Isto parece-me ser o fórum correcto para lançar este desafio. Peço desculpa de colocar as mensagens em inglês, mas eu depois resumo:

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Para: Fencer (mostrar as mensagens deste utilizador)
Data e hora: 27. Novembro 2006, 20:35:32
Assunto: Help files

Hi,

Something just came to my mind and ended up in becoming a proposal to you:

. You know how it's been over an year now since you keep saying that the Help is to be rewritten? And how it keeps being lower priority and never becomes implemented? It's an hard job. I thought a few times about starting it myself but just never got the courage to go through (I'll translate it all easy, creating it is the hard part)

. You know how the portuguese folks (myself included) keep asking for classic (/portuguese/spanish) checkers every now and then? They actually think you don't do it as some kind of grudge against some missunderstandings in the past. Anyway, they're starting to discuss the issue again (as in, "what to do next to try and convince Fencer to do it"). I will not go through all the differences and rules again, but the fact remains that strategy wise, classic checkers are as far away from czech checkers as these are from the american checkers variant (which is not that much, but still quite a bit)

Well, when there's a will, there's a power. So I figured, if I pick some of those that want the game implemented and somehow manage to get the help files done (in english, of course, as a starting point for the other translations), would you implment that checkers variant? And to make things more rigorous, say both parties finish it before New Year's (just so you don't get away with a "it will be implemented soon", as usual ;) )

Naturally you'd revise the finished help files, and it would be built according to your instructions (in case you have some different format in mind, other than the present one).
And I know there's also some things that need changed in the checkers engine (it needs changed anyway to fix the bug in the turkish checkers). But I'm sure you'll deal with that a lot easier than with having to build the help files by yourself.

I don't know the current status of the help files. Or even if you already have someoone working on them. I "hope" they're still as far away from finished as it appears in the site.
I also don't know if the folks at the portuguese forum will aggree to help - I had to talk to you first to see if you'd aggree with the whole deal (tough I am about 90% sure that some will jump right in with these terms).

I figure it's a win / win situation and you can even use it as an example to get people to do stuff for you in the future in exchange for some new features. Or you can keep quiet about it and nobody will ever know (if you prefer I can contact some people personally instead of posting a message in the public forum).


Take your time and answer me when you made your mind. It will be ok either way (since nobody else knows about this idea and I never got mad when you say no to something I propose - though I will not let go of portuguese checkers variant so easy ;)). You are free, of course, to add your own terms to this proposal.

I'll wait for your answer (but first, dinner!)
See ya.
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De: Fencer (mostrar as mensagens deste utilizador)
Data e hora: 28. Novembro 2006, 07:22:47
Assunto: Re: Help files

Hi Paulo,
thanks for your offer. Actually, I would be very glad if someone writes the help files instead of me because it's an awful job to do. If you really want to help with it, I would very appreciate that (as you said, translating is easier, I would have no problems to write Czech translations quickly).
About Portuguese Checkers, the only problem is that the basic checkers model needs to be rewritten because of some important rules which are missing (jumping over the maximum possible pieces, etc.) and that's what blocks me from implementing more checkers variants, not only the Portuguese one. The end of the year is a good deadline and I think it can be done.

Filip
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Resumindo: propus ao Fencer que se lhe arranjássemos os textos para a Ajuda, em troca ele teria que implementar as damas portuguesas. Ele aceitou a proposta (confirmei isso mesmo em mensagens posteriores).
Agora queria saber se, por este lado, arranjo um grupo de voluntários para me ajudar a fazer a ajuda.

Requisitos:

• Ter algum tempo disponível que queira investir no site
  
• Tem que conhecer bem o site
  
• Alguém que escreva decentemente (de preferência em inglês, mas se for preciso eu também traduzo depois, era só para evitar que o Fencer depois altere alguma coisa e eu tenha que traduzir de volta as alterações)
  </ul>
  
  Portanto, se houver interessados em ajudar nisto, mandem-me uma mensagem. Assim que eu conseguir reunir meia dúzia de voluntários, fecho o acordo com o Fencer. Acho que esse número permite, com alguma folga, acabar o trabalho até ao fim do ano. Mas se houver mais, melhor (se bem que um grupo de mais de uma dúzia também fica complicado de gerir).
  Para facilitar a organização disto, quem se voluntariar pode ir dizendo logo se prefere ficar com alguma secção em especial, quanto tempo acha que vai ter disponível e fazer outros comentários que ache pertinentes (por exemplo, se alguém tem um wiki disponível onde pudessemos fazer este trabalho durante o próximo mês).
  
  Já agora, as alterações que é necessário fazer ao motor de jogo das damas, possibilitarão depois a introdução de outras variantes parecidas, como as damas internacionais (portanto, isto é capaz de interessar também aos nossos colegas brasileiros).
  
  O resto dos detalhes eu dou depois por mensagem, aos interessados. Por agora vou ficar à espera das respostas.