Guidance for Contributors
Gaining ‘Contributor’ status
Contributor status is given out after a volunteer has fulfilled the prerequisites for joining their chosen department.
First steps as a contributor
Get to know your department's workflow. Because of the size of the project, we have to keep organisation rather tight in order to ensure efficiency. If you continuously use the same go-to person on the project, and 10 other people do the same thing, you’ll eventually wear them out.
Get your first assignment. Depending on amount of experience, getting into a project such as this can be rather overwhelming. Discuss with your department lead which task would suit you, generally it is a good idea to take on smaller tasks at first, and work your way up from there.
Socializing is a good idea. Showing off work is a good way of getting feedback, making sure you don’t have to redo your work. Talking to other members will help you get a better picture of what sort of organisation we are. Lastly, socializing is for many a good way of getting motivation, especially when sharing progress.
Your responsibilities as a contributor
As an insider
You have access to a huge amount of media that is in early stages or being kept under wraps. As a team, we're careful to control how much of our content is shared and at what stage, to allow us to have a continuous flow of news to share with the public and to avoid spoiling exciting aspects of the game that will be best experienced in-game.
As such, please communicate about what you intend to share (via screenshots, videos, streams, etc) and don't share work from other contributors. Most team members will be able to self-govern on this fairly quickly, using their own judgment; that's fine.
As a representative
As a contributor to Skywind, you are a representative of the project. People will judge the project based on how you behave.
This is not limited to your actions on Discord and other social media sites on which you are distinguished - it's also true for any public outlet where your identity can be tied to your Skywind handle. It is important that you keep your Skywind identity totally disconnected from any discussions or publications that might bring disrepute to Skywind or The Elder Scrolls Renewal, including (but not limited to) polarizing politics, explicit sexual content, or illicit activity.
Team behavior on Discord
Use your department's channels to discuss what you're working on and share your progress. This is really important - it helps other people keep abreast of what's going on, and seeing activity is a strong motivator also.
As a team we extend your access as a contributor as widely as we reasonably can. You're not confined to just your department's channels - you can follow along with what other departments are discussing, and even contribute to the discussion.
However, please use discretion in other departments' channels. They exist to push the project forward, and it's easy to derail or dilute a discussion by asking questions or making suggestions that the department has likely already resolved. Please don't treat them as private versions of #public_questions.
Maintaining 'Contributor' status
Keeping your contributor status requires your active participation in the creation of this mod, which includes adhering to any additional requirements set down by your department lead. Frequent submissions or updates on your work are standard, and you need to be a team player.
Failure to adhere to the requirements will elicit a warning, and if that is not heeded, contributor status is revoked. Your contributions will still be credited if they are used in future.
Abide by the Skywind rules. Failure to do so will result in a warning or the loss of your contributor status, possibly without warning.
Not communicating with the team over an extended period of time will result in the removal of your contributor status. We will assume you have lost interest and therefore not necessarily contact you.
Your contributions
The assets you make for Skywind - which might be concept art, 3D models, scripts, cells, textures, writing, ideas, etc - are submitted on the understanding that The Elder Scrolls Renewal and Skywind may use and modify them, even if you leave the project. The assets will made available to the public with the Skywind release or at any other time, and the public can use them within Skywind's license agreement.
You are still welcome to use your work elsewhere as you please, though we'd request that you respect the guidelines laid out in Sharing Your Work.
Taking time off
If you will be away for an extended period of time, please communicate it with your team lead. Be it a holiday or just a break, be sure to let us know.
If we do not hear from people for weeks on end without knowing you’re just on a break and plan to return it can be frustrating. It is prefered that you hand in your work before you take a break, or make sure we can contact you outside the project. Otherwise we will likely hand over your assignment to another person.
Handling disputes
If another contributor or a member of the wider Skywind community makes you angry, Stop, Drop, and Roll.