

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#4
Quote:Also, is it possible to spread the message beyond our community? Such as CNC world, Revora, etc?
I'm posting it on Revora as we speak.
Ares Project Manager.
[Image: t3wbanner.png]
[Image: cncgsigsb_sml.png]
Open Ares positions: Documentation Maintainer, Active Testers.
PM if interested.
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#5
As you probably all know by now its posted on PPM also.

I'll document or test (need to ask about actually finding the damn new issues that have yet to be tested), but otherwise, I'm definitely not a PR type of person. Can be annoyingly active on IRC and forums though (work allowing of course). Tongue
But I can agree, its definitely a lack of ... drastic? content such as 0.4's superweapon re-write that has people ignoring this (despite the fact that its a large project to re-write a class).

Also: MSN or whatever its called these days, I'm on it!
Quote:If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to. If you are not afraid of dying, there is nothing you cannot achieve.

Don't beg for things; Do it yourself, or you'll never get anything.
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#6
Been working off of SVN builds for some time, I reckon it's time to own up to my previous words about testing Ares issues. One issue though:
I seem to be auto-banned by the IRC server you're hosted on. No idea why, considering I've gone to about 3 different IRC servers for a total of 15 or so sessions in 12 years. I imagine this might compound communication issues a bit. You can find me on MSN for a vast majority of the day.

Other than that, point me to what needs to be tested and it shall be done. Having Ares die would be a tragedy to this community, with only a eughh...NPatch derivative surviving.
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#7
well as you know I have expressed interest in being the documentation manager, and I consider myself more than qualified for the job. I have been a tad inactive as far as the testing goes but I have been watching the issues daily, and any time I can (school has been keeping me on a very short leash), I at least try to contribute a few posts to the bugtracker. Manual editor would probably be a good fit for me as It's something I could do on-the-go with a smartphone and then copy into the actual file when i get home.

As for contact, I can easily be on the chat for a good deal of the day and of course we have the issue tracker for, well, tracking issues that need fixing.
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#8
I am applying to everything of those expect manual writer.
I will make some videos this week, showing up ares features.
Java student.
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#9
I could beta test if I'm allowed that is + do screen shots of features
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#10
@4SG: Uh, Alex rewrote all those superweapons recently, which is the main reason we're so delayed - without them we could have released 0.2 last year.

@EVA: our IRC network is somewhat crazy that way - I've had luck connecting via mibbit if a normal client fails. But Ren doesn't seem to care much, bummer.

Worth playing: 1 | 2 | 3
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#11
(16.02.2011, 08:28:54)DCoder Wrote: @EVA: our IRC network is somewhat crazy that way - I've had luck connecting via mibbit if a normal client fails. But Ren doesn't seem to care much, bummer.
That is how I connected, after ChatZilla wouldn't even let me connect to the Burnnet server. I reckon I'll try again after my courses tomorrow.
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#12
I will be glad to test once my family gets high speed. Since my mod got released, I have nothing to do now. I could also work on the manual, since it requires less internet and HTML skill.
Quote:<html>
<body>
<p>Is this proper HTML?</p>
</body>
</html>

So, put me on for whatever you need done, except anything that includes programming except HTML.
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#13
@DC Well I was just giving superweapons as an example, but heck, if they're already done, just as soon as they're out the door and properly shown in a video or something as you guys suggest, it should attract plenty.

-connected to IRC via Opera browser (seems the only way besides going on another computer) Tongue
Quote:If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to. If you are not afraid of dying, there is nothing you cannot achieve.

Don't beg for things; Do it yourself, or you'll never get anything.
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#14
Quote:as soon as they're out the door and properly shown in a video

We have a good start Tongue 2

Worth playing: 1 | 2 | 3
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#15
I'm planning to make more videos, as soon as I am able to nicely show new features which haven't been shown in the first trailer. As soon as I'm back to my primary "workplace" I will continue tests and Ares promotion in the community.

Can't let Ares die.
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