Dave’s shut it down.
So I’m shutting down Scripting News now, to give me some time to think, and to give you all a demo of what it would be like if it weren’t here. These last few days have been really awful. You can’t imagine what it’s like to have so many people screaming at you. It’s inhuman, especially considering that my health isn’t that good. The only conclusion I can come to is that I shouldn’t be doing this.
You know… I don’t like seeing people feel bad. But the current situation came about in part because people felt Dave was using Scripting News in order to unduly affect certain technical issues. Retreating is one way to say “OK, I’ll stop.” I’m not sure Dave’s gonna get the desired effect here.
Also, as a technologist (and as someone who’s recommended Dave’s protocols in a business setting), watching a site vanish does not give me warm fuzzies. Sure, it’s still there as http://scriptingnews.userland.com/, so I can still get to archived posts and so forth. But man, how do you rely on a spec which can vanish at any moment?
Pensive times.
3 Comments
And Dave’s brought it back up again.
As a non-techie, is all this foofaraw, throwing of tantrums, name-calling etc. par for the course when establishing standards?
It is somewhat unusual. Often there’s some tumult but it’s generally internal.
I personally feel that much of the problem is that Dave’s decided not to use any of the traditional standards tracks. He’s also not so great about feedback. Thus, the specs that he writes don’t benefit from multiple people examining them for potential flaws.
It’s hard to establish a standard single-handedly.
So far, the best thing to come out of the RSS/Echo brouhaha is that i found you (and your blog)! Saw your comment on Six Log.
Love,
John