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').