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Message: <blockquote data-quote="soulcatcher" data-source="post: 254512" data-attributes="member: 5940">Community standardsI think perhaps it is a bit to early to create a database like this.  It is something that I have been VERY interested in, but after alot of thinking, I have determined that some framework needs to be created first.As a community, we need to define how something actually looks (like a feat) before we can really start determining how to store/rate/deal with that information.  I would propose that the community needs to define something like an XML standard for each particular OGC item that will be stored.  So, for example - once it has been defined precisely what a makes a feat, what are the possible things that can be attached to a feat, then people can start to communicate with each other properly ABOUT feats.Second, I don't think a unified, single database is the right answer.  That requires alot of maintenance, and bandwidth for something that is going to be likely done as a hobby.   Because we have defined what each discrete D20 item IS, we can easily transfer information between databases.  Where this is leading, is that I would propose that as a community, we agree upon a person, or group of people who can act as reasonable stewards of a particular type of data.  The Net Book Of Feats crew certainly seem to qualify well for acting as stewards of Feat infomation - they can catalog it, rate it, and distribute it. I believe that it would be a good idea to include the ability for not only a selected 'council' to rate these gaming items, but for the system to also handle votes from individuals - moderation by the community (the House/House of commons if you will) and by community appointed 'experts' (the Senate/house of lords so to speak)This achieves multiple things I think1) it creates a single go to point for the latest and the greatest, as well as the chaff.2) it creates a 'language' that people can write databases, editors, and utilities for3) It allows for the general gaming populus to influence what is considered to be 'good' rules, while still having a group with a known set of behaviors while rating4) This allows the D20 community to break up this increadibly large task into discrete chunks to be managed by individuals5) this also allows people to run databases that contain all the rules, or some of the rules.  This could create a far easier situation for GMs who want to determine WHAT rules are in effect for their games - just pull down what you are interested in off the net, and then use a utility to define your world rules.I would furthur propose that this be considered a democratic organization - run similarly to open source projects like this (The Debia Project for linux is a good example), so that there is a way for the community to police itself.Not only do I think this will be beneficial to the consumers (the gamers), I think it will be beneficial to the publishers, as this could easily be designed to only contain the crunchy bits (and the odd picute for some of the monsters)it would give a very direct way for the publishers to talk to the community representatives as well.This would also encourage Publishers to produce MORE open game content, as it will likely result that the most used rules are the ones in the database.  People will buy books, when they see that a large number of the rules they like come from a particular publication/publisher.Finally, it makes it easier for publishers to find rules, so it would reduce duplicated effort for good rules.just my 20 cents (too big for 2)</blockquote>

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