Alchemist Builders Onboarding Guide [out of date]

Vision

So you think you got what it takes to become an Alchemist, to walk the path of the Great Work which might lead you to trails never taken, territories unexplored - like the greatest Alchemist of our times - a famous psychiatrist Carl Jung said: "One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious"

Within the Alchemist labs the experiments are focused on exploring highly technical concepts in an attempt to discover the ingredients required to properly synthesize the Philosophers Stone - for example designing the Mint a Crucible NFT experience or the mistX Gasless DEX.

Beside technical experimentation our guild has grown into a decentralised safe haven where the weary scholars can feel comfortable, at ease and safe. Creative projects like building the Alchemist Radio or finding the right art direction for the Crucible NFT are just some of the endless examples of outcomes from the Alchemists playing around with some beakers and funnels in their down time.

In general, we follow the guiding principles dear to the Alchemists since the epoch of the Emerald Tablet in order to effectively create value in every process - all the active participants have internalized this mindset, so that we basically share an equally polarized vision:

• Focus on value

• Start where you are

• Progress iteratively with feedback

• Collaborate and promote visibility

• Think and work holistically

• Keep it simple and practical

• Optimize and automate

For more details please read this article

Tools

Discord

General

Discord is a VoIP, instant messaging and digital distribution platform designed for creating communities. Users communicate with voice calls, video calls, text messaging, media and files in private chats or as part of communities called "servers". Servers are a collection of persistent chat rooms and voice chat channels. Discord runs on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, iPadOS, Linux, and in web browsers. As of December 2020, the service has over 140 million monthly active users.

How we use it

Discord is our preferred communication tool, as it provides a fast, uncomplicated and sustainable solution for conversations - be it in writing or acoustically. We differentiate in 2 categories - Community & Builder. While the community is open to every Alchemist, the builder has his own isolated area apart from distraction. The builder area is divided into different projects or topics, but is basically open to every builder and is intended to encourage participation.

Links: Alchemist Discord

Github

General

GitHub is a web-based version-control and collaboration platform for software developers. GitHub facilitates social coding by providing a web interface to the Git code repository and management tools for collaboration. GitHub can be thought of as a serious social networking site for software developers. Members can follow each other, rate each other's work, receive updates for specific projects and communicate publicly or privately.

How we use it

GitHub is the digital home of our developers. As already stated in the description, it the perfect platform for collaboration on deployment & development, especially for us as a decentralized autonomous organization. It represents, separated into different repositories, the core of our products.

Links: Alchemist Github

Linear App

General

Linear helps streamline software projects, sprints, tasks, and bug tracking. It's built for high-performance teams. It's directly connected to Github.

How we use it

Linear is primarily used by us to document developer-relevant issues, problems and / or hurdles that arise during the architecture and processing of individual tasks (previously defined in the Basecamp) and ultimately to provide solutions or workarounds. Thus, Linear represents the tool, which breaks down individual tasks transparently and in detail for technical topics. Tracking tasks on Github.

Figma

General

Figma is a cloud-based design tool that is similar to Sketch in functionality and features, but with big differences that make Figma better for team collaboration. For those skeptical of such claims, we’ll explain how Figma simplifies the design process and is more effective than other programs at helping designers and teams work together efficiently.

How we use it

Figma is mainly used by us to share creative content and work on it together. These can be, for example, UI-relevant design drafts, but also initial designs of community projects of any kind - an example here would be designs for one-pagers. Especially when it comes to design decisions, as these are often influenced by personal taste, in our opinion they should first be shared before they are published.

Links: Alchemist Figma

Meeting Calendar

You can find our shared calendar here. All dates are included, be they project-related or generally interesting for the entire organization. Meetings are essential to question individual approaches and to discuss them in a team. A transcript will then be written out of sustainability in the base camp. Since the participants are spread all over the world, the times are usually chosen so that as many as possible can take part.

Participation

As already described under the topic "Meeting Calendar", we appreciate the lively exchange in the team on current topics. The easiest and most uncomplicated way to do this is always the spoken word. Regular participation is therefore essential for several reasons at the same time - finding quick solutions, bundling several opinions on certain topics, finding a majority approach and promoting integrity. If it is not possible that you cannot participate in principle or as an exception, let your team know.

Communication and Tool Interactions

We have various tools in use, which we of course also want to use so that we can recognize progress for our set expectations. The work done should be in focus either way. The communication of small or large milestones is often relevant for the entire project, even if this is not always necessarily visible at first glance, and should therefore be in Linear (developer), Figma (artist) and / or can be found in the Discord. We would therefore like to encourage you to communicate a lot and actively via one of the channels made available to you.

Feedback

We would like to support you with your onboarding as a builder and have therefore incorporated fixed feedback discussions in the initial phase. A colleague will answer your questions after your first overview and assign you a starting point. The aim of the conversation is to clear up ambiguities and to answer questions of all kinds, so that you can be as much a part of your project as possible from the beginning.

Another feedback appointment is then set after about 2 weeks, when we would like to know in particular how well you have settled and how symptom-free you have been able to contribute your strengths to the value of the project. We also try to optimize our onboarding process through feedback that you give us.

The Builders' Stipend

Once the development efforts begin, the sitting Council will start allocating a builders’ stipend to distribute among the project’s actively contributing team members. The stipend comes from a finite pool of $MIST It may be subject to change with every payout, but the Council will usually give a rough justification for why the funds were distributed in a particular manner.

The builders stipend is here to make it easy for you to put aside other distractions and focus on building with the rest of the Alchemists. It is not a salary. It is not meant to be the primary incentive to drive your contributions. If you’re here as a mercenary and just want to get paid then you’re probably in the wrong community.

Onboarding Form

To take part in the onboarding process, please fill out this form!