# Yahoo Groups and Helping PCGen

1. The Yahoo Message Boards

   Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pcgen/

   Here there are 2000+ users to help you, good eh! Post whatever PCGen related questions, comments etc you have (but please report bugs and feature requests as described below). Very, very rarely does a post go unnoticed, in fact you will be overwhelmed with help most of the time. Please be aware that post to the yahoo groups gains you the attention of Mynex, he may or may not decide to take you soul, your risk.

   If you for some reason cannot get access to Yahoo or are really struggling, contact David R. Bender (Papa_DRB), he's the moderator.

   Please note the boards are now 'post message moderatoed'. That is after you have posted the Moderator (Papa_DRB) will eventually scan the post and make sure it's not invoking a flame war etc.

   In addition to the main group there are a few other Yahoo groups devoted to the more arcane aspects of PCGen. They are:

   PCGen Experimental - Devoted to developing new data sources and LST tag syntax.

   List File Help - The place to go for advice and help coding your own custom LST files.

   LST File Class - An instructional group with posts detailing step by step procedures for writing data files.

   GMGen Yahoo Group - This group is for discussing GMGen, the Game Masters aid that is now included with PCGen.

2. Why are my messages in the yahoo groups board being ignored?

   This happens pretty rarely, but probably because we are busy eating bananas.

   How long is it since you posted this message? The message-board receive many, many mails a day. Because of this, many users choose to receive the digest version of the mails. This slows things down. An other reason might be that you question is answered either in this FAQ or in one of the many html-files in the documentation-files included in PCGen. Check those, and then, if you still get nowhere, post again, with the legend REPOST somewhere in your heading. Of course, you might have hit upon something that no-one has thought of, and everyone is right now hacking away at their computers and PCGen to solve your problem, in any case, be patient.

3. Working with trackers and Tracker Monkeys.

   Allot of work is done through the Yahoo Group and because of the large volume of traffic your message might easily be overlooked by the person or team you are trying to reach. Adding certain tags to the subjects of your posts helps the monkeys filter through the noise and catch the posts relevant to their area of expertise. The Tracker Monkeys are the link between all the teams and the community at large and are usually the ones to contact with questions, bug reports and feature requests.

   If you want to get the attention of a tracker monkey, please put '[TM]' in your subject line. If you think it is a bug, put '[BUG]'; a freq, '[FREQ]'; it it relates to code, '[CODE]'; data, '[DATA]'; output sheets, '[OS]'.

   If you enter a tracker off of a request made on any of the boards, please put '[trackered]' in the reply subject, with the tracker number and URL of the tracker. This is to cut down on the duplicating efforts. For example, if you see a a string of tracker requests and a '[trackered]' with them, you know that someone has entered a tracker for the issue.

   If a tracker is closed because it was fixed, in SF, put the 'Closed' flag on it. If its closed for any other reason, put the 'Deleted' flag on it. This is so that Eric can track which trackers are part of a release.

   For more information on trackers see the Submitting a Bug Report and Submitting a Feature Request pages.

4. I want to help!

   Well of course you do! OK, there are a vast variety of ways in which you can help us here at PCGen. We can use:

   - JAVA Coders (Code Monkeys)
   - LST file editors (List Monkeys)
   - Tracker Monkeys
   - Documenters (Doc Monkeys)
   - Testers (QA Monkeys)
   - Checking Licencing (OGL Monkeys)
   - Anybody who wants to, no matter your level of experience!

   We could go into vast detail here on how you could help in any particular section. But the way to join is posting a message to Yahoo with the title:
   "I WANT TO HELP"
   Someone will claim your soul shortly afterwards and help you offline on how to go about doing things.

   Needless to say, this is one of the most fun and rewarding communities you can join! PCGen is about FUN, just read an average day of the message boards and you'll see what I mean!

   See Monkey Teams Explained for details on the various PCGen teams.

5. How do I submit list files from official RPG products?

   Well, if you've made the list files, and want them to be checked out by everyone to see their worthiness, then you can post them in a zip file to:
   http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pcgen_experimental/files/

   Choose an appropriate sub folder, contact the List Monkey Silverback if you can't decide.

   Once everyone has gone over them, or you feel they are ready to be included in the alpha/beta releases of PCGen, then Post a message to the yahoo group
   http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pcgen_experimental
   With the subject line reading "TRACKER MONKEYS PLEASE PUT THESE FILES INTO THE DM TRACKER" and the Files will disappear from the Yahoo Files Section and 'auto-magically' appear in the PCGen: DM trackers for the list monkeys to tear up.

   If they pass the List Monkeys tests, then they get included into the Alpha/Beta builds, if not, they will get kicked back to the Tracker with a note for the Tracker Monkeys to notify you.

6. I've finished the list files, but I don't know if I should put them in the yahoo group yet, as I haven't contacted the Publisher for permission, what do I do?

   Check the Source Permissions section on the PCGen home page or the Publisher Permissions list in this document for the list of publishers that have given us permission to include their stuff.

   If you are unsure of who to contact, or are unsure or know you suck at people skills, you can leave a txt file in the zip stating that you did not contact anyone. If you do contact the publisher for permission, please make the txt file in the zip with who you contacted and what their response was. copies of the email exchanges are highly recommended. At the very minimum, include who you exchanged email with, what date it was, and what their response was.

7. I've Converted a 1st/2nd Ed Source Material, can we include those in the releases?

   The short answer is no. Unless a 1st/2nd Ed product has been officially converted into 3ed rules and you have permission from the publisher, we can't include them.

8. I've created my own custom campaign world, can I include that in the releases?

   The short answer is again no. You can however, if you wish to share you're work, post them here in zip format:
   http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pcgen/files/Campaign%2BCentral/UnOfficial%20%26%20Converted%20Source%20Material/
   for others on the yahoo group to share.