[MUD-Dev] distributed objects

[J C Lawrence]

On Mon, 14 Feb 2000 10:33:13 -0800 
F Randall Farmer <randy at communities.com> wrote:

> I'm going to be terse in my reply, based on the senior level of
> postings to this list. 

Writing as list owner (and without picking on you Randy):

  While we have a number of very capable people on the list, people
in the industry, people who have made well known contributions to
field, people who are extremely competent in their fields, the
simple fact is that they are far far outnumbered on the list by less
well known and variously competent individuals.  MUD-Dev membership
is not far under 700 right now.  I'll let you guess how small a
percentage work for a commercial gaming company or are "senior"
(whatever that means) programmers, game designers, or <whatever>.

  It is a question of audiences.  A very large part of the audience
of MUD-Dev are not quite so masterful of their fields and are trying
very hard to keep up and understand, and to take something away from
this list that they can use on their home project, class project,
their thesis, their VC-funded startup, or just the server they run
with or for a bunch of friends.  This is a Good Thing, and needs to
be actively encouraged and supported.  

  The negative side however is that we also have a great many people
who feel over-awed and out of their depth without ever a possible
hope of swimming.  The traffic on the list is just too far over
their heads.

  I don't want to lose those people; the vaunted "experts", the
wannabes, or the hangers on.  I realise that this is having my cake
and trying to eat it too, but if we can write our messages so that
both ends of the spectrum can have a __chance__ of grokking the
discussion, we all benefit: in effects on the outside field, in more
intelligent and educated members of the list who can usefully
contribute to the list, and more insidiously by the simple fact that
explaining one's view (or problem) in simple detail often reveals
flaws, insights, and implications that were not previously observed.
(There's quite a history of, "Oops!  I didn't notice that."  posts
in the archives along this last line).

  So, let's help out the people still climbing the ladder, help
ourselves at the same time, and, umm, try and spread the wealth of
the list a little more widely.

--
J C Lawrence                                 Home: claw at kanga.nu
----------(*)                              Other: coder at kanga.nu
--=| A man is as sane as he is dangerous to his environment |=--


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