The DSTT boards are a frequent source of conflict due to personal clashes between DSTT dat developers. Issues of credit, attribution and reuse of work frequently arise, but the dat updates are clearly a necessity in order to ensure the ongoing viability of the DSTT platform.
In order to address these issues, I propose an official DSTT dat distribution overseen by the community, and credited to the developers and maintainers collectively. As a rule of thumb, such a distribution should freely welcome submissions from any and all who wish to contribute, and evaluate these contributions by consensus.
Ideally, GBAtemp would make it policy that by uploading any fixes, dats or other data to GBAtemp grants the community permission to use them in the GBAtemp official set. Obviously, this would need to be clearly stated, but it seems well within the management's rights to set such a policy. While I personally would like to see this as a mandatory part of the terms of service, an opt-out provision could also be implemented. (e.g. all dats are permitted for inclusion unless the author specifically states otherwise)
By turning the distribution of dats into a community project, the userbase benefits by reducing the level of drama, (no accusations of theft when everyone is on the same team) assuring a stable and unchanging source for updates, and possibly even allowing for regularly scheduled releases. Ultimately such a project would serve not only the GBAtemp DSTT community, but the DSTT community as a whole; it is not difficult to envision a day where our community produces what amounts to the definitive DSTT updates and a source of pride for all GBAtemp members.
In order to address these issues, I propose an official DSTT dat distribution overseen by the community, and credited to the developers and maintainers collectively. As a rule of thumb, such a distribution should freely welcome submissions from any and all who wish to contribute, and evaluate these contributions by consensus.
Ideally, GBAtemp would make it policy that by uploading any fixes, dats or other data to GBAtemp grants the community permission to use them in the GBAtemp official set. Obviously, this would need to be clearly stated, but it seems well within the management's rights to set such a policy. While I personally would like to see this as a mandatory part of the terms of service, an opt-out provision could also be implemented. (e.g. all dats are permitted for inclusion unless the author specifically states otherwise)
By turning the distribution of dats into a community project, the userbase benefits by reducing the level of drama, (no accusations of theft when everyone is on the same team) assuring a stable and unchanging source for updates, and possibly even allowing for regularly scheduled releases. Ultimately such a project would serve not only the GBAtemp DSTT community, but the DSTT community as a whole; it is not difficult to envision a day where our community produces what amounts to the definitive DSTT updates and a source of pride for all GBAtemp members.