The argument here is one of semantics.
Canon has two distinct meanings.
Its relevant dictionary usage refers to 'accepted meaning, a standard'.
Its use in fandom circles, refers to works that have received the
official imprimature, generally the officially published works (and
is obviously related to the alternate, but related, meaning of the
term canon as in canon law), and are part of official continuity.
The former is de facto. The latter is de jure. More or less. And its
worth noting that the distinction (and resulting confusion) in this
context is largely a result of modern intellectual property, which
the word predates, hence the overloading of meaning and inevitable
confusiion.
Peter is talking about the first sense. And he is correct. Greg can hope to control what is accepted, and standard, and obviously has the 'bully pulpit' at his disposal if he wishes to force the issue, but ultimately does not control the opinions of all Glorantha fandom with great reliability. And when it comes to comparing an accessible officially published version with Gregs unpublished thoughts, the former is clearly canon in this sense, while the latter is clearly not.
Greg is talking in the second sense. Greg decides what is the official viewpoint. He is the authority (and to some extent has ceded some of that authority to Moon Design). But in this sense, canon can often be useless - Gregs official opinion is often confusing, sometime contradictory, sometimes secret, often undefined or non-existent (sometimes even officially so), occasionally factually wrong, and always subject to change no matter how fundamental you might think it is. And Gregs official opinions are not always the same as Gregs opinions. Usually Greg can manage to make his idea of canon (in the second sense) canon in practice (in the first sense), but its not 100% reliable, and its usually only done by publishing it in a nice accessible form.
In most other intellectual property contexts, the latter is at least usually also the former, and generally the two are largely the same. And you get terminology like 'fanon' for things that are the former but not the latter, because they are unusual. Glorantha is different. What is official. Using the same term to mean two different things that probably should go together, but frequently don't, is only going to lead to confusion and circular arguments.
Its worth noting that there are probably some official things that probably never become canon in the first sense despite being both officially published AND Gregs official opinion. Hero Wars representations of mysticism, for example - even the official rules were not widely accepted as or used as a good representation of Gloranthan mysticism at the time.
Cheers David
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