They are words, and the things that the mean are relevant here. If they are bound up in specific contexts for you then I don't know what to tell you. Even artisanal projects can benefit from prioritisation of work, and re-examination of the priorities from time to time.
> By profession, I'm a programmer. I've also been a contributor to an open
> source software project, so I've seen the other side. I've seen people
> turn up, stated how things should or should not be, and criticised the
> hard work of others, but contributed nothing. At best these people are
> politely ignored. As they should be.
If Glorantha was an open source project then I might consider this point of view. It just isn't though.
Maintaining the external semblance of a "professional" or "closed shop" operation creates certain expectations. You might wonder if anyone thought this about the producers but I can assure you that *I* did. I was faintly horrified to hear that people were compensated only unofficially for their contributions of time and effort. I never connected this model of production with Moon Design because their visible practices did not seem to be those of a fan-based, volunteer-driven, artisanal approach to creating content. This weird hybrid confuses me, and I expect that it confuses others too.
I also find the implication you make that any criticism should be
ignored to be vaguely offensive. However I prefer my offense to be
constant and obvious so I principally use IGQ as my fix for this. I am
somewhat at a loss about how I could have indicated my desire to
participate without writing 50,000 words and sending them off into the
ether with high hopes or without already having an established
relationship, painstakingly earned over seventeen conventions, with a
member of the production team.
You can't offer a closed door and then say "Well why didn't anyone come in?".
> Arguably, every e-mail written by David Dunham, Jeff Richards or Rick
> Meints about the HQ2 project, and the publication of the Continuum draft
> rules, were all resources expended on expectations management.
I grant that - and I go on to *say* that there could have been, *imply* that their should have been, and *hope* that in future there will be, more than that.
-- John Machin "Nothing is more beautiful than to know the All." - Athanasius Kircher, 'The Great Art of Knowledge'.
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