[ale] Access problems

[denethor]

Hi all. this is the first time i posted to this list, I am running linux
light on my server at work, which happens to be my mud server. I have
two coders in the states who needs write access to the source code in
order to better the mud. My problem arises in that I can't seem to give
them access other than read only. I log in as myself, then I type in su
(for the super user) which logs me in as the Administrator (or so I was
told). I want a complete directory, which has sub-directories in it,
with files in those subdirectories, to have write access for my friends
in the states. the command I give is

chmod a+rwx /home/dist

the directory I want access to is the dist dir.

but for some reason, it doesn't give them write access.

any ideas?

thanks
denethor