After this post
v21 - "Even after the fall of the bedroom, we are brought together to work on things even better than before"
I started thinking about all the large, amazing projects we were suppose to supposedly see be made. It has been over a year and a half since we got shaders and people who claim they are being made are full of stuff since nothing has came around. That's why I think its a better time than ever to discuss community projects.
Builders
You have two ways to go about this. Either the team is preselected, this will be a "group project". Or the builders are people who just join the server and help out, this will be a "community project".
Group Projectpros- The builders know each other. So they wont be afraid if another member of the group wants to edit there bricks making working with each other easier.
- The builders working together will develop a general theme so the build looks like one large build not a series of smaller separate ones.
cons- Since the group is limited less people will be on at a time making communication harder. Scheduling when people should come hardly ever works.
- With limited builders the project will take longer to complete
Community Projectpros- Build is made quickly
- A number of people are on at a time, communication between builders working next to each other is easier.
- Friends working together normally get other people to join in, some big amazing things are put into the build this way.
cons- The build is clearly a bunch of smaller ones. The style changes quite quickly through out and is noticeable.
- With there being builders of different skill levels, you have parts of it that are extremely low quality and seemed rushed.
- Trust is an issue with the better builders wanting to stay away from the worse, makes it flow unevenly.
Standardly group projects work better, community projects have trouble being organized and the builds fail because of this. But the point of this topic is discussing community projects and getting them to work!
Organizing
Some people might notice and agree with the following point, others may not. A community build should have a admin on it at all times. The admin should act as a filter for taking the bad builds out and leaving in the good ones. A trend I have come to notice is that when an admin is on the server others come to the server. When there are no admins on no one will come or a lot of people won't join. One of the key things in getting a community build to work is communication between builders, so it is better when all of those builders are on at the same time. If a admin leaves the server they should password it when it closes in till another comes on and opens it or they come back. The people building at the time will all leave out of there freewill the second the admin leaves or finish what there building than leave. Either way no one can come in to spam the place and order is still there.
A simple way to force people to have the build organized is the lot system. In a lot system different color lots are placed down. A admin controls who is allowed to plant stuff on the lots with build trust. Examples of a lot system include
Bushido and Eksi's Collab CitySpo KingdomThis is slightly more along the lines of a group project though since the admin gets to pick the people and its not blockheads coming in and freely making stuff. The system could work if the lots were planted under public but I have not really seen a server do that.
Another way to get people organized is if there is a certain builders everyone follows as an example. People will try to replicate this persons work and with this a theme is developed and building styles for the whole place look the same. This is more rare though since in community build servers the general population sucks.
Starting
This is the hardest part about a community project.
Ideal starting points would be making a topic in Suggestions & Requests or General Discussion asking for help. People will come willingly if you are a recognized member but the problem is for the more unrecognized members who get ignored. Also the topic needs to be constantly near the top of the list since if its not people will get bored of waiting for a response or constantly have to bump it and no one will look at the topic.
Trying to PM people to come help is not a good idea in my book since they will all come at different times and it becomes one of the problems that group projects have.
Contest style community projects are not as effective as they use to since everyone feels there entitled to a goddamn prize now. To actually get people to want to build for fun is a different matter all together.
Here are the some ways projects get popular
- It is made by someone important
- It is endorsed by someone important
- It is considered a bad idea and everyone enters the topic just to say it sucks without anything constructive but it still becomes a popular topic. (this is the worse way fyi)
One of the key things in getting a project started is interest. People need to have interest in the idea to help want to make it. One of the problems though is that all the people who become interested can not help make it.
Problems
With everything above said the main problem is that all the builders who can make the builds are not willing to work on the builds. The second problem is that people who try to start projects are instantly shot down. Sure the topics lack layout but there not trying to make a topic there trying to gather people to help them. The last problem is trying to get your "team" on to work but only half of them show up and nothing gets made.
With all said I find this topic needed so we can actually come up with a way to get people into working on these community builds. It wouldn't be hard for the heads of the projects form a steam group for notifications on what is being done as well. Sorry for the topic not being well constructed and jumping around from point to point.
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