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Weasyl Call for Coders by struguri
Hi. I'm a developer for Weasyl. Specifically, my role is project management here on the site. I organize our coders when necessary, chunk up things into individual tasks to be accomplished, rally the troops, that sort of thing. Rather basic, unintrusive stuff to help our coders more than anything.
As the construction dust starts settling on the site-- with the underlying structure cleaned up and made mostly efficient for the current time-- we're getting ready to move forward. I'd like to explain what it is exactly we're trying to do with development here on Weasyl.
Traditional art sites and communities have flourished online, creating vast networks of artists and fans. They all follow a similar structure: create a stream of art to cull from and create infrastructure to allow its users to flock around it. This innovative concept to use the Internet as a means of artistic communication has been a boon more than anything. They have enabled their attracted communities and their unqiue enclaves to discover grand, wonderful new visuals to draw inspiration from and share ideas of all kinds. It has also helped to expose more data regarding questions artistic communities generate:
* How can artists find their target audience?
* How can techniques and knowledge be more effectively shared amongst artists and curious fans?
* How does one find artwork they enjoy? Or, if amusement isn't the driving desire, how does one find artwork they can learn from or study?
* Why does one artist become popular while another sulks in the shadows?
* Does infrastructure for sharing artwork affect the social quality of their underlying communities?
* How can multiple communities, genres and mediums of art thrive amongst one another in the most effective fashion?
These are all questions that spring to mind just thinking about artistic communities in general. These are all questions we plan on investigating and-- hopefully-- providing solutions for here on Weasyl. There are many other questions that arise from the art site perspective that I have not laid out here. There's a lot in store, in fact. We have long-term project plans.
The current team is comprised of just a few coders, the likes of which are highly knowledgable in a vast amount of areas, including systems development, network security and more. However, as wonderfully as they've been banging on Weasyl to make the code look and function beautifully under the hood, they're not enough. We need more.
Weasyl is looking for developers with experience in Python, Git and web-based application development. If you're two-for-three of any of those core requirements, that's fine-- we have confidence that you can learn the last piece necessary if you've got the other two. Other languages (such as Haskell) will be required for future projects. Currently, this is what we're looking for:
* Self-driven desire to code toward solving the questions that arise from the variety of complexities within artistic communities.
* A taste for humble pie.
Our style of communication is typically a round-table discussion wherein everyone is considered equal insofar as their perceived authority (i.e., I am not a manager in the traditional, top-down hierarchical sense). However, this does not mean your choices are guaranteed to go unquestioned. If someone has a question or comment about your decisions, they can be and are encouraged to be asked. Debate and curiosity are encouraged over rank or role.[1]
As the team is currently small, this appears to be an effective method of working. However, as the team grows, we may attempt to expand the management of the development to a bottom-up structure that minimizes authoritative cruft.
If you'd like to apply, begin the process by sending me a note here on Weasyl or by sending me an e-mail at amethyst.basilisk@gmail.com. More information will be revealed as you trudge through the screening process.
[1] In a fit of emotions, rank was pulled once before it had even been established. It was catastrophic to the development team. As such, I'd like to help prevent it from happening again.
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humbird0
"How can artists find their target audience?"
This question is backwards. It's really about helping the audience find artists they'll enjoy, and find all of their work, no matter where it is. This incidentally results in that artist "finding" their audience.
Furthermore, there's an audience for everything. So the things that an artist tends to make will attract a like-minded audience. A sudden change in style or content later on can upset that established audience. Perhaps things like that can be remedied using organizational tools and keywords?
"Why does one artist become popular while another sulks in the shadows?"
I think one of the major factors is how frequently an artist posts their work.
"Does infrastructure for sharing artwork affect the social quality of their underlying communities?"
Some subject matter is polarizing, so allowing it to be filtered and searched can avoid drama.
"How can multiple communities, genres and mediums of art thrive amongst one another in the most effective fashion?"
Maybe it's about looking for instances when they overlap. A piece of art may be relevant in multiple contexts, and so it'll make sense to present it in those contexts. But there can be very specific reasons WHY something is relevant in another context. People enjoy art for various reasons, and those reasons may be shaped by the context.
Also remember that no website is an island. Each artist is active on multiple other websites. In a perfect world, an artist would be able to easily post a work to multiple sites simultaneously, and receive feedback from multiple sites simultaneously. Without the hassle of worrying about each site's content policies and unique interfaces.