A good Idea (people good at patching and RB moderators please read)

[zombieplasticclock]

Now, There are a ton of people on the RB forums that can't patch (like me). Some of them ask to add patches, most are rejected, and some keep asking, to the annoyance of moderators.

Now, this is where my idea comes in...
Does everyone know about the Senab Build? it's a RB port with several patches applied to it for people to download (there's another one like it, forgot what it's called. apologies to it's creator). I got to thinking... People who can Patch RB can make "special Builds" for the patches most people ask for (Wikipedia Patch, Doom Strafing W/ Scrollwheel, etc...). And (this is why I also asked Moderators to read this), the Moderators can make Badges for those who do so and put them on the site (by Badges, I mean like the Artist badge or Moderator badge. If this manifests itself into somthing, it'd be the Patcher badge I guess)

So what do you guys think? I know the hard part to this idea is finding patchers with the free time to patch certain patches to RB builds. But think of the convinience to the users of RB Without the ability to patch! its like when people put the Rockbox UI simulators out, saving time for developers who lack the time or ability to make a RB Simulator.
It'll also dramatically cut down on nooby questions like "How do you patch in RB?", or limit to those with the understanding to patch RB.

At least consider this. I can bet lots will agree that having downloadable RB builds with the patch they want would be utterly convienient.

EDIT- Sorry If this is in the wrong part of the forums (Like, if the "getting started and compiling section" is only for new compilers). I just thought if this plan needed patchers, why not ask at the source?

[bluebrother]

It'll also dramatically cut down on nooby questions like "How do you patch in RB?", or limit to those with the understanding to patch RB.

It'll also dramatically cut down the number of users using the official builds, increasing the number of bug reports against unofficial builds (which are unsupported) and making it more unlikely bugs getting discovered fast.

At least consider this. I can bet lots will agree that having downloadable RB builds with the patch they want would be utterly convienient.

I happen to disagree. It would be convenient for a couple of users, but ...

[zombieplasticclock]

  ouch... Didn't consider that...

I thought it was a good idea, and it's not against the rules to give ideas...

Oh well, So much for that. If the idea is flawed, go with what's been keepin' you guys going. Just thought I'd give it a shot

[Llorean]

Actually, use of modified builds is rather strongly discouraged by me (with certain key exceptions, specifically the no frequency scaling build that only has that one patch), as it removes from our pool of actual testers, and on a whole, modified builds don't really do anything toward getting a patch included in SVN.

In fact a few patchers have decided they're happy just having a build with their patch and haven't gone through the trouble of seeking SVN inclusion at all.

So, yeah, there's never going to be a badge for unsupported build authors, at least, not any time soon.

I'd much rather have everyone using official builds, and the patch authors actually working to get their patches included, over all.