A Suggestion Re: Shipping

[Dan Gould]

I know that some participants have complained about new BFTs arriving too quickly, not having time to give them the proper attention.

On the other hand, other would be compilers have noted that they may anticipate shipping sometime in the first Kerry Administration, at the earliest.

Our current compiler, EKE, ended up shipping a bit early, and this makes me think:

Since compilers know how close there turn is and therefore have plenty of time to think about their discs and get ready in advance, is there any terrible loss to soliciting addresses further in advance and shipping further in advance? While people may have more than one "new" BFT in hand, it would also give them more time to do their listening prior to the actual start of the discussion.

If we understand that compilers ONLY start discussion threads, then I think we could keep things straight, while actually giving everyone more time to listen before discussions start, and also keep things moving so that we can move steadily through the list and people won't wait quite so long to get their shot.

Thoughts?

[Big Al]

Seeing as how my turn isn't gonna be until the first Kerry administration, I like this idea!

[MartyJazz]

My turn doesn't come up until the first Hillary administration

but it sounds like a good idea to me.

[RDK]

No problems with that. Shipping - especially internationally - is so unpredictable. One of the guys in Germany got the disc I sent him in three days. For others it took two weeks. (A couple of others didn't get them at all).

It is important, though, as Dan said, that only the compiler start the discussion thread.