How to contribute to Act Omega!

[joyfulldreams]

So things my seem a little nebulous, but Act Omega is going to have a process! And the forums are a big part of that. Here is how things work around here, and how you can find your place and get involve

Introduce yourself!
One of your first steps, after getting an account on the Act Omega forums, should be to make a thread introducing yourself to us in the introductions forum! Let us know your skills and how you would like to contribute. That way we can officially add you onto our roster and be able to reference back to your introductory thread to make sure we don't get confused as to what exactly you bring to the table.

Get on the Discord.
This is by no means mandatory. You can, of course, contribute solely through the forums. The Discord is a little more difficult to moderate than the forums and issues have come up in the past because of it so I feel like the warning is probably necessary. That being said, the Discord has been and probably always will be the best place to have in-depth discussions about ideas, along with real-time feedback. To be more precise--things may or may not be ongoing chat going on in the Discord at any point in time, but more importantly, meetings may be organized or requested on the forums to gather people into the Discord for a pre-planned discussion.

Most importantly, though? Hanging out on the Discord is a great way to get to know the others, and help build up our team dynamic. An equally great way to do this is to hang out in the General Discussion forums. Welcome new members in Introductions, talk about whatever in General Discussion, or maybe throw out a meme or two in Shenanigans.

[Keep in mind that the #nsfw channel on the Discord is the ONLY ACCEPTABLE PLACE for nsfw content to go. I don't think I can emphasize this enough.]

Be active in the Staff Discussion forums.
All the work we'll be doing should be going through the various Staff Discussion forums. Here's how everything should go.

• Threads (which should be stickies!) may be posted detailing a group of tasks that need to be done in a certain department of production. Check to see if such a thread exists. For threads about groups of tasks that need doing, you can look through it and post a claim to whichever open tasks you think you can do or want to do.
  
• Once you've claimed a task, the OP or another qualified individual will talk with you about a tentative deadline for that thing or things to be done. It's not a strict deadline by any means, and you will be the one to let us know how quickly you think you can do the thing. Nobody is going to expect you to do any more than what you yourself let us know you can do, and of course we will work within whatever your limitations are, however they might change! There won't be any penalties for not being able to finish something on time or anything like that. But for things to go smoothly, at least having a vague idea of when certain things will be able to be completed is going to be important.
  
• Additionally, once you've been assigned something to do or claimed something yourself, you should create your own thread specifically for discussion of and updates on your task or tasks. The OP should hopefully contain what your tentative deadline or timefrime of completion is, your thoughts on it, etc. Periodic updates on your progress will definitely be appreciated, especially so we can give feedback, or help you if you need it. This is also where we'll check up on you (nicely, of course) if your rough deadline comes up. Obviously, if you need more time, we'll just extend it a little further, but keeping track of the progress of things is important!
  
• You can post in your thread a request for people to head over to the Discord to discuss things about your task in real-time! If you like we can also post an announcement about it if you think it should be a big discussion. However, whatever happens in the Discord won't be known to anybody who wasn't there, and whatever conclusions you guys come to or changes you make absolutely should also be posted in the thread.
  
• If there is ONE large task, or an issue/idea that definitely needs to be worked on or discussed with multiple people, it will have it's own thread instead of being a part of a larger group of tasks. Make sure to also check for these, read through them, and put in your two cents if you like!
  
• Once something is definitely finished, the thread discussing it should hopefully be locked. No point in beating a dead horse if a thing is already done.
  

Make sure you're connected to the Google Drive.
Often the Google Drive will be where the final fruits of your labors will need to end up, even possibly as a WIP! (Can't hurt to back things up now can it?) It's also where you'll need to go for any resources or references you may need to complete something. Keep in mind that you will need to request editing permissions in order to edit anything.

Keep on the lookout for announcements.
There will hopefully be periodic updates on our progress--what things we've managed to get done, what things are in progress, and what things still need doing--posted in the Announcements forum. Keep an eye out for these! I can't say if they'll be made on a regular schedule, but they will hopefully be frequent enough so as to keep everyone as much in the loop as possible about what things definitely should no longer be worried about, what things you still have an opportunity to contribute to, and what things you yourself might want to look into taking on.

Spread the word!!!
We're always going to need more people! Even if you don't think you personally can contribute much (which is a lie, by the way. everyone can help even in small ways.), spreading the word and showing your support will be worlds of helpful on its own. Reblog Act Omega-related tumblr posts, upvote Act Omega Reddit posts on r/homestuck, or talk to your friends and see if you can get them interested in joining. Or at the very least talking about it.

That should be about everything! Please make sure, in all of this, to follow the rules. Be considerate, respectful, constructive, and receptive. We all want to have a good time and make something cool. If you have any questions about this process at all, post them in the Help forum.