Submissions to Compendium...

Howdy all,

        Since this thread is all about some stuff I wrote (namely, the
submission guidelines), I thought I'd jump in and rant...

        First, we all know that the number of submissions to Compendium
has been low.  *Very* low.  As in "handful" low.  And that's over the past
year.  I've of course been wondering why.  Have people lost interest in
SJ?  Did I or the Council piss off everybody?  Is it Compendium's new color
scheme?

        Second, I havn't enjoyed Compendium's existance nearly as much
as I did Beyond the Moons'.  I just don't look forward to diving into those
pages and pages of data anymore.  Was it because there was too much work?
Too much responsibility?  Annoying color scheme?

        After much meditation on the subject, and quite a bit of talking
with various individuals, I've come to a conclusion.  The cause of both
the above problems is the new "process" we've got.

        Back when Jim Butler asked if we (the SJL) had a site we'd like
to be "official", people pointed to BtM.  I was overjoyed!  BtM was my
little baby, and all the work I've put in would have been for something.
The list then wanted a group to manage the site.  I'd been thinking along
the same lines -- I've wanted a group of people to bounce ideas around
with, to help with some of the decision making, and so on -- and so the
Council was born.

        Instead of me choosing people I knew I could work with, there
was a vote, and the members were chosen.  To be all official-like, we
decided on some guidelines for submissions (based heavily on advice from
the Kargatane members).  This is when everything went south.

        Flamewares broke out about what it means to be "official".  People
new to this list were bitching about the "oldtimers" not listening to their
brilliant ideas.  I got messages along the lines of, "Who made you king?
I didn't vote for you."  Then the SJ3e yahoos went off and formed a splinter
group without even contacting the Council -- which the list spent over a
month voting in.

        I've been told that people don't submit material to Compendium
because the guidelines -- i.e. they don't want their hard work to be
judged by some council.  The rest of the nonsense I don't have an answer
for, since I barely understand what's going on.  All I know is this
constant bickering about "officialness", "canon" and the"right and true
way to convert SJ to 3e" has made the setting unfun for me.

        I have a proposal for this list to try and solve some of the
above problems.  Let's drop this elaborate and official process we've
got.  Nobody seems to want it -- not even me, and I wrote the damned thing!
Compendium will follow a pattern closer to BtM (i.e. people send me stuff,
or I find cool stuff, and it gets posted).  Some of the material needs to
get past WotCs name brand gurus (the guys who'll tell us when we stray (:),
but there'll be no official judging process.  The council will still exist
in some form, but mostly to help keep me on track.

        What does everybody think?  I'd prefer to have a discussion
of ways to solve all the above issues -- I can't do it alone -- instead
of simple, "Yeah go for it," posts.  Show me that you guys care.  I'm
starting to get the feeling nobody does anymore... :(

-Static

p.s.  No more submissions until all this is resolved...

p.p.s.  Rian, I'll get in touch with you in private email about your stuff.

--
                Grrr, arg.

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