Let us De-fuse

[Karol Boyle <karol@...>]

Hi Eric (& list),

I'm sorry the contest post upset you & also that you feel folks are not
being as nice as they should - everyone has bad days, haven't we all been
guilty of being more negative than positive at points in our lives.  This
group, I believe, was created for folks to have a place to come and share
their ideas about piecepack games, give each other positive support and
constructive feedback - we are fortunate to be a part of this most awesome
community, let's not lose sight of that or that there are folks on the other
ends of the posts and be more gentle with each other. Everyone here is a
valuable asset to the piecepack community and should be treated as such, in
my opinion. (those that have left were also assets and I wish they hadn't)

Generally speaking, Eric, I admire your energy and enthusiasm. Sometimes I
get upset too (I can relate!), I try to stay away from email and lists until
I cool off - if I don't I am apt to feel like a Donkey later 'cause most of
the time I just misread the post! (& then stress out about that!) - that's
me though.

Now about the contest post:
If folks set their emails to view older message first, no one would see any
replies before they read the original post. As stated in the contest rules
Phillip was well within his rights as judge. It's not up to Dave and myself
(MG), or James (Glastyn Games) to decide this for the judges. [James - kick
me if I'm out of line in speaking for you here!]

Phillip emailed me with his decision and asked for the list of names to go
with the games - at that point, I knew I would be out of the office when the
post hit and I asked him to add a note from me to his post so folks would
know what to expect.

I hesitated to write this b/c I think that politics should be left out of
gaming where possible but ultimately I think it should be said with the
understanding that I LOVE helping with these contests and that I very much
enjoy everything that I am about to list:

If anyone should or would have had a problem with the contest announcement
being posted earlier than the target date it should have been me (in this
case), when the announcement is made my work begins: Dave has to schedule
time to update the website, I go to work re-formatting the games for the MG
rulebook and for posting to the piecepack site in many cases, sending PDFs
back to authors, asking for permission to post, asking if I can help them,
requesting their games, etc. Upon reading the email from Phillip, I looked
at my busy calendar and thought "well, this adds more work to this week but
less for next, cool beans - let's roll" It has been a pleasure to work with
Phillip on this contest and I am certain had I asked him to wait he would
have.

I do think that Clark should take as much time as he needs to develop the
next contest if he chooses to do so (recall the contest rules state that the
winner doesn't have to judge the next contest) that everyone should be glad
the games will be posted sooner rather than later and that the authors
should get those games approved &/or sent in.

Let's be happy!!

Thanks for reading - I'm getting off my soap box now - hopefully I haven't
made anyone upset.

Karol (posting as an individual and not as a rep of either organization)