Getting involved

We cannot do everything alone. We really really need your help.

Organisation

333networks is a non-profit volunteer group, organised by Darkelarious, that developed and improves open-source masterserver software for legacy games. We focus on multiplayer support for legacy games, documenting our efforts and providing this via our website.

Because the project has grown a lot since the early days, we could really use a hand in a number of discipines, like development/programming, code review, documentation, presentation and graphical design. Nobody assigns tasks to you, but you can join in on any part of the discussion that interests you or start a topic of conversation yourself.

Workgroup Channels

On our discord server we are split up in a few channesl with a particular discipline or category, such as masterserver development, documentation, the website or simply looks and style. We split up our efforts in the following channels

#development

The core of 333networks is the technical implementation of the masterserver. The software is written in Qt5. We would benefit from people who know how to read code and build towards new features. In this channel we also discuss how to implement interfaces like a Json API or public banner images for your own gameserver or discord bot.

#documentation

The difference between science and messing around is writing it down. If Darkelarious gets hit by a bus tomorrow, a lot of knowledge will die out. Like with GameSpy, a lot depends on a single person. The community would benefit from it if this knowledge is publicly available and shared. We are working on writing it down, but there is a lot of knowledge that means nothing if not clarified to people who are not specialists.

In this channel we focus on collecting and simplifying information about the masterserver itself, but also how to use it, how the protocols behind it work and where all of this information can be found. If you don't like reading or writing, you can also help us simplify information with diagrams, figures and other easily-accessible means.

#looks-and-style

There are large heaps of code and walls of text, but they are not attractive until they are properly styled. Looks matter. Presentation determines the effectiveness. Whether it is a graph, diagram, logo or icon, it should look good.

wordart.pngBack to the classics: WordArt as website logo.

Some time ago we had an April Fools joke about the new 333networks logo: because none of us had time, the one above would become our new style and theme, unless somebody would provide us with a better logo. We received submissions for strong, colourful logos, rickroll-networks and out-of-the-box designs for our colour scheme. We really liked the submissions a lot and we encourage you all to make more.

#website

If you like what you see here for the 333networks website or the serverlist, code repository and others, it means we did a good job. But since we keep expanding bit by bit, with showing banners, APIs and working together with the community, we also need to expand and continuously improve. It really is a mix of development, documentation and style/graphics. If you like this kind of thing, this channel is the place for you.

#social

Nowadays everything is social media. Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, you name them. 333networks had a facebook page once, but we had little to no interaction and even fewer engagement. We feel that this is a missed opportunity to connect with people. Currently, everything happens on discord, but we hope that you can help us here.

As we said countless times before, we will do everything we can to keep 333networks free to use for everybody. But we also don't like advertisments and will not clutter our sites with dirty, tracking advertisements that slow down our light-weight site and service. We feel strongly that social media can help us out with exploring methods to finance our domain, maintenance and effort.

Joining

So, how does one join the work groups and get started? It starts with the willingness to help out once in a while with anything that interests you. The next step is to join our discord server if you haven't done so already. Then, go to our #roles channel where you can react to assign yourself to the @workgroup role. You are now part of the workgroup and we look forward to your contributions!

Join a task and do not fear to try something. Bugs, problems and failures are part of the process. It is up to you to take the initiative, nobody will assign or force a task on you. We hope you'll enjoy helping out and we appreciate your efforts!