Hello Allen, thanks for your thoughts. Some from me:
Regarding the treatment of submits to the parts tracker, there's not much difference between
a Wiki and the current implementation: anybody wanting to edit a part can do that (just become an author).
That would be the same on a Wiki. However, the point is: "which methods to you apply to avoid errors?".
In the Wiki, you would have to use some mechanism as well to prevent errors from slipping in.
An example, just from tonight: the origin and orientation of a previously official file got changed:
http://www.ldraw.org/cgi-bin/ptdetail.cg...s/4183.dat
This always can slip in and can only be found if someone reviews the parts.
You would need that process as well in a Wiki-like system, before a part can get released.
Thus, usage of this process cannot be used against or towards the PT or a Wiki.
Regarding the review process, I disagree with you that it hinders us in publishing parts:
Look at the upcoming release: it will include far over 1000 parts,
thus proving the process to be productive.
However, there was a lack of parts releases in the past years. This led to a big todo pile
accumulating on the Parts Tracker. Thanks to Chris' efforts to increase the parts release frequency,
we were able with coordinated power to bring down this pile, look at the history graph:
http://www.ldraw.org/cgi-bin/pthist2.cgi?h=10&i=15
You can clearly see there that the lack of releases has made the mountain grow.
Regarding the treatment of submits to the parts tracker, there's not much difference between
a Wiki and the current implementation: anybody wanting to edit a part can do that (just become an author).
That would be the same on a Wiki. However, the point is: "which methods to you apply to avoid errors?".
In the Wiki, you would have to use some mechanism as well to prevent errors from slipping in.
An example, just from tonight: the origin and orientation of a previously official file got changed:
http://www.ldraw.org/cgi-bin/ptdetail.cg...s/4183.dat
This always can slip in and can only be found if someone reviews the parts.
You would need that process as well in a Wiki-like system, before a part can get released.
Thus, usage of this process cannot be used against or towards the PT or a Wiki.
Regarding the review process, I disagree with you that it hinders us in publishing parts:
Look at the upcoming release: it will include far over 1000 parts,
thus proving the process to be productive.
However, there was a lack of parts releases in the past years. This led to a big todo pile
accumulating on the Parts Tracker. Thanks to Chris' efforts to increase the parts release frequency,
we were able with coordinated power to bring down this pile, look at the history graph:
http://www.ldraw.org/cgi-bin/pthist2.cgi?h=10&i=15
You can clearly see there that the lack of releases has made the mountain grow.