Add community support levels

source/contribute.rst

@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ To get enlisted as partner of the OPNsense project means a minimum annual invest
 of € 2500.Partners that made an exceptional contribution to the project are assigned
 the Platinum Partner status.
 
----------------
+----------------
 Support Contract
 ----------------
 with a support contract we support you and you support us as OPNsense is fully
@@ -87,6 +87,11 @@ Contributing to the ongoing development of OPNsense can be done by:
 * Contributing new functionality
 * Share your code with the project by manner of a pull request.
 
+.. Note::
+
+  Before you send in your pull request, please read our :doc:`development/guidelines` and see the community support levels in the
+  :doc:`support`. It is important for plugin developers to maintain their plugin and interact with users for QA.
+
 ---------------
 
 Testing

source/support.rst

@@ -2,6 +2,13 @@
 Support Options
 ===============
 
+Commercial
+----------
+
+.. image:: images/support-1024x492.jpg
+
+Extended professional support services are available for an annual fee.
+For the commercial support options see `the OPNsense website <https://opnsense.org/support-overview/commercial-support/>`__
 
 Community
 ---------
@@ -17,10 +24,31 @@ To receive community support, the following options are available:
 * The `OPNsense forum <https://forum.opnsense.org>`__
 * Ask online users on `IRC Freenode <https://freenode.net/>`__ #opnsense
 
-Commercial
-----------
 
-.. image:: images/support-1024x492.jpg
+Community Support Levels
+------------------------
 
-Extended professional support services are available for an annual fee.
-For the commercial support options see `the OPNsense website <https://opnsense.org/support-overview/commercial-support/>`__
+Tier 1 – Core (Critical)
+============================================
+* Core team develops and supports,
+* Compiler errors or functional failures block git merges and releases,
+* Functionality is part of the standard installation.
+
+Tier 2 – Plugins (Non-Critical)
+=====================================================
+* Core team develops and supports, sometimes with help from community members
+* Compiler errors or functional failures block git merges,
+* Functionality problems such as 'known issues' or might still going into releases,
+* Features require user to install the plugin / functionality not installed by default.
+
+Tier 3 – Plugins (Community)
+============================
+- Tier 3 is community supported, this means the OPNsense core development team won't support it to avoid overloading the team,
+- When accepting a Tier 3 feature into the code base, it will come with a number of limits and conditions:
+
+  *  Submitter must commit to maintaining it:
+    - make sure code compiles and correctly functions after OPNsense and/or external (e.g. library) changes,
+    - support users when they encounter problems (forum / git issue tracker – all related issues will be assigned to the maintainer).
+- The code is offered as plugin and will not be part of the default OPNsense installation. The OPNsense core team will not be responsible for QA,
+- If the feature get lots of traction, and/or if the team just considers it very useful, it may get 'promoted' to being officially supported (Tier 2),
+- The feature will be removed if the submitter stops maintaining it and no-one steps up to take over.