[Bobboau]

I think it should become standard formal FSU policy that in order for you to be considered a FSU contributor you must conform to the following guidelines regarding asset creation.

1) when submitting a work in progress snapshot (WIP) it should be understood that if no progress is made on an asset for a period exceeding three months (measured since your last WIP was posted) that another artist may continue work on your most recently submitted WIP, you will still be credited as the artist responsible for the work, but any work contributed by another artist will grant them the right to claim assistance status. if another artist has put more than one week's (from the time of there first posted WIP) worth of effort into a model then they will be considered in 'control' of that model until such time that they relinquish control back to you or are inactive for a period of three months at which point you must continue work from the last WIP that they posted.

2) when any significant progress is made on any asset a WIP of all relevant materials must be provided, significant progress is to be determined by you and should be signified by the posting of a screen shot, if there has been less than three days since your most recent WIP then uploading of a new WIP is not required but encouraged unless there is reason for you to believe that you may become inactive.

3) once posted a WIP becomes a donated asset of the FSU and may be included in the FSU or any derivative works so long as you are credited as the 'primary artist', you may relinquish this title at any time if you do not think the state of the model represents your skill or effort.

4) if another artist contributes an amount of effort, measured in time, equal to or greater than yours they will be considered a co-owner with credit claims equal to yours.

5) if you wish to replace the current asset with a new asset (or a derivative from an earlier posted WIP) the current status of the asset must be in an inactive state (no WIPs posted for three months) or the current artist must actively approve of direct competition, selection of which asset will be used shall be determined by popular vote unless the controlling artist is willing to wave their right to popular vote.

[The E]

Personally, I feel that a defined policy like this is unnecessary, and would only serve to bring in a measure of bureaucracy we really don't need.

The old process, also called "Sort things out on a case by case basis in personal communication with the people involved" has served us quite well in the past.

[Zacam]

I think that the FSU itself can determine its best methods for how to handle things.

Thank you for the suggestion, but as The E says, it is an implementation of bureaucracy that (as Gatekeepers) we don't really need.

People make content. It's up to them to best determine their pace and skill for making it. Once it's done (or get's passed along and done), if it is a necessity or can be included in the MediaVPs, then it will be (by permission granted).

FSU is not like SCP, in-spite of the fact that both are continuously ongoing projects. There is no real 'owner-ship' per-se and anything at any time can be replaced providing it is a valuable replacement (and majority public opinion, but not always or in all cases).

_EVERY_ one on HLP can be a contributor to the FSU. Because it, and the SCP, are Open projects that depend on the community for continuation of them both, which is the only other thing they have in common with each other.

[Rga_Noris]

I think it should become standard formal FSU policy that in order for you to be considered a FSU contributor you must conform to the following guidelines regarding asset creation.

1) when submitting a work in progress snapshot (WIP) it should be understood that if no progress is made on an asset for a period exceeding three months (measured since your last WIP was posted) that another artist may continue work on your most recently submitted WIP, you will still be credited as the artist responsible for the work, but any work contributed by another artist will grant them the right to claim assistance status. if another artist has put more than one week's (from the time of there first posted WIP) worth of effort into a model then they will be considered in 'control' of that model until such time that they relinquish control back to you or are inactive for a period of three months at which point you must continue work from the last WIP that they posted.

I disagree. I finished raginglolis project because we were approaching a year with NO word from him. The project appeared abandoned. If ragingloli busted back in here and suddenly stated that he does not want me to continue with release of the Hatty, I would have stopped. The Cain was used and released under the express persmission of the original author.

Also, a three month limit would place pressure on the modeller to release information at least every three months, which takes time away from actual work. In addition, control should NEVER be taken from an artist simply because three months went by and he/she never posted a screen. If ragingloli busted in and wanted to start more work on the Hatty, I would and should have no authority to stop him, unless of course he used MY turrets.

2) when any significant progress is made on any asset a WIP of all relevant materials must be provided, significant progress is to be determined by you and should be signified by the posting of a screen shot, if there has been less than three days since your most recent WIP then uploading of a new WIP is not required but encouraged unless there is reason for you to believe that you may become inactive.

Again, dont force people into releases. People work at their own pace. Dont mess with it.

3) once posted a WIP becomes a donated asset of the FSU and may be included in the FSU or any derivative works so long as you are credited as the 'primary artist', you may relinquish this title at any time if you do not think the state of the model represents your skill or effort.

4) if another artist contributes an amount of effort, measured in time, equal to or greater than yours they will be considered a co-owner with credit claims equal to yours.

5) if you wish to replace the current asset with a new asset (or a derivative from an earlier posted WIP) the current status of the asset must be in an inactive state (no WIPs posted for three months) or the current artist must actively approve of direct competition, selection of which asset will be used shall be determined by popular vote unless the controlling artist is willing to wave their right to popular vote.

These follow under what The E said. Its just extra red tape.

[Bobboau]

note none of the things on there say 'will' just 'can' and I think forceing someone to stop by every 3 months to say something at the very least is a good idea. the problem is how many almost finished models have lost because a) the artist vanished off of the face of the earth, or b) the artist had a hard drive crash and hadn't uploaded anything in months/years. and there is also the situation the TBP faced recently that would be nice to not have to worry about.

but these were all just suggestions.

[The E]

Umm.

How many licensing issues did we have with mediavps content in the past?

How would we go about "forcing" people to post updates on their work? If an asset is finished, it's finished. It is not our place to demand progress on a project. Sure, we can ask for WIPs to be uploaded, or updates to be posted, but in the end, we'd like the decision to do this to be the artists' and the artists alone. Introducing formal requirements into this creative process is a bad idea, imho.

[Aardwolf]

w.r.t. "force": the only real way to do that would be to shut down any thread where progress was shown but the WIP wasn't made available. But that would probably just piss people off, and make them not want to post progress, more than it would help to guarantee the WIPs don't get lost.

[Angelus]

Instead of forcing them, we could suggest it to prospective contributors by adding a new sticky thread.
Something like:

You want to contribute? Look here!

With a link to the "need-to-HTL" shiplist or weapons.

...It happened in the past, that some artists could not finish their work for a myriad of reasons and in some cases the created assets were lost. To avoid this in the Future, we ask you to upload your WIP somewhere ( preferably to www.fsmods.net ) and post the link here, IF you decide, for whatever reason to not finish your Work. The entire community would be thankful.
As original creator of the asset, you will of course be credited.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Same goes for already released assets. In some cases, it'd be nice to have the original pre-conversion mesh ( UVed/ not UVed )
or PSD/ XCF file of a Ship texture or a Weapon effect or a Planet or what ever.
Those scenes and/ or PSDs should be uploaded to FSMods.net, to be available for people who want to use the assets, but want to modify it, or as a wysiwyg-tutorial.
Always assuming the original creator allows this.

As for the file formats, .MAX, .3DS, .Obj and .Blend for Models and .PSDs or .XCFs for Textures would be appreciated.

We could ask the owner of fsmods.net to create a category under Models for this purpose.


Just my 2 cents.

[Bobboau]

does FSU have an official SVN/CVS/GIT?

[The E]

We do have an svn (which at this point is not public due to bandwidth concerns).

[Bobboau]

by public I assume you mean the general public? do artists have access to it? could they?

[The E]

Right now, only FSU team members, beta testers, and assorted contributors have access.

[Zacam]

K. In the interests of clearing some things here.

FSU as a team are the Gatekeepers. We test, we package, we deliver. Many of us on occasion even create or collaborate on new content.

All content is community generated. Yes, things get lost, hard-drives and PC's die, people leave. Whatever. It will all be done when it's done and not a moment sooner. If not by one person, then by another. There is no point in applying arbitration or bureaucracy to creation or it's inclusion.

What started off as a well meaning suggestion is now continuing through a conversation that I cannot see to what point or goal of it is. If people (the artists) need a place to put things, that's something that they can ask, I'm sure any number of fine people here have ideas on where storage (temporary or permanent) can be had.

Unless someone can present a convincing argument as to why this needs to be open, I'm locking this here.