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Subject: 
Re: Am I the only person who finds Lego CAD systems infuriating?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto
Date: 
Thu, 1 Sep 2005 07:08:33 GMT
Viewed: 
648 times
  
In lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto, Calum Tsang wrote:
In lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto, Richie Dulin wrote:

It’s easy to mock the 'administrivia and committees'. Doing so mocks the people
who serve on the committees, the people who establish them, the people who vote
for or appoint them, the people who support them, and the work that they do.

Yes and?

Exactly. It's easy to mock. I've mocked committees before. Heck, I thought the
LPRC was an April Fools joke - and look how right I was about that.

It’s easy to imply that the 'administrivia and committees' get in the way of
improving functionality. I would ask, can that argument be turned on its
head? Is it possible that the lack of appreciation of the importance of
'administrivia' and lack of support for the committees is poisoning the
atmosphere and driving people who might meaningfully contribute away, in turn
delaying the development of the basic usability?

Listen, any rtlToronto member will clearly tell you I'm the most administrative
of anyone here.  I administrate for a living.    I just came home from a 10 hour
stretch of administrating. :)  So don't get me wrong, I believe in
administration as much as anyone.  I just don't believe your typical online fan
enthusiast organization needs these committees as much as they think they do.

But the point of enthusiast organisation committees is that they think they need
them. If they didn't think they needed them, then they wouldn't have them.

But I'll say up front, my lack of respect for these committees ain't keeping
them from effectively building more usable tools.

So you say. Why not try respecting them a little and seeing if things improve?
Things are hardly going to get better whilst you and I sit back and heap scorn
on them.

That's because those
committees have zero power in actually making the tools any better:  It's up to
the actual program authors to do such a thing.  Unless those committees can
direct developers to make direct changes (eg, direct pipe to the development
channel) to user interface, anything else is just putting "lipstick on the pig"
(eg, tutorials, as helpful as they are).

Frankly, if I had spent years writing "CTCAD" or "CDraw", the last thing I would
do was to agree to implement anything the LDraw Committee of Something or Other
"voted" me to do.

Then don’t ‘give’ it to the community. Keep it yours and share it as you wish,
but when you tire of it, or move on or whatever, give it to the community. Let a
committee run with it. Why kill it yourself when you can let a committee do it?

And therein lies the rub:  You can't product manage volunteer
developers, especially not in something most don't really prioritize or
understand (user interface) well anyways.

I can only point the last three news items on the LDraw.org website news sidebar
as a hint as to what's I think they do on these committees.

-snip ‘administrivia’ on committees-

Maybe I'm missing something.

Yes, maybe you are. Maybe you’re missing real first hand knowledge of the hard
work that goes on. Have you run for the committee? Do you browse the archives
looking for more than threads supporting administrivia theories and mocking
committees like I do?

Also the Steering Committee archives are not public, so when you’re looking at
the archives, you’re looking at the administrative threads that support the real
work, not at the real work itself – work which can’t go on without the
administrative support.

But, as you say, maybe you’re missing something.

Cheers

Richie Dulin



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Am I the only person who finds Lego CAD systems infuriating?
 
(...) HEY! i was on that "joke" as you call it. and we were VERY SLOWLY making inroads as to where to go. I mean a motion was tabled, someone took charge. items were discussed. I think the LPRC served a purpose and had an outcome that I was pleased (...) (19 years ago, 1-Sep-05, to lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto)  

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Am I the only person who finds Lego CAD systems infuriating?
 
(...) Yes and? (...) Listen, any rtlToronto member will clearly tell you I'm the most administrative of anyone here. I administrate for a living. I just came home from a 10 hour stretch of administrating. :) So don't get me wrong, I believe in (...) (19 years ago, 1-Sep-05, to lugnet.org.ca.rtltoronto)

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