On Thu, Aug 17, 2000 at 11:06:55AM +0100, Ian Clarke wrote:
<> 
> I am well aware that it is important not to over-sell ourselves for
> reasons of professional integrity (something all-to-easily forgotten
> in this day and age, particularly when you spend all of your time
> talking to the media as I now seem to), but we must be cautious not
> to under-sell our work either when there are so many people willing
> to describe essentially stupid ideas as the "next big thing" (do I
> hear "push" technology?).

I'm not against people using Freenet, or for that matter the attention we
are getting (ok, I worry a little over the attention, I just can't seem to
recall any successful technologies that were all over the papers before
they had anything real to show for it making it in the end), and I don't
normally object. The issue only comes up when we start talking about
compatibility issues - I refuse to sell short quality and flexibility by
making commitments about keeping compatibility when so much is still up in
the air.

If anything Push should stand as an example of that it doesn't matter how
much press something get's if the technology isn't there to back it
up. The most important thing if we want to succeed is that we have a
system that works, and does so well. Everything else is secondary.

One of the biggest advantages that Free software projects have over
commercial ones is that they are allowed to take the time they need. The
press doesn't get that and love to write articles like "Kernel 2.4 delayed
again - is Linux in trouble?" and "Mozilla is dead" but we know better. In
six months the press will be saying "Freenet is dead" but it doesn't
matter: they are not what we are about.

I don't envy you your position in the middle of this media debacle. I
sincerely hope you are better then I would be at keeping your distance and
being able to laugh at it when it all blows over.

> 
> Ian.



-- 
\oskar
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