I've been wanting to make a post about this for a while, but have been holding off while I get things in place on the site and in my head. As you are probably aware, the osu! community and ecosystem is growing at a constant rate, but the team hasn't grown in size at all. I'm sure with a community this big, we have a lot of hidden talent out there, so the idea of this post is to reach out and tell you all that we are always looking for help and input, as well as outlining the current areas where you can immediately jump in and help out!
Firstly, from a personal perspective I am already completely saturated. I spend all my free time on osu! (or osu!stream) and do not have any more resources I can throw at it. This means that most of the stuff that gets done on osu! is based on my personal priorities. This doesn't mean that it has to be a limiting factor — there are so many opportunities to make osu! more awesome without needing the access or abilities of a developer.
Here is a current list of areas I can think of where anyone can help out, ordered by the most important in my eyes. I'll try and keep this updated as I see things come up, but don't hesitate to make suggestions (preferably in this thread) if you have any.
Help out with the wiki!
In order to keep the content on the website as fresh as possible, I'd like to move all sections containing text to the wiki. This includes FAQ, ranking guidelines, all our forum-based guides, the history/information sections. While we have made huge progress already (thanks to a few very dedicated users), keeping a wiki up-to-date is an ongoing process which basically anyone can help with. There is also a lot of translation opportunities remaining to make the content accessible in every language known to mankind!
Where to start:
We have moderators doing their best to keep chat under control, but there are 25 channels (and counting) and even more forums, making it hard for us to cover all activity every minute of the day. Fortunately, you can help us very easily!
Where to start:
Every day I try to take care of any outstanding tech support questions, but a lot of these can be answered by anyone who has spend time around here and knows how things generally work. Even if you don't think you know stuff well enough, you can follow along, read and learn, then start helping at a later point!
Where to start:
While we have set teams that handle the approval process, there's nothing stopping anyone from helping out. It starts as easy as posting in pending beatmap threads leaving your positive feedback or constructive criticism. When you get good, there's no reason you can't join up on one of the approval teams
.
Where to start:
There are quite a few proposals or projects in action, including tournaments, larger beatmapping projects, third-party application development projects and other unique ideas. Go contact the people involved and show that you are interested, and offer your help if you have skills that could be used.
Where to start:
Avoid being negative! Make people happy!
Every day I see negativity on osu!. People complaining about each other, people complaining about cheaters or "rank farmers". People seeing change and whining about it. While I think we do better than a lot of other online communities out there — that drop to levels of throwing insults at each other all day long (hi youtube!) — there is still room for improvement.
Where to start:
.
Firstly, from a personal perspective I am already completely saturated. I spend all my free time on osu! (or osu!stream) and do not have any more resources I can throw at it. This means that most of the stuff that gets done on osu! is based on my personal priorities. This doesn't mean that it has to be a limiting factor — there are so many opportunities to make osu! more awesome without needing the access or abilities of a developer.
Here is a current list of areas I can think of where anyone can help out, ordered by the most important in my eyes. I'll try and keep this updated as I see things come up, but don't hesitate to make suggestions (preferably in this thread) if you have any.
Help out with the wiki!
In order to keep the content on the website as fresh as possible, I'd like to move all sections containing text to the wiki. This includes FAQ, ranking guidelines, all our forum-based guides, the history/information sections. While we have made huge progress already (thanks to a few very dedicated users), keeping a wiki up-to-date is an ongoing process which basically anyone can help with. There is also a lot of translation opportunities remaining to make the content accessible in every language known to mankind!
Where to start:
- Go through all the FAQ and other information sections on the osu! site, and make sure the info is easily accessible (and complete) on the wiki. If it isn't, add it in (you can begin by just copying, pasting and reformatting). Use the wiki "talk" pages to discuss any changes if you are not confident, or go straight ahead and update old information you come across.
- Watch the recent changes list as often as you can (bookmark it :p), and make sure people aren't adding useless or incorrect information. Keep a tab on what is being worked on and chip in if you can!
- Make sure the information on the wiki is as concise, clear and beautiful as possible. Tidy up any formatting issues you find, and push people in the right direction where required.
- Make this post into a wiki page
! Translate it to more languages — we need help from more than just english speakers (fact: over 75% of the osu! community doesn't speak english)
We have moderators doing their best to keep chat under control, but there are 25 channels (and counting) and even more forums, making it hard for us to cover all activity every minute of the day. Fortunately, you can help us very easily!
Where to start:
- Follow your favourite channels on in-game chat, and forums on the web.
- If you see something happening which disturbs you (or would generally be found inappropriate), use the !report command to notify moderators.
- You can use the !report command for anything that happens anywhere in osu!. Your reports will always be read.
Every day I try to take care of any outstanding tech support questions, but a lot of these can be answered by anyone who has spend time around here and knows how things generally work. Even if you don't think you know stuff well enough, you can follow along, read and learn, then start helping at a later point!
Where to start:
- Choose a forum: Technical Support, Beatmapping Help, Storyboarding or Gameplay and Rankings based on what you find most interesting.
- Mark the forum as read using the link at the top-right.
- Follow any new threads, reading each one and helping out where you can. You can use the unread icons to make sure you keep up!
- Read the available guides and polish up on your osu! knowledge. Hell, contribute to the guides if you can!
While we have set teams that handle the approval process, there's nothing stopping anyone from helping out. It starts as easy as posting in pending beatmap threads leaving your positive feedback or constructive criticism. When you get good, there's no reason you can't join up on one of the approval teams
.Where to start:
- Look through (or search) the Pending Beatmaps listing for artists/songs you like (or just choose ones at random).
- Play the beatmaps and leave feedback in threads.
- Read the Modding Guide and learn the basics of more technical modding.
- Read the Ranking Criteria and become familiar with what makes a map rankable.
- Join #modHelp and #modReqs on in-game chat and join in the conversation (or just follow along).
- If you have the time and dedication, making a Modding Queue thread and have people start coming to you with requests.
There are quite a few proposals or projects in action, including tournaments, larger beatmapping projects, third-party application development projects and other unique ideas. Go contact the people involved and show that you are interested, and offer your help if you have skills that could be used.
Where to start:
- Browse the tournaments forum. Tournaments take a lot of man-power to organise and to make happen without hitches, and you can help out by just sitting in as a spectator judge for matches in some cases.
- Check what's going on in General Development. This is a low activity forum where more serious projects happen.
- Join a beatmap project and learn how fun collaborating with others can be!
- Start your own project! If you have a cool idea, then give it a shot. If you need some kind of input from me, don't hesitate to ask (though I prefer helping when I don't need to dedicate too much time).
- Bring the osu!monthly back to life, I miss it
.
Avoid being negative! Make people happy!
Every day I see negativity on osu!. People complaining about each other, people complaining about cheaters or "rank farmers". People seeing change and whining about it. While I think we do better than a lot of other online communities out there — that drop to levels of throwing insults at each other all day long (hi youtube!) — there is still room for improvement.
Where to start:
- Be friendly to each other. Life is too short to argue.
- Don't complain about cheaters. Just report them and get on with your day. They may have taken your top rank, but a simple "!report <username> seems to be cheating" can fix this in minutes to hours.
- Go out of your way to mediate negative situations and turn them into more positive outcomes.
.
.
