[Discuss] Speculations

[Timothy Collett]

On Aug 17, 2006, at 12:25 PM, Anthony Anderson wrote:

>> Either, you have to tell us the answers, or we'll speculate about  
>> what they are.
>
> He doesn't have to do anything, Thomas.  The sooner you realize  
> that, the sooner you'll stop pissing him off.

Obviously he doesn't *have* to tell us.  He doesn't *have* to fix  
bugs, keep the game running, or tell us when he adds new features or  
fixes (or introduces) new bugs.  However, if he does not, then  
speculation is the only way we have of figuring anything out.

Furthermore, until the past few weeks, Tom wasn't responding to the  
list at all for a couple of months.  Even now, he's not writing as  
much as he used to (possibly just because he's only on the modded  
list).  We, as a community, have had to figure stuff out on our own,  
and unless Tom is planning to devote his full time to BattleMaster  
(which I wouldn't expect or ask of him), we'll probably have to  
figure some stuff out on our own in the future, too.

Human nature being what it is, we will *always* try to figure out  
*why* things are happening.  Trying to stop that is like trying to  
stop the tide.

That's not to say I don't sympathize with the problem; I, too, have  
had to convince people that their long-held beliefs were not true in  
several cases (often when Tom has said clearly that something is the  
case, but people aren't subscribed to the list).  It's a problem, and  
it can be very annoying.  However, a) you cannot stop human beings  
from speculating, and b) just saying it on the discussion list is not  
very useful, as an awful lot of speculation goes on within the game  
itself, and on the various IRC channels we frequent, and, I would  
imagine, in conversations on MSN and other chat networks.  In fact,  
speculation that goes on on the discussion-list is probably the best  
kind, as Tom can then see people's mistaken though processes, and  
correct them before it gets too far (assuming the mods are keeping up  
with the postings).

Timothy Collett
Anaris Family

--

For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple,  
and wrong.
-- H L Mencken