Contributing (was Re: Tunes Membership Policy)

[Brian T Rice]

This is the perennial question. The answer is generally to try to
formulate something helpful, whether it's an idea or a set of review on
the (http://cliki.tunes.org/) CLiki Tunes area. Contributing something
useful to Tunes requires a lot of learning and preparation. It seems that
Fare organized his explanations defensively for years to avoid criticism,
and instead wound up with people (even core members) who didn't understand
the project for years. I want to change this, and that has some
significant implications.

Basically, you're going to have to really work on something and formulate
some conclusion out of it which does not duplicate previously stated
results on the Tunes web site. Elaboration is often the new member's
easiest target, but they often mess up the execution royally by not
bothering to really comprehend the idea. I'd love to sit down and explain
the ideas to each and every person, but we only have so much time here, so
you'll simply have to work this out for yourself.

If it matters, realize that I knew about Tunes in 1995 and expressly
_avoided_ joining and instead spent a few years intensely studying the
site and ideas surrounding it. Only then did I join the mailing list, and
only a few years after that did I take the steps that occurred in the last
year or so. I am not expecting as much out of anyone else as I have
volunteered, but I do not condone making suggestions here without spending
effort to really appreciate everything that's been arranged to make Tunes
a coherent set of ideas. My "rebuke" to Ulrich Hobelmann was based on this
standard, and not on any judgement against him.

Can you accept this?

On Thu, 20 Feb 2003, David Scott Williams, web wrote:

> How can I contribute to tunes to justify adding my name to the
> list?  I am interested, but haven't yet found where I should be
> contributing.
>
> ~Dave