[559] in Coldmud discussion meeting

A few points..

daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Tue Nov 8 00:07:22 1994 )

From: Alex Stewart <riche@crl.com>
To: coldstuff@MIT.EDU
Date: Mon, 7 Nov 1994 21:01:41 -0800 (PST)
Cc: jbb@homer.ncm.com

Ok, first of all I should point out that I've gotten significantly behind on my
mail the past couple of days and consewuently I haven't even managed to read
through all of the stuff that's been sent to this list yet, but there are a few
things I want to say before I forget..

First of all, Colin, could you please go back and read the list before you post
messages like your "ToDo or not ToDo" one?  The bulk of your message was
dealing with stale issues that've been resolved some time back.  As for
Jordan's work, I HAVE BEEN working with him ever since I found out he was still
interested in working on this whole thing..

As for the perception held by you and a couple of other people regarding my To
Do List, I would like to point out a couple of things:

1.  Items on the "To Do" section and the "Up For Discussion" section were not
put there because I had somehow decided in some divine fashion that certain
things will be done regardless of how people felt about them (if this was the
case I simply would havve done them instead of posting about them) and some
wouldn't, but rather the points in the "To Do" section were largely put there
based on the fact that according to feedback on this list at the point they
were proposed, there was no major opposition to them and everyone seemed to
agree that they should be implemented.  If anything decided that something you
despise ended up on that list it was primarily your failure to speak up when it
was proposed.

2.  I have not appointed myself "God of ColdMUD" or any such thing.  At the
time I posted that list the information I had at my disposal said that nobody
else was doing work on the server (I'm not sure what kind of miscommunication
went on between me and Jordan, as it has since become apparent that he is still
quite interested in working on it), and so I simply offered my services to
implement several of the features that some people had been asking for.

3.  I suspect some people have also confused my role as "ColdMUD Coordinator"
with my role as an active member of the ColdMUD community.  It is not my desire
to fashion ColdMUD into Richelieu's Server.  Throughout this process I have
been making an attempt to get everyone's opinion regarding proposed changes and
attempt to work from general consensus regarding what changes will be made to
the server.  I, of course, also have my own desires as to what will and won't
be done, but if you'll note, I have been arguing my points on an equal footing
with everyone else instead of simply going ahead and doing my own thing.  In my
opinion those aspects of the list which are currently being discussed are not
resolved and will not be implemented until they are one way or the other, and
my "vote" is not any more significant than anyone else's.

As it is, Jordan is still involved in this whole thing, and in my opinion is
quite capable, and so I am quite willing to work with him to acheive desired
goals in this department (particularly since I often have more desire than time
anyway).  Admittedly, I should probably have worked on clearing things up
somewhat as soon as I found out that Jordan was still active, but at this
point, the situation as I see it is that there are several people interested in
working on the server, and instead of being the ColdMUD developer, I am
perfectly willing to be a ColdMUD developer and the ColdMUD coordinator.  As
such I will work to help coordinate efforts between developers and integrate
changes which everyone agrees are worthwhile into a common server development.

I do believe that development does need to continue (there are still things the
server simply cannot do, for one thing), but I also believe that fragmentation
could be the downfall of ColdMUD altogether if not handled right.  I also
believe that discussion amongst a decent number of people is the best way to
ensure that one isn't making a big mistake, which is why I've always made a
point to post my proposals and ask for comments before planning to go ahead
with them and why I've also tried to make a point to go with the general
consensus, regardless of how I feel, when one is made.

-R

PS: I will be leaving for a couple of weeks on Friday (the 11th) to do all
kinds of roaming across the country and visiting people and participating in a
conference and such.. I should have net access but may not have a lot of time
during the whole thing..  just in case anyone needs to know why I'm not
participating much or being kinda slow to respond to my mail..  I'll be back on
the 28th..
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Alex Stewart - riche@crl.com - Richelieu @ Diversity University MOO
              ftp://ftp.crl.com/users/ro/riche/html/riche.html