Suggestion: Job Board

[stigzler]

Well, after last night's rant, I got to thinking (dangerous....)

There appear to be a lot of community projects on the go - from the database project to errmmm... a few of mine!

I'm wondering whether there are lots of willing contributors out there who are just not knowing about them due to their being lost in a plethora of topics amongst each fora.

How about we have a stickied post entitled "Job Board" or something like that??? That way, willing users can browse through and sign up to projects that they fancy?

I could kick off proceedings with a few

I would suggest that somewhere prominent that has high traffice like the main forum page or in the "General" section.

What you guys think?

[hansolo77]

I dunno. This is supposed to be a hobby. Once you start attaching "JOB" to the title, it becomes more work than fun. Pretty much everything that has come out of the community has been from a fan doing their thing to contribute, or the few people (Tom, Adultery, HK, etc) who are better at coding to more facilitate new necessities. I don't mind popping in now and then to offer advice to a user who is stuck, but I wouldn't want to be identified as it being my Job to do so. My skills at Photoshop aren't that great so I haven't tried doing stuff like designing a theme or provide high quality graphics. If I could, I would, just to be a supporter to the community. I don't think the idea of being required to do something suits the community.

Now, don't take that the hard way! I can clearly see your attempt and approach to try and get more things developed. I know of your projects, and many of them seem worthwhile. It's just a lot of users don't really want to spend the time contribute. And that's a shame. For what, every 10,000 leechers of our stuff (GameEx, Roms, Extra's, Themes, etc), maybe 1 would be willing to contribute something back. I find myself wanting to do more, but really don't have the time or patience. In fact, I'm a moderater of the High Score forums, yet I rarely even play anymore to be able to compete. I dunno. Maybe having a sticky thread of things we need to have done, with a "strikeout" list to show what's been completed. Tom's already got something like that in his Requests thread. But if you're looking for a more "user contributable" thread, although similiar, I can see the advantages of that.

[stigzler]

Thank you Hans. I would hate for an idea to die purely for semantic reasons...

However, words are important and I can see that some people may take that title literally... You can see the idea behind it? I would guess a lot of users get enthused by the hobby and think "hey, how can I contribute to this??" A well-placed post could help facilitate their getting involved in developing things..

I think a lot of communities have similar things, whether they call them "posts" "roles" "contributors" etc etc...

But you're right, words would need to be chosen carefully - what would you go for?

Oh.. btw.. for my recent logos project, you don't need to be good at photoshop. In fact you don't need to do any graphics editing at all. There's a real role for people to track down the original logos - the Source images. All that requires is google (other search engines are available) and a keen searching talent Fancy it?

Cheers for your feedback, Hans.

[tthurman]

I see Hans point.

Ultimately it is work, really, but some softening may go a long way.

Perhaps something like "Helping hands signups", with a list of those projects most in need of help, I dunno, just an idea.

Over the years I've done serveral of these recruiting type posts (not here), and it seems, at least to me, that the ones that want to be involved, become invloved. Others are simply irritated by what they view as "pressure" for lack of a better word, with any sort of reminder, and oftentimes no matter how subtle. I would agree that there is a portion of the communtiy out there that is simply unaware, and may be attracted to a certian project if it were right in front of their face, or otherwise it could go completely un-noticed.

my .02

[uberpubert69]

I can see the appeal of something like this. It would be nice to have someone to help with my projects. If there were a centralized place for people who contribute or can go to contribute it would help greatly imo. The stuff I'm working on is very tedious for 1 person alone to do, but if there were other people with similar interests to collaborate with, the "work" would get done much quicker. Everything about this hobby is work other than enjoying your work you put into it. I'm interested in seeing a Contributor area of sorts. What we got now kinda works but its all mixed up with plugins, themes, utilities and databases all over the place. And everyone is working on their own thing. Need a way of getting more attention to this area. Combine this area with the download section and make it all oragized and cool looking. Especially since GameEx Evo is on the way.

[tthurman]

I hear ya brother! After the last several weeks of digging for developer logos, stigzler suggestion hits a llittle closer home. Many hands make light work! Some method of getting the "Help Needed" word out there would be nice. It may or may not help, but it couldn't hurt.

[stigzler]

Thirded (I would say that wouldnt I?).

Evos pending release caused me to revisit this. My understanding is that theres gonna be potential for hyperspin style pages at all levels from systems to individual games. That's a lot of games! Feeling is evo gonna propogate a flurry of new projects and ideas. Now is the time more than ever to have a centralised area for community collaboration signups and announcements.

[uberpubert69]

Thirded (I would say that wouldnt I?).

Evos pending release caused me to revisit this. My understanding is that theres gonna be potential for hyperspin style pages at all levels from systems to individual games. That's a lot of games! Feeling is evo gonna propogate a flurry of new projects and ideas. Now is the time more than ever to have a centralised area for community collaboration signups and announcements.

Hell yeah! The customization seems infinite in scope! We're definitely gonna need a more updated area for all the new stuff that's coming.