Re: [Wesnoth-dev] On the recent arguments over art... (long)

[James Spencer]

I don't intend to belabour this any more than I have to. I have no
intention of leaving Wesnoth over this and I deeply hope that Jetryl
doesn't either. He is without a doubt one of the most skilled and
prolific currently active unit art developers. I respect his right as
a developer to edit whatever sprites in the game he sees fit, in
whatever way he sees fit, with a minimum of harassment (so long as he
retains a certain minimal level of receptiveness to his fellow
developers). I respect his right to be the final say on all sprite
updates. I also fully respect his right to produce whatever art he
sees fit, with a minimum of harassment (and he doesn't even have to
pretend to retain a certain minimal level of receptiveness here) and
to present it to the 'community'. I extend (and argue for) this same
courtesy for all 'producers' be they developer or not.

As far as the structure of Wesnoth development goes... Do what you can
(and want to) in your area, go to the list for everything else, is a
good system. But after you've done what you want (IMHO):
-You should do due diligence (especially when operating beyond your
own mandate) and find out what issues will arise from your changes.
(Bugs happen, that's life, but nobody should have to feel like a
'janitor' because certain 'bugs' irritate the living Bejeebus out of
them.)
-When you change something you (especially when it affects the work of
others) you should be prepared to address everything that a change
touches in a very short time frame. This may greatly slow the initial
commit, but it doesn't lead to the perception of 'brokenness' by
others.
-When you obsolete something it should be your job to propogate that
obsoleting throughout the CVS tree in a timely manner. 'Residual data'
should then be nominated for removal by you in a couple of releases.

To be fair it wasn't right of me to call Jetryl on the quality of him
implementation. Also Jetryl did suggest that I fix the 'drake halos'
only, and I agreed. But from my perspective:
-I'm on the public record as the last person to touch the Drakes.
-My name is on the CVS log for the Drakes.
-I wasn't confident that if I said 'no' that said changes would get
done before a release.
-Broken Drakes would reflect poorly on me [at least in my own mind],
and I'd rather not have people come looking for me. I hate the
perception of 'brokeness' [I MEAN I REALLY REALLY HATE IT, I THINK I
MIGHT HAVE A VERY REAL PROBLEM]
-This effectively left me in a position where I found it very hard to
say 'eat your own dog food'. I probably harboured resentment about
this. It's stupid and I shouldn't have, I apologise.

On The Different Philosophical Camp in the Wesnoth World:
Yes, there are different philosophical camps within the Wesnoth
development community. That's why we need the "consensus with an
arbiter" model we have [I'm glad I'm not Dave :) ] That being said,
these differences have to be acknowledged as 'real' and 'legitimate'
NOT as the byproduct of the 'Psychological Misconstruction' of those
who dissent.

After something goes into a release, as a matter of courtesy and
solidarity, most developers are rather limited in what they can say in
public venues. So things have to get said here.

On Patronage & Opportunities for Prove Contributors as a Method of
Developer Retention:
-Yes, it is good to reach out to 'new talent'. (Gee, now I'm feeling
bad about not getting around to testing Shadow's Lv. 3 Drake) This
outreach should not be to 'the detriment' of Wesnoth. I don't think
anybody would say that upgrading the artwork for the 'Runmaster' that
is in the game with Shadows work would be a bad idea. I'll go a step
further and say that I think his line of 'Dwarves with guns' should
also be considered for inclusion as a replacement for the thunderer
line (with appropriate edits as Jetryl sees fit). Outreach for new and
skilled contributors should not extend to 'the addition of things just
because'.

I have no desire to go any further with this (and I have a deep
preference to just let it drop), and would like to wish Jeryl well in
his future endeavours (and I very much hope that these will be under
the banner of 'Wesnoth').