Hello everyone,
First of all I'm ecstatic about this whole endeavour, especially when seeing some of the people involved (hey spacemud, long time no see)
and seeing things like " (this got found out because I was trying to involve the long ignored Russian community, thus bring back in people already split off)" on Y-Less' statement topic gives me hope that this will succeed.
A suggestion I have would be to extend an olive branch to the DM (Deathmatch) branch of SA-MP, this used to be a really key and critical part of the 'old' SA-MP (2006/2007 etc) with a heavily active 'Gangs' sub section on the forum and an 'Official' server list that consisted of large open-ended freeroam servers with competitive elements for this Gangs to compete against one another (Littlewhiteys, Las Venturas Playground, Partyserver, Randy's Arena Meltdown and the [XIII] server to name a few). But the official server list was removed, fragmenting the Gang 'scene' and this only got worse with the removal of the Gangs section on the SA-MP forums, it was now a lot harder for them to advertise and recruit members, as well as removing a small sub-section dedicated to organising tournaments and competitions. Furthermore, most of the updates in recent years have been seen by the DM community to be for the benefit of the 'Roleplay' community (e.g - custom objects such as handcuffs, reskins of cop skins) and has resulted in many in this community feeling ignored by those in charge, it was only after a concerted campaign by many in the DM community that 'lagcomp' was added, before that it was just going to be removed altogether).
What do I mean by extending an olive branch? Well, here are some ways to do that:
Bring back the 'Gangs' section
Include a sub-section on the 'Gangs' section for organising Competitions/tournaments
If an update will negatively impact or be controversial for the shooting/DM side of SA-MP, make it optionable.
Include an 'official' server list
Acknowledging the knowledge gaps - possibly consulting the DM side for assistance in known issues/ideas, don't just assume!
Finally, when I was typing this thread, I realised there is no 'suggestions' section. So there's a final suggestion! :P
P.S - Southclaws bring back Scavenge & Survive, disable pedslots used so I don't get banned
Y_Less you pull this off and I'll have a word with your boss to give you a raise