[r-t] bits and pieces

[Don Morrison]

On Sun, Jul 27, 2008 at 4:55 AM, Mark Davies <mark at snowtiger.net> wrote:
> Robin writes,
>
>> In general, if everyone knows and understands Decision (D)E, then there
>> should be no problem! The PA committee has 'analysed' peals containing
>> Dixon's and we might suppose that its successor, the PR committee, will
>> carry on this practice.
>
> Method libraries, Robin, method libraries.

And don't forget that the PA Committee (now RR Committee) has analysed
only those peals the RW has deigned to print under the heading
"peals".

It's a lovely fantasy world where "there should be no problem". The
reason for all the noise is that there is a problem. The Council,
through its various committees and other substructure, apparently does
not understand Decision (D)E the same way you would have us understand
it.

I agree wholeheartedly with you that it should not be necessary to
change the Decisions every time somebody wants to experiment with
something new, possibly only once. But the Council, by its actual
behaviour, forces the ringing community to do just that. Based on its
behavior in cognate cases I have no doubt that had a band rung a peal
containing what the Council now calls differential hunters done so
before setting in motion the changes to the Decisions to accommodate
them, their efforts would have been classed as miscellaneous
performances, not analysed, and not resulted in any methods being
published in the method collections. In this example it is also worth
noting that differential hunters were rung in peals many years before
the Decision changes allowed them, and these older peals have not been
recognized, analysed or had their methods included as first class
citizens in the method collections.

If the Council does not want folks insisting on Decision changes for
every little experiment they try, possibly even ones that may only be
rung once, it's got to stop punishing those that don't demand Decision
changes before ringing something new.



-- 
Don Morrison <dfm at ringing.org>
"The greatest obstacle to discovering the shape of the earth,
the continents, and the oceans was not ignorance, but the
illusion of knowledge."    -- Daniel Boorstin, _The Discoverers_