STEP:Guide-Development Workflow

Guide-Development Workflow

A high-level overview of community-driven guide development

by: Step Modifications  | Forum Topic

In order for the mod-build guides to remain relevant, it is imperative that this generalized workflow be maintained by staff, guide Curators, and community contributors. Certain parts of the current workflow are restricted to Administrators, Step Admin, Step Curators, and guide Curators; however, most of the workflow is exposed to all community members. It's this functionality that is presented here along with a breakdown of the update workflow. It's 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.

Please see our Member Groups as a reference for the member roles mentioned in this article.

Mod Testing

The Step forums serve as one component of release development for mod-build guides. Any registered members may post a new topic in one of the <GameName> Mods forums within our supported game forums. These mod topics serve as the "catch-all" for information and feedback relating to the any specific mod for both staff and guide curators. These forums have specific prefixes available, which are reserved for official Step use.

From member suggestions and staff recommendations, any topic may be tagged for consideration for an official mod-build guide. Mods being actively considered will be prefixed with TESTING and tagged with the proper 'ModGroup' tag. These mod topics can be filtered by clicking on the tag itself. All testing feedback is done on the individual topic for that specific mod. If a given mod "passes" testing, then its topic will be prefixed with "ACCEPTED". The corresponding wiki mod pages directly feed information into guide ModGroup tables via the custom framework.

Mod Testing Workflow

1. Community Members post topics on the {Gamename} Mods forums according to the posting guidelines at the top of each of these forums.
   • Any mod can be posted in mod topics, but they must meet quality thresholds in order to be considered for official guides.
   • These threads contain community feedback pertaining to the mod.

   This is a continuous process, and many mods topics currently exist on the forums, so please search before posting!

2. Staff determine which mods will be prefixed for testing based largely on mods called out by community Members.
   • Knowledgeable community members will post some minimum criteria for testing, and Staff or the topic creator will update the testing topic's OP with instructions and the proper ModGroup tag (also see creating/updating mod pages).
   • It is expected that the community provide the mod testing detail that is requested in the OP. A mod will remain in the testing phase until the minimum testing criteria have been met.
3. Once adequately "tested", if...
   • Accepted into a guide...
     1. Prefixed as ACCEPTED
     2. Staff, Curators, or other advocates of accepted mods must CREATE THE CORRESPONDING MOD PAGE.
   • Not accepted into a guide...
     1. Remove the TESTING prefix.

   All mod topics --regardless of status-- will continue to be used for general posts relating to the mod.

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!