Organization

The OpenSimulator project is fueled by a small group of core developers who produce the bulk of the code and who have commit access to the GIT repository. These core developers are responsible for deciding what goes in the main distribution, and for inviting new developers to the core group. A much larger community of developers, testers, and users makes the OpenSimulator code come to life in all sorts of colorful and enhanced ways. Without this large community, this project wouldn't exist.

Because of the high complexity of the code base, membership in the core developers group is by invitation, where all existing active core developers must be in agreement. The chief criteria for invitation are

1. Demonstrated skill in resolving bugs or adding useful code to the main code base.
2. Being prepared to listen and take action in response to constructive criticism of code patches.
3. Being available regularly in IRC to directly answer questions about code and for on-going co-operation with other core developers.
4. Working well with others.

Core developers who go for 6 or more months without contributing code are changed to a status called "chasing the white rabbit". This status is in all similar to the active status, except that these developers don't participate in the decisions. As soon as these developers start committing code again, they are moved back into active status. At their request, these white rabbit chasers are moved to a permanently disengaged status, losing their access to the repository server.