RE: [Mystara D20] #3 - A Resurrection and A Revolution
Jenni Merrifield
(Sorry to Mystara d20 members who get this twice through that address, bit it isn’t showing up on the group discussion list area for some reason, so I’m trying again.)
------
The short answer is, unfortunately, yes. It really didn't work too well as a democracy, as far as producing actual material went. Longer answer follows.
At first the M3E project was a "pure" or direct democracy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Democracy), but we didn't actually produce any output during this phase. Development was frequently bogged by endlessly circling discussions, arguments and counter-arguments for and against different options. Trying to get members to vote on ideas was frequently unhelpful and/or biased due to low turnout and/or having many members of a vocal minority vote. A direct democracy also tends to end up with results that shy away from what are percieved as "risky extremes" in favour of the safe middle road and, really, who wants a bland, middle of the road, version of Mystara?
Partway through the first project, we switched from a direct democracy to what was, effectively, an oligarchy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligarchy) despite my honourary title as "Benevolent Dictator." That is, decisive power now rested with a small "elite" development group selected from among the most active members of the main membership. There we discussed topics, made decisions, going to the main list for insight only when we found it difficult to reach a consensus among our selves. This actually worked quite well at first - what was produced by the project and published online came from this period. However, as time went on, it was harder and harder to keep everyone on the developer team equally interested and engaged in the project (including myself!). This was partly due to those miscellaneous personal life issues that everyone has to deal with, but was also due to the fact that not everyone on the team was interested in developing the same things. The result is that some members would drift away when the team was working on a topic that didn't enthuse them, until no one was really working on anything at all.
Because I didn't really have complete authority, I did feel that I should not post things to the site until it has been officially approved by the development team. And yet, even then, sometimes, I would post things that I thought we had approved but the rest of the team felt otherwise or where my understanding of the details turned out to be different from what the rest of the team understood. This depressed me and, no doubt, depressed the other developers too. Then life issues seriously got in the way of me fixing up any of these issues (some of which, quite honestly, I didn't/don't actually think should be "fixed") and the project just sort of faded away into nothingness.
Well, I still want to see a well developed d20 version of Mystara and, since I own the web space, designed the web site and maintain the content, I could just go ahead and do whatever I want to it. But I don't think that's really the best way to do things either. I think the Mystara community really should have a hand in the development of a significant and coherent d20 Mystara. I just want to feel ... comfortable... if I feel the need to put a foot down and make any educated but otherwise arbitrary decisions just to get something "Out There" - hence the "liberal autocracy" theme. In general, I don't plan to be autocratic unless faced with a situation that needs a good boot in the right direction and where I feel strongly enough about it to want to pick and then enforce a solution.
Hope that answers your question and allays your concerns more or less satisfactorily.
:-J(enni)
PS: Yes, "Vote of Confidence" does actually translate into English. We use exactly the same phrase, and I appreciate that you have given me yours. :-)
jenni merrifield -- jenni.me...@jamm.com
~~~~~
Designing to requirements
And walking on water
Are easy if both are frozen.
From: myst...@yahoogroups.com on behalf of
Vinicius R. de Moraes
Sent: Thu 6/7/2007 9:36 AM
To: myst...@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [mystara3E] A Resurrection and A Revolution
Why did you decide to change the philosophy?
Didn't it work well as a
"democracy"? I'm worried, truly. But I've been liking your work for
som
many years that I'll give you a "vote of confidence" (we say that in
Portuguese, dunno whether this makes sense in English or not...)
I'm sending an e-mail to mystara-d2...@egroups.com,
hope it works.
Curious,
Vini
Jenni Merrifield wrote:
> To All current members of the Mystara-3E Yahoo Group:
>
>
>
> This note is to let you know two things:
>
>
>
> 1) The Mystara 3E web site, which has been down for almost a whole
> year, is back up at http://www.mystara.jamm.com/.
>
>
>
> 2) I'm in the slow process of resurrecting the conversion efforts
> that many of us worked on and which went into this site. However, I'm
> taking a decidedly different tact this time around: Essentially, I'm
> staging a coup over the "old guard" where I was the BD
(Benevolent
> Dictator) and have declared myself to be OGL (Our Glorious Leader)
> instead. ;-)
>
>
>
> The new project will effectively be managed as a Liberal Autocracy -
> many participate but final authority lies with a single individual.
> Ergo, I want (and, in fact, encourage) other Mystara-philes to
> participate in the project because good ideas are more likely to become
> great ideas when developed, reviewed and constructively criticised by
> interested and knowledgeable people, but this time the game will be
> played in my sandbox and, at the end of the day, the bucket and shovel
> go home with me. (Or, in other worlds, the insight, advice and
> suggestions from anyone with a love for Mystara and an enjoyment of the
> d20 system will be welcomed gladly, but what is eventually posted on
> (what will eventually become) the Mystara D20 web site will, ultimately,
> be determined by my choices.)
>
>
>
> Anyone who is interested in participating in the resurrection of a
> Mystara to d20 conversion and who is willing to do so under the rules of
> my new "regime" can make a membership request at the new Mystara
d20
> Group (http://groups.google.ca/group/mystara-d20).
I hope I will hear
> from a few of you, especially those of you (you know who you are) who
> were especially involved in the original project.
>
>
>
> Jenni A.M. Merrifield
>
> OGL, Mystara d20
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Jenni A.M. Merrifield
> | walking on water and
> | designing to requirements are easy
> | so long as both are frozen
>
> design - development - usability
> user experience specialist
> software engineer
>
__._,_.___
Community email addresses:
Post message: myst...@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe: mystara3E...@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe: mystara3E-...@yahoogroups.com
List owner: mystara...@yahoogroups.com
URL to group web page:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mystara3E
URL to Mystara 3E Web Site: http://mystara3e.starflung.com/index.html
Change
settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch
delivery to Daily Digest | Switch
format to Traditional
Visit
Your Group | Yahoo! Groups
Terms of Use | Unsubscribe
SPONSORED LINKS
.
__,_._,___