STEP:Guide-Development Workflow

STEP Community Member Roles

STEP is a community-driven project. This means that the community at large is the mechanism by which STEP evolves. Following are the site administrative roles. Each of these roles are defined in the forum groups. Some of these roles are currently filled to maximum necessary capacity, but others are excruciatingly vacant, so we could use help from qualifying members with nothing better to do:

• Editors - These users have special wiki privileges.
• Members - Registered site users.
• Mod Testers - Committed to testing and/or validating at least one mod per STEP release.
• Mod Authors - Members that are authors of any Skyrim mod.
• Site Founders - Members of the original founding group of the STEP Community no longer active on the project.
• Contributors - Users who have donated significant time or funding to the project at any time in the past.
• Wiki Staff - Users who have donated significant time or funding to the project at any time in the past.
• Wiki Developers - Users assisting on particular development projects relating to the STEP Wiki.
• Forum Staff - Users who have donated significant time or funding to the project at any time in the past.
• Moderators - Forum moderation of specific forums. and general administrative assistance.
• Super Moderators - Forum moderation of all forums, moderator oversight, and general administrative assistance.
• STEP Staff - These are the most senior administrative staff after Administrators. They oversee STEP release coordination and general wiki/forum maintenance and administration.
• Senior Administrators - In charge of STEP website maintenance, update management and ultimately all site content and direction.

Furthermore, group membership is not exclusive. A given member can belong to more than one of these groups. The display group may be based upon user preference in some cases (e.g., Mod Tester versus Mod Author).

STEP Development

Synopsis

The STEP forums serve as the vehicle for STEP release development. Any registered site members may post a new thread in the Mod Suggestions (MS) Forum (posting instructions are displayed on the forum). These threads serve as the "catch-all" for information and feedback relating to the mod. Mods being actively considered for STEP will be stickied within the MS Forum. If a given mod "passes" during mod testing, then its MS thread will be moved to the STEP Anthology Forum. Each mod within the Anthology also has a corresponding STEP Wiki Page. The wiki pages directly feed the official STEP Guide via our custom Semantic Mediawiki infrastructure.

Thus, in order for the STEP Guide to remain current, it is imperative that this generalized workflow be maintained by the community. Certain parts of the current workflow are restricted to Administrators; however, most of the workflow is exposed to community Members. It is this functionality that is presented here along with the linear breakdown of the update workflow. Given that STEP is currently on a biweekly release schedule, it is important that the community help drive the process, as a few part-time administrators cannot maintain the entire workflow and all of the quality assurance that goes along with it.

Workflow Details

1. Community Members post threads on the Mod Suggestions (MS) Forum according to the posting guidelines.
   • This is a continuous process, and many mods currently exist in MS, so please search before posting!
   • Any mod can be posted in MS, but they must be of sufficient quality in order to be considered for STEP.
   • These threads contain community feedback pertaining to the mod.
2. Community Members post on the current release Development Thread, calling out specific mods in MS that are particularly "hot" for STEP inclusion.
   • These mods should be fairly well researched by the poster.
   • Anyone posting in the Development Thread should be prepared to act as Mod Testers for any mods being advocated or disavowed. ALL Members can act as mod testers. These members will be credited accordingly for their work within the STEP Guide for that release.
3. Administrators determine which mods in MS will be called out for testing based largely on mods called out by Members on the Devel Thread.
   • Administrators will move these mods to the Mod Testing (MT) subforum under MS (with redirect from MS) and stickied, appending the [ TESTING ] tag
   • Knowledgeable community members will post some minimum criteria for testing, and Moderators or Administrators will update the testing thread OP.
   • It is expected that the community provide the mod testing detail that is requested in the OP (particularly the Development Thread advocates).
   • A mod will remain in the testing phase until the minimum testing criteria have been met.
4. Once adequately "tested", mods under MT will be either tagged as [ ACCEPTED ] and unstickied OR moved back into MS.
   • Once tagged, each mod thread will remain under MT until the scheduled release date.
   • [ ACCEPTED ] mods:
     • Mod Testers or other advocates of accepted mods must CREATE THE CORRESPONDING MOD PAGE on the STEP Wiki PRIOR TO RELEASE. Moderators or Administrators will update the OP and the wiki mod page with these notes.
     • Mod Testers or other advocates of accepted mods must specify any pertinent installation notes pertaining to the mod ON THE MT THREAD. PRIOR TO RELEASE.
     • Administrators or Anthologists will move accepted mods into the STEP Anthology on the release date (the original MS redirect will remain and point now to the Anthology).
   • All threads, regardless of acceptance into STEP, will continue to be used for posting as per usual, since MS should theoretically house all mod threads or links to mod threads.

Once Mods are accepted and the corresponding mod pages created, Administrators or Editors 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 Administrators' time, therefore, we ask that the community help out by supplying the needed information and contributing to site maintenance wherever possible.

Thanks!