WIP ‐ Reauthorship Policy

Reauthorship Process

Reauthoring is a process that allows developers to take over authorship of existing achievement sets. This process is intended for situations where an existing set requires significant rework and has been abandoned by its original developer. Reauthoring is important for maintaining the quality and integrity of achievement sets, ensuring they meet current standards and are protected against cheats and exploits, as well as recognizing the dedicated developers who are improving them. Reauthor proposals are reviewed by the Developer Compliance team to determine if the changes warrant a reauthor. Prior to any reauthor proposals, it is expected that the developer has completed and published all expected changes so that the Developer Compliance team has concrete before-and-after logic to review.

Approval Criteria

Each reauthor proposal is unique and, therefore, handled on a case-by-case basis. Because of this, it is impossible to create an objective list of what will and will not qualify for a reauthor. Changes need to be significant enough that the achievements would now be considered authored by the new developer, not just updated by them. Below is the criteria of what will be considered during each reauthor proposal review:

• Logic Modernization
  • Use of modern flags to enhance the robustness of the achievements and prevent future issues.
  • Use of modern flags to provide status indicators to the player where necessary.
  • Removal or correction of incorrectly used flags.
• Set Protection
  • Updates to safeguard against in-game cheat codes.
  • Updates to adequately protect against in-game saves or passwords.
• Hash Support
  • Updates to support additional hashes.
  • Updates to remove unused logic from previously supported hashes.
• General Set Fixes
  • Updates to use more stable and appropriate addresses.
  • Comprehensive logic rewrites resulting from years of band-aid fixes.
• Rich Presence
  • Updates to make displayed information dynamic.
  • Updates to enhance the information being shown.
• Updated Icons
  • Updates to achievement icons.
  • Updates to the set icon.
• Code Notes
  • Updates to code notes for clarity, sizing, and important information.
• Developer Activity
  • Proposing developer's history of high-ticketed sets.
  • Original developer's current inactivity history and account status.

Process Steps

As mentioned above, reauthor proposal approvals are handled on a case-by-case basis. However, the general process outside the review is handled uniformly. First, the developer should make all the necessary updates to the achievement set they wish to reauthor. These updates should be completed and published before submitting a proposal.

Next, the developer should send a detailed proposal message to the Developer Compliance team. This message should include a comprehensive summary of the changes made, with a focus on the Approval Criteria mentioned above. Additionally, the developer should provide a way for the team to view the logic prior to the updates, which can be in the form of forum posts, spreadsheets, images, or other similar formats.

If the proposal is approved, the Developer Compliance team will update the author of the achievements accordingly, recognizing the significant contributions and improvements made by the proposing developer.