Oolite Bulletins

OK, so my 'final word' wasn't so final...
Darkbee is right about the mention of this before...I remember having doubts about the Ads at the time...and he's certainly right about the amount of work Vaztr has clearly put in to this project.
Although I somehow seem to have been cast as one of the 'Bad Boys' in this matter, I have always been supportive of the concept, and I hope Vaztr hasn't abandoned this completely because it would be a positive contribution to the community, and could be a valuable resource.
My problem is, perhaps, the way it's been done. This community has always been 'democratic' and based on consensus, and I genuinely feel that had this been discussed in more detail before it went too far, all these objections and problems could have been resolved.
In particular, I do feel that this should have been done more on an 'opt-in' basis, where authors were either invited to participate, or at least were contacted to check inclusion was OK.
Also the early technical problems didn't help.
There has been a lot of discussion about the legalities and licenses of OXPs lately, and I appreciate that many of the OXPs most in need of this type of support might be the more difficult ones to deal with in this respect.
There is no simple solution to this, but a bit of effort would probably have yielded results. And that is the problem with a project like this. Vaztr has already put in a lot of effort compiling the table in the first place, and to expect anyone to contact every single OXP author (assuming they are still around to be contacted) is unreasonable. Perhaps it should have been a more collaborative venture.
So we are left with a now-withdrawn mirror site, a p****d-off member and lots of controversy.
Can we salvage anything from this? I hope so because as I've always maintained this is basically a Good Idea.
If I might make a suggestion - Vaztr, please don't give up on this, but come back and make a request for authors to OK the inclusion of their work in your mirror site. I expect most would happily do this. Think about the Ad issue and see if there is a way round it, perhaps look at the box.net model which I think everyone finds acceptable (as opposed to those download sites that hit you with a giant technicolor pop-up before you download), and just bounce things off the community as you go along.
Your efforts are appreciated, although you may not think so at the moment, and this is too good an idea to let die.

I think if you're going to enact some kind of policy like that, it needs to be clear, concise and universal.

Well said. While each forum has it's own rules regarding this kind of issue, by having it posted in the FAQ section for example, the issue then becomes one of complying with board rules and not personal bias or otherwise.

That being said, I guess you don't know if you need a rule until you do ...

BTW @Vaztr, it was not my intention to recriminate you for your efforts but merely to point out potential problems that might arise. If I came across in a negative or accusatorial way I apologize.

Cheers.

Just to clarify, I'm not pointing the finger at anybody in particular, I just feel a little bit for Vaztr. The intentions were honorable, the execution might have been cleaner, but there was little communication from other corners of the forum so what is to be done.

I think we should all just hug it out and sing songs around a campfire while toasting Laveian tree grubs.

I missed the original discussion and I'm on the board all the time - so I guess I didn't notice it from the Topic - and if I missed it, others will have done too.

Perhaps in future - as well as a suitably titled post a PM to the Moderators/Admins might also be in order - that way - such icky moments can be avoided.

For my part - nil response does not necessarily equate to acquiescence.