Community Structure Community Structure

User groups and team hierarchy

The Cotonti Community stands for all people who use Cotonti, visit the site or take part in development. Below there is a description of the Community Structure. It could be visually represented by a tree or graph, but we use simple tables to describe user groups and their permissions shortly.

Group priority grows from top to bottom, so that the next group inherits most often inherits permissions from the previous one and adds some new permissions to it. The first part is called «Cotonti.Community» and means members who are not a part of the official development team. The second part is dedicated to the Cotonti Team.

A member can belong to several groups at once, in this case all his permissions and duties are united.

#1. Cotonti.Community

Stars Title Description
0 Guests Unregistered site visitors. They can browse pages, forums, download files, see things in Trac and view SVN but they have no write access on anything.
1 Members Registered members. Can post comments, reply and create topics in most forums. They can also make bug reports with in Trac.
2 Premium Members Members who have done a lot for the community by helping people on forums and making great Cotonti-powered websites.
3 Support Provide technical support on forums and help other members.
4 Skin Makers Make skins and submit them to Skins section on site. In addition they have some PFS space to host files.
4 Plugin Makers Make modules, plugins and customizations.
5 Contributors Contribute their work to Cotonti Repository so that it becomes common value. Contributed patches get checked and merged into the repository by a Developer from the Team. Contributors agree that their code will be licensed under BSD terms and the copyrights are shared between themselves and the Cotonti Team.
5 Providers Run various Cotonti-powered websites and provide Cotonti-based services: build websites, create plugins, skins and other related software.
6 Donators People who support the Cotonti development by donating some money.

Any of these groups can be assigned to you by site Moderators or Administrators. It will be done automatically if it comes out of your behavior and services, or you can apply for some group by sending a PM to one of Moderators or Administrators. Your application will be considered and you will get a reply after the decision is made.

#2. Development Team

Stars Title Description
5 Testers Are responsible for testing software to find bugs. They should check details on bug reports and test fixes, enhancements and new features by themselves or on request from Developers. Can create and comment tickets of any kind in Trac. Have access to private Team forum.
5 Writers Spend a lot of time writing documentation to make sure that all the necessary information is provided in user guides, administrator guides and developer guides.
5 Translators Work on internationalization and localization. Have limited write access on SVN to create language packs there.
6 Moderators Keep a watchful eye on what gets posted and submitted on site. Can edit others' posts and pages, manipulate with topics and punish those who violate rules. Take care of Cotonti website. There can be moderators of exact site areas. SVN write access is granted them according to their belonging to other groups.
7 Designers Make graphics, templates, stylesheets and other layout files for standard skins in Cotonti Repository.
7 Developers Have full write access on the Repository and work mostly on the Core, standard (included in core package) and official (developed in branches) plugins maintained by the Team. They hold tasks and close tickets in Trac.
8 Senior Developers Are premium developers with high skills and their work is a little bit more precious than regular Developers and Designers. They can lead subprojects and control other developers if needed.
9 Coordinators They lead subprojects, coordinate workgroups and team members, take responsibility over exact directions and departments of Cotonti Project.
10 Administrators Are responsible for everything that goes on in the Cotonti Team, the Repository and the Community. Control and motivate other team members. Make most important decisions about development and other activities.

You can join the Cotonti Team by invitation from one of Team Members. Or you can apply for some Team position by sending a PM to one of Administrators. Your application will be considered and satisfied or declined for some reasoning. The similar way can a Team Member get higher position: as a conclusion from his work and behavior or after application consideration.

See also:


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