You live and learn

From: Peter Ramos <primarch_at_...>
Date: Sat, 1 Jun 2002 08:31:59 -0400

Hi!

You live and you learn. There's always something new to think about when
a revision is done, some of the previous ones have taught me that. IN
this particular one the lesson is "do we need a revision" and if so "how
to do it".

I'm always for revisions. Nothing's ever perfect for me, or good as is.
But that's just me and maybe some others. Truth is a lot of people are
content with 4.1, that's fine. But also a lot of people are not content,
that's fine too.

It's odd the notions that have popped up on how we do things. It's not
true that everything that has been incorporated in the past has been
tested. Mostly everything has been put in and tested afterwards, then
accepted or discarded. Of course it entered as an optional idea,
although it may not have gotten that label. One provision I gave for
this revision was to lift restrictions on adding optional stuff and just
let anything be added since it's optional. Maybe that is a problem too.

The word "beta" has been thrown a lot around which got me thinking. Well
finish what we have started and call the whole thing a beta version and
the let the months and years determine its worth. Let people use it and
evaluate it then at some point in the future we'll determine what stays
or goes. Not that this varies on what we have been doing all along, but
it lends it some "officiality" in the sense that a newer version is a
test drive until the day it's no longer a "test".

One must understand that after 5 years the list and its people have
evolved just as much as the list. Now we have "conservatives" and we
have "radicals". Quite funny when you think about it, but it's a natural
extension of what we do. We are no longer "new". We have lasted longer
than what most GW rules do. We support a wider base and people get used
to what we have so we must me more cautious on what we change or not.

So to approach things more "professionally" we'll do what most do and
release a beta version of the rules to be tested and re-evaluated at a
later date. If later it's decided we keep the old and new version fine,
or if one or the other is kept fine too.

Put your fears to rest and enjoy the ride.

Peter
Received on Sat Jun 01 2002 - 12:31:59 UTC