[MUD-Dev] Re: META: What are you looking for in this list?

[J C Lawrence]

On Wed, 23 Sep 1998 17:38:33 -0700 
Caliban Tiresias Darklock<caliban at darklock.com> wrote:

> On 02:45 PM 9/23/98 -0700, I personally witnessed J C Lawrence
> jumping up to say:

>> MUD-Dev is not meant to be an ivory tower where only the gurus and
>> initiates discuss weighty matters in hushed tones of extreme
>> reverence.

> *blink* Um... okay. ;>

> Seriously, the requirement of "HIGH SIGNAL" makes it look like it
> is, indeed, meant to be at least *something* of an ivory tower. 

<nod> Yes, this would depend on your definition of signal and the
modification which the adjective "high" makes to it (cf high yellow).
For the purpose of list moderation I define "signal" as "applicable
data content" where "data" is defined in the good old "hard data"
school.  Translation: If the post actually communicates something of
value it is signal.  If it doesn't, iti is noise.  Now of course the
definition of value is subjective, but given a fairly inclusive and
broad definition of "MUD Development" we don't seem to have strained
that yet.

> Not necessarily as high as you depict here, but when I first showed
> up on this list I was hesitant to bring up a lot of topics because I
> thought they might be viewed as "noise". 

<nod> Given the off-list mail I've received over the last two days I
cn confirm that you're nowhere near alone in that concern.

> So basically what I'm saying here is, while "high-signal" means
> "on-topic", different people think the topic means different
> things. I would tend to think that this list is intended for "issues
> of interest to MUD developers", which includes a lot of peripheral
> fields that aren't necessarily applicable but are certainly
> interesting -- like the posts we see on online communities and the
> psychology of internet relationships. On the other hand, it could be
> "issues of interest in MUD development", which would include *other*
> peripheral issues, like 3D rendering techniques and client/server
> API definitions. And then there is the possibility of the topic
> being "issues primarily and specifically of interest in MUD server
> construction", which would restrict the discussion to mostly
> language and network protocol concerns.

My definition of the MUD-Dev topic encludes all of the above.  I
consider this very breadth of applicable topic to be one of the more
valuable and potentially critical aspects of this list as it allows
and even encourages rampant cross-pollination and outside-the-box
thinking and solutions.

> What I think we *really* need is a clearly worded topic. ;)

The current topic statement is:

--<cut>--

The MUD Development mailing list is not platform, language or game
specific, but concentrates on discussing the design and implementation
of any and all MUD servers and systems. Another large related topic is
game design. This does not mean that the details of a specific server
or game design point can't be discussed in excruciating detail, or
even that server or game source can't be bandied about and picked
over, just that the list isn't to become a religious stomping ground
for your platform, language, server, or hobby horse of choice. The
topic definition is not limited to technical areas: social
engineering, cultural considerations, applicability of technical
addresses to "soft" problems, and other less rigorous avenues of
investigation are also fair game.

The goal is high signal, low noise. The MUD Development list is NOT an
email version of the rec.games.mud.* newsgroups.

--<cut>--

It is deliberately vague in the exact scope definition.  I agree that
it could be profitably beefed up.

--
J C Lawrence                               Internet: claw at null.net
----------(*)                              Internet: coder at ibm.net
...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...