How Not to Start a Mod

by eihrul on 10/06/2007 17:12, 51 messages, last message: 07/25/2008 18:13, 36775 views, last view: 05/04/2024 00:01

Okay, since this is coming up a lot lately, here is how to fail spectacularly with any particular mod'ing idea:

Premises:
1) propose starry-eyed idea
2) ask for significant help to start the project

Conclusion:
3) always fail

The reality is of any volunteer project is: if the people you want to help are significantly more skilled than you, or just significantly skilled, they will be more likely to work on their own projects than bother at all helping you.

Why is this? IDEAS ARE CHEAP. EVERYONE HAS COOL IDEAS. But very few people have the skill to follow through with them. When they do, they're usually not very altruistic about using them for the good of someone else.

Leadership skills matter not for starting something. People won't take marching orders from someone they perceive as less skilled. Leadership only matters in the end game, when you have a lot of stuff to manage.

So what does this mean for someone wishing to start a mod or just volunteer project in general (one might say any non-commercial project, particularly open source ones)? It means: YOU MUST BE WILLING TO DO THE MAJORITY OF THE WORK BY YOURSELF.

And when the critical mass of your project makes coming across it by accident via word-of-mouth unavoidable, then you'll start to get... a few, but very limited number of somewhat skilled people proposing to help. Very rarely, you might even get one or two skilled people.

So the breakdown (keeping in mind most statistics are made up on the spot):

Of your users, a very small amount will express interest in helping.
Of those, a smaller amount will actually TRY to help you.
Of those, a much smaller amount will be CAPABLE of doing what they're trying.
Of those, a much smaller amount will be capable of doing what they're trying to do WELL.

Scale all these on something of a low exponential curve. The bigger and more prestigious your project is the more the ratios will grow.

Long story short: unless it is the Linux kernel, any given volunteer project will pretty much only be successful if it's the work of but one, or at most a handful of people.

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#45: ..

by Acord on 11/08/2007 00:53

Gimp. Gimpshop... I don't know if they ever made that thing stable.

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#46: Re: ..

by SanHolo on 11/08/2007 01:35, refers to #45

I use the GIMP exclusively for semi-professional webdesign. No problem.
I wouldn't use it for print media (lack of CMYK), but for everything else it's wonderful.

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#47: Re: ..

by tentus_ on 11/08/2007 01:52, refers to #46

The fun thing about being in professional web design is that there are a LOT of small business owners in the 'States that are perfectly willing to provide you with a legal copy of Photoshop. And I don't mean they're willing to provide themselves with Photoshop- a lot will buy it specifically for you, even once explained how that's different.

My first webdesign employer bought me the next-to-most-recent copy of Photoshop, only after I convinced him not to buy me the most recent version. A lot of these guys are really generous to their employees, and follow the principles of equivalent exchange nicely (I scratch your back by providing quality software, you scratch mine with a quality product.)

All that said, I too use GIMP regularly, seeing as my roommates do not have Photoshop, nor does my Ubuntu machine. It's good stuff, and I cannot recommend it over buying (or pirating) Photoshop enough.

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#48: Re: ..

by SheeEttin on 11/08/2007 02:46, refers to #47

Because as we all know, piracy is baaad.

>_>

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#49: Re: ..

by MovingTarget on 11/08/2007 03:15, refers to #48

Hmmm, now that I think of it, I was wondering why my copy of Photoshop has this weird pirate flag on it...

hehehe

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#50: Well...

by Slythfox on 11/08/2007 18:36

You are right, this is extremely unfortunate, and I wish it weren't true. In my oppinion, for a project to be truly successful, there needs to be a team of developers who share the same ideas, or are able to expand upon them, and give up ideas that don't work. Flexibility is important.

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#51: ..

by {Qs}Homicidal on 07/25/2008 18:13

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~BUMPED!!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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