[RussEfarmer]

With the new developer position, after reading milk chan's lead dev application I had a few thoughts on the whole arrangement. I think that having dedicated developer positions is not super useful in the grand scheme of things. From reading the application template and requirements by KaptainLes...

What you get:
-Custom Dev Rank on Discord, Forums (Pending), and maybe the Server (Dink Dependant)
-The ability to have input into the changes you want in the community i.e. Models, Maps, Sounds, Add-Ons, New Weapons/Weapon Balances

I get a rank and "the ability to have input into community changes", implying that non-developers DON'T have the ability to input on these things, even though traditionally they always have. I could be wrong, I'd love to hear more about the plans for the role, but forsee the dev position working a lot like staff positions having their own discord channels and stuff where there are big discussions about weapon balancing, new maps, etc. are held behind closed doors, and this is where I think it becomes unproductive.

Gmod is an aging game and our server's activity has been slowing down over the years. I think creating another silo for development type work would be harmful to the engagement of the community. I'm sure there are a lot of people who would be happy to contribute to the server's development but do not want the commitment of holding a role and engaging full time.

My proposal is this: simply have a development leader (traditionally admins) for each server who takes all of the suggestions and requests for the time period, aggregates them onto a board, and delegates the work. Community members who feel inclined to help out now have a clear objective and can work on it. Completed work goes back to the leader and gets put on the server if it's worth a damn. If one guy is really good at doing playermodels and there is a ton of playermodel related work, great, he can go nuts. But the next month there is a ton of weapon work and he's not a weapon guy, another random guy can read the board who might be super good at weapon stuff can work on it while the playermodel guy gets on with his life. Typing it out like this, it's pretty similar to how open source software is made.

Maybe what I'm saying is redundant and its how the developer role will work anyway, but I wanted to get my opinion out on the matter. Either way it goes down it should be a net positive for the community so im not super worried about it.

[TDawg4]

The major change in having a actual dev role is that they have access and can see all the stuff we are working on. It already kinda works the way your are describing. We admins take on certain projects and then sometimes farm out things that we don't know how to do or are unable to do as well and/or a player suggests something to one of us and we give the go ahead for them to work on it with a high likelihood of the project actually being added. 

The new "rank" was more a tool to be able to select people who know their stuff and want to more directly contribute, but don't want to be staff. Yes there is lots of suggested content, but having access to our discussion/what we are working on would probably allow a developer to point out where the stuff they are working on will fit in. 

We are trying it out, as historically every dev position was essentially tied to a staff position. This role is opening up the already existing "silo" to people who don't want to staff, want to resign, or possibly wouldn't be selected for staff.  

TLDR: The dev team change/new role is a step in the direction that you are pushing for. I think there are some major issues with having a fully public board for projects, but the board idea itself is good and is something I think Ill work on some for the existing system.

[Jammin]

I'm in favor of the position as described. We had several folks in the past work as devs but not getting much of the credit (Hong, D33r, GCubed, many others). This would be a good way to formalize that process.

Tdawg you are doing great things for TTT, and I am disappointed in you for that.