OMSI Addon Testers (OAT)
Foundation and Aims
The OMSI Addon Testers (or just "OAT") have been founded on April 30 2011 by Yufa, Felix01 and Janniboy - members of the official OMSI forum (link to the thread). Please mind that the founders of the OAT are German, so the website and the test reports are in German as well. There are currently no plans about a multi-lingual website, so please translate the website using any translating software.
The OAT (www.oat-online.de) wants to rate free OMSI add-ons built by private persons factually and fair. Therewith users get the possibility to inform themselves about an add-on before downloading it; additionally the quality of OMSI add-ons should constantly improve.
The OAT summarizes these aims in one statement: "Wir möchten die Autoren aktiv dabei unterstützen, ihre Addons zu perfektionieren." (which means: "We actively want to help the authors to perfect their add-ons.").
All members of the OAT do their work voluntarily, everyone is welcome to make an application. You can read more about the demands an add-on tester should meet and about the things that are expected from him here. As you might have read above, the OAT is currently completely in German, so please understand that applications of English testers wouldn't make sense at the moment.
Testing Procedure and Rating
Interested add-on developers can submit their add-on directly using the onine form. Although the OAT is German, English submissions are still welcome! The only thing you should remember: The test report will be in German as well.
After the testing procedure, The OAT publishes the test report on the official website www.oat-online.de. It contains the single ratings as well as the most important facts (positive and negative lists) and the total credits of the add-on. Transparency is one of the big aims. Thus, the OAT also releases guidelines and recommendations on the website. From the OAT's point of view, the mentioned criteria are elementary for "the perfect add-on"; at the same time they are the scale for the rating.
An add-on can achieve at last 100 credits, this is the same for all submissions; but the criteria vary and are differently weighted depending on the type of the add-on to fit the manifold requirements. The total credits are visualized in the OAT icon (see example image on the right). With this icon, the developer can advertise for his add-on (e.g. in forums or on websites). By doing this, he also shows that he exerts himself on quality.
