Back in 2013, Dolphin pulled away from [shall not be named] and got a new website, dolphin-emu.org! With control of our own home, we wished to use our new platform to communicate with our users in an official capacity. But developers are busy developing, plus they'll have varying writing ability, so dedicated writers were needed. Two testers, myself and JMC47, stepped up. Together, we started to write the Dolphin Blog.
With the feature articles and the Progress Reports, the blog has exploded in popularity and quality. This has helped the developers communicate concepts to users and prevent shitstorms, helped us get new talent, and we've even helped a bunch of people start their careers. I'm incredibly proud of what we have done on the Dolphin Blog! However, it has still just remained me and JMC all this time. Others have offered to help every now and then, but we have largely turn them down. That was a mistake.
When we started the Dolphin Blog, me and JMC were both part-time university students with quite a lot of free time. That is no longer the case. We both have responsibilities and lives now, and the blog has become a burden. JMC in particular has become extremely busy and unavailable, which pushed the majority of the load for the Dolphin Blog onto me throughout 2023. I have been carrying it so far, but it's not like I have a lot of time either, so I manage by giving the blog the time I would have spent developing Big Porpoise Mode, the big picture mode we've been teasing for a bit. Yea that's me. Needless to say the constant time stealing isn't helping that project at all, especially since in 2023 the blog has been a little more active than usual, with some big and very critical articles that we HAD to get right. This came to a head in the last Progress Report. It was so late because, outside of a couple of sections, it was entirely written by me. I put four weeks into that report. This is not working anymore.
So I'm going to say this outright. The Dolphin Blog has not been sustainable for some time. If things continue as they are, the Dolphin Blog as you know it will cease.
We're not going to let the blog disappear outright, but if nothing changes, we'll be reducing the scope of the Dolphin Blog to make Reports doable by one person within a few day's time. So it would be something more like early Progress Reports or the FEX-EMU changelogs made by my beloved Sonicadvance, where we state the change and move on. No detailed explanations on how things work, no elaborate testing, no long stories. Very short sections, sustainable and quick. That is of course a serious change in scope compared to what Progress Reports have been for the past few years, and I'd rather not do that, but it's better than the blog stopping outright, so that's the plan.
The only way to maintain the Dolphin Blog's scope and detail is to get more writers and expand the Dolphin Blog writing staff considerably. A team of writers could spread out the work and not just maintain the quality, but maybe even make it better and faster than ever before. That's why I'm posting this. This is the Dolphin Blog's last chance to stay as it is now. I need help!
Only YOU can save the Dolphin Blog! (in its current form)
Are you interested in volunteering for the Dolphin Blog and helping to continue our detailed Progress Reports? Awesome! Before I explain the process, here is what we are looking for in new writers.
If you are unable to meet these, you are not a good fit for the Dolphin Blog. They are critical to how we operate!
Next, here are our writing standards.
How To Contribute to the Dolphin Blog!
So we're going to keep this part simple. If you want to volunteer to write for the Dolphin Blog, you'll be able to contribute right away! First, let me know your intentions to contribute (communication is important!) by either posting here or telling me on discord, then find a "notable change" after 5.0-20347 that you wish to write about, talk to the developers and/or test the change yourself so you know what it does and how it affects Dolphin or users, tell its story in a text editor of your choice and create any screenshots you want to pair with it, and send it to me. That's it! If your section is accepted, you could have your writing and your name in the next Dolphin Progress Report, just like that! For this first round I'll handle formatting and final reviews and stuff myself, you just need to write. Some editing will be required, but I'll work with you on that. The next Progress Report will be going up in early February, so make your intentions known soon asap and consider February 1 as your deadline for this report.
Also you are welcome to do more than one section if you so choose, but please do not overwork yourself.
As for what constitutes a "Notable Change", it needs to have a significant impact on users or Dolphin itself. There are exceptions of course, like an interesting story about a Dolphin change that you want to tell, but in general we focus on things that impact users or the project in some way. For your submission we'd like for you to stick to something clear-cut but you are welcome to impress us.
After this Report, we'll play it by ear, with growing rights and access as we get to know our new writers.
With the feature articles and the Progress Reports, the blog has exploded in popularity and quality. This has helped the developers communicate concepts to users and prevent shitstorms, helped us get new talent, and we've even helped a bunch of people start their careers. I'm incredibly proud of what we have done on the Dolphin Blog! However, it has still just remained me and JMC all this time. Others have offered to help every now and then, but we have largely turn them down. That was a mistake.
When we started the Dolphin Blog, me and JMC were both part-time university students with quite a lot of free time. That is no longer the case. We both have responsibilities and lives now, and the blog has become a burden. JMC in particular has become extremely busy and unavailable, which pushed the majority of the load for the Dolphin Blog onto me throughout 2023. I have been carrying it so far, but it's not like I have a lot of time either, so I manage by giving the blog the time I would have spent developing Big Porpoise Mode, the big picture mode we've been teasing for a bit. Yea that's me. Needless to say the constant time stealing isn't helping that project at all, especially since in 2023 the blog has been a little more active than usual, with some big and very critical articles that we HAD to get right. This came to a head in the last Progress Report. It was so late because, outside of a couple of sections, it was entirely written by me. I put four weeks into that report. This is not working anymore.
So I'm going to say this outright. The Dolphin Blog has not been sustainable for some time. If things continue as they are, the Dolphin Blog as you know it will cease.
SOON.
We're not going to let the blog disappear outright, but if nothing changes, we'll be reducing the scope of the Dolphin Blog to make Reports doable by one person within a few day's time. So it would be something more like early Progress Reports or the FEX-EMU changelogs made by my beloved Sonicadvance, where we state the change and move on. No detailed explanations on how things work, no elaborate testing, no long stories. Very short sections, sustainable and quick. That is of course a serious change in scope compared to what Progress Reports have been for the past few years, and I'd rather not do that, but it's better than the blog stopping outright, so that's the plan.
The only way to maintain the Dolphin Blog's scope and detail is to get more writers and expand the Dolphin Blog writing staff considerably. A team of writers could spread out the work and not just maintain the quality, but maybe even make it better and faster than ever before. That's why I'm posting this. This is the Dolphin Blog's last chance to stay as it is now. I need help!
Only YOU can save the Dolphin Blog! (in its current form)
Are you interested in volunteering for the Dolphin Blog and helping to continue our detailed Progress Reports? Awesome! Before I explain the process, here is what we are looking for in new writers.
- Communicate and Be Available! - The Dolphin Blog is a communal blog. While writing has largely just been me and JMC as the writing team, we share all of our articles constantly and get tons of answers and feedback from developers throughout every article. That is why the Dolphin Blog has been so good in the first place. Communication is a must! So that is one thing we are looking for in potential new writers. We need you to work with us! So throughout the process, don't hold back. Ask questions, ask for tips, chat with us, just, interact with us in whatever way works for you. We are constantly available on IRC and Discord, and we look forward to hearing from you!
- Be Nice - Like everyone else in the Dolphin organization, all writers need to follow our Code of Conduct (seriously read that if you haven't) and local rules for Discord and the like. Be nice, be respectful, don't be a bigot or a jerk, and let's work together to make cool things!
- Don't Make Stuff Up - This is a core principle for the Dolphin Blog, and one of the primary driving factors of why our blog has been successful. Everything we write is based off the words of the developer(s) and/or our own testing, and then it is checked by the developer(s) of the change after its written. We don't make stuff up. Our accuracy is not perfect, but sticking to this rule helps us maintain quality.
- Be Self-Motivated / Self-Managed - Like all open source projects, we're all just volunteers here working together for cool things. I'll try to be more proactive at involving new people, but we are fundamentally not great at giving out work for people to do or managing writers for themselves. To succeed in the Dolphin Blog, you need to be proactive. Jump in and get things done!
If you are unable to meet these, you are not a good fit for the Dolphin Blog. They are critical to how we operate!
Next, here are our writing standards.
- English Only - We could do some sort of translation in the future but we have more pressing concerns at the moment.
- Proper Sentences with Good Grammar - Probably doesn't need to be said, but just in case.
- Keep It PG - We minimize swearing, gross or scary content, aggressive writing, etc etc to keep the Dolphin Blog accessible to all readers and situations. Like, someone may read our blog with their kid, or they may read it with breakfast, or right before bed, or any number of scenarios where they wouldn't want to see nasty things. Having that kind of content is not important or useful to us, and wide accessibility is, so we strive to maintain high accessibility in our content.
- Similar Style and Tone - We're not going to require you to stick to a mandated style, but we do have an loosely established writing style and cadence and your work will need to blend with our existing writing and writers. We'll work with you on this and narrow in the specifics as we work with you.
How To Contribute to the Dolphin Blog!
So we're going to keep this part simple. If you want to volunteer to write for the Dolphin Blog, you'll be able to contribute right away! First, let me know your intentions to contribute (communication is important!) by either posting here or telling me on discord, then find a "notable change" after 5.0-20347 that you wish to write about, talk to the developers and/or test the change yourself so you know what it does and how it affects Dolphin or users, tell its story in a text editor of your choice and create any screenshots you want to pair with it, and send it to me. That's it! If your section is accepted, you could have your writing and your name in the next Dolphin Progress Report, just like that! For this first round I'll handle formatting and final reviews and stuff myself, you just need to write. Some editing will be required, but I'll work with you on that. The next Progress Report will be going up in early February, so make your intentions known soon asap and consider February 1 as your deadline for this report.
Also you are welcome to do more than one section if you so choose, but please do not overwork yourself.
As for what constitutes a "Notable Change", it needs to have a significant impact on users or Dolphin itself. There are exceptions of course, like an interesting story about a Dolphin change that you want to tell, but in general we focus on things that impact users or the project in some way. For your submission we'd like for you to stick to something clear-cut but you are welcome to impress us.
After this Report, we'll play it by ear, with growing rights and access as we get to know our new writers.
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