RetroAchievements Manifesto
This is the RetroAchievements Manifesto and every member of this community should be aware of this.
Since the early days of RetroAchievements, this is what we have in our FAQ as the answer for What is RetroAchievements.org?
RetroAchievements.org is a zero profit community who collaborate and compete to earn custom-made achievements in classic games through emulation. Achievements are made by and for the community. (...)
In this manifesto we're going to go deeper into that answer.
RetroAchievements.org is a zero profit community
We do have a donation link on our frontpage, but we're still a zero profit community.
The patrons contribute with literally one dollar per month, and fortunately we have enough patrons to pay for server expenses without needing to rely on annoying adverts.
However, we want to make very clear that getting donations is not our business model, exactly because RetroAchievements is not a business!
Business organizations are always eager to get more customers. They do what they can to please the customers and keep getting more and more of them. But here, at RetroAchievements, we are not a business, we are a community.
We don't have customers, we have community members.
We are a bunch of people passionate about retrogames. And if you share the same passion, you're very welcome to join us.
Although we're welcoming anyone, we're not desperately begging for more and more users. It's your call: if you like what we have to offer, pick your gamepad and let's play some classics!
Achievements are made by and for the community.
It's related to what was said above. We are not offering a service for outsiders. The things we create in this community are for this very same community. You're welcome to stay with us, but it's up to you to decide if you want to be part of it.
And while being part of this community, always keep in mind the following statements:
1. The most important thing we have here are the achievements.
2. The most important people we have here are the achievement creators.
What does that mean?
The most important thing we have here are the achievements.
We all love those badges on our profile page, right? Such attachment to that badge sometimes causes frustration when the respective achievement set get a revision. But it's important to keep in mind that this project is constantly evolving.
We make achievement set revisions with quality in mind, and to show actual respect for the game. We also have respect for the awards you got, but improving the overall quality of the project has precedence over our individual profile pages and/or our amount of points.
Also, if you're not able to master an achievement set it doesn't automatically mean that it needs to be nerfed/demoted/turned into a bonus set. If other players got that, it's probable you can get that too. But if you can't, it's OK too. You don't need to unlock every achievement to keep having fun with old games.
If you still think the achievement set has unwelcome concepts, you can post your arguments in the game's forum topic. Just be sure to be respectful in your words. Which brings us to the next point...
The most important people we have here are the achievement creators.
Don't get it wrong! The RetroAchievements ecosystem has a lot of people, playing many different roles than creating achievements, and they are all important. But the achievement creators are the backbone of this project. Without them, this is just a buggy and old fashioned website.
Achievement creation is a very time consuming activity. The people doing it dedicate a big portion of their free time producing content for the benefit of the whole community.
Anyways, even if you're not able to/interested in creating achievements and just want to play, you're also important to us. In fact we have countless players that are very valuable members. The key point here is: get involved and be nice.
The more you get involved, the more value you add to the community.
Last but not least, if you have criticism about achievement creators' work, be respectful. Showing bitterness towards them is strongly frowned upon. Be disrespectful with them and you're definitely not welcome here.