(Excerpts from the Scripting Newswire, Volume 1, Number 7, August 2005)
The Community Scripting Center is On Its Way
Yes, It is About Time, Isn't It?
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Well, it's been a long, hard slog, but we finally have permission to set aside a section of the Script Center to be dubbed the Community Scripting Center. Why call it the Community Scripting Center? Because all the content will be supplied by you, members of the the Scripting Community. For starters, this will be your chance to share scripts with your fellow administrators (and, if you wish, to see your name posted on Microsoft.com to boot!). Later on, we'll add some additional features, including the ability to request specific scripts. But we'll start off by creating a repository of community-supplied scripts, then go from there.
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Funny you should ask. We would love for there to be at least some scripts in the Community Scripting Center when the center makes its debut. (We're still working on the logistics with Microsoft.com, but it should be within the next month.) If you want to send us a script for possible inclusion in the new Community Scripting Center, click here.

In your email message (sorry, early adopters don't get to use the snazzy submission form being developed) please include the script code itself (pasted into the body of the message) and a brief description of the script. Also, if you don't want credit for submitting the script (that is, if you'd rather submit it anonymously), please let us know. Otherwise we'll post your name (but not your email address) for all the world to see.

If you have a bunch of scripts that you'd like to submit then please package those scripts into a .zip file and email them to us. Whatever you do don't try to send .vbs files as email attachments; those files will be removed by our mail server, never to be seen again.

Before you submit a script it would be a good idea to read the Script Submission Guidelines below.

Note that by submitting a script you agree to the following:

Script Submission Agreement
Microsoft does not claim ownership of the scripts or any other items you submit to this web site. By submitting such items, you are granting Microsoft and its affiliated companies the following worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, fully paid-up rights: (1) to make, have made, use, copy, create derivative works of the items, (2) to publicly perform or display, import, broadcast, transmit, distribute (directly and indirectly through multiple tiers), license, offer to sell, and sell, rent, lease or lend copies of the items (and derivative works thereof), (3) to sublicense to third parties the foregoing rights, including the right to sublicense to further third parties, and (4) to publish your name in connection with the items.

By submitting scripts or any other items, you warrant and represent that (1) you own or otherwise control all of the rights to items, including all the rights necessary for you to provide the items and grant the rights described above, and (2) the items are not in whole or in part, governed by an Excluded License. An Excluded License is any license that requires, as a condition of use, modification or distribution of software subject to such license, that such software or other software combined or distributed with such software be disclosed or distributed in source code form, licensed for the purpose of making derivative works, or redistributable at no charge.
No compensation will be paid for any items you submit. Your use of the site is subject to the Terms of Use.
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Of course there are rules and regulations regarding the submission of scripts; this is Microsoft, you know. To begin with, please note that we will not automatically accept and post each script that comes our way. Instead, we will look at each script and decide whether we think it performs a useful task or illustrates an important scripting concept. We'll also decide whether the script is unique or not; we don't want 10 million scripts showing people how to map a network drive. In addition, we'll test each script to ensure that it actually works.

The bottom line: there are no guarantees that your script will be posted.

Beyond that, it's highly-recommended that you keep your scripts to less than 150 lines; scripts longer than that run the risk of being rejected simply because they become much more difficult for us to test. Likewise scripts should perform, at most, two tasks (for example, stop a service and then record the action in the event). Scripts that do hundreds of different tasks are cool, but they're also difficult for us to test. The simpler the better.

Incidentally, scripts can be written using any scripting language; however, if you use some crazy language we've never heard of it might be nice if you'd include a pointer to a spot where we could find a copy of that language. Other than that, have fun, and let's see what we can do to put together the foremost script-sharing center on the planet.

Check that: the foremost script-sharing center in the universe. (We'll take on alternate universes later.)