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Re: What do you win by moving things to non-free?



Wouter Verhelst wrote:
> > >* The Invariant Section is retained, but another Invariant Section
> > >  containing a rebuttal is added to the document. This would a) look
> > >  silly, and b) be a beginning of Invariant Section bloat, in which a
> > >  document could consist of 10% Invariant Sections, 60% rebuttals to
> > >  Invariant Sections, and 30% of actual, useful, documentation.
> > 
> > I do not think this option is as bad as you make it sound.
> 
> The fact that there is a need for a rebuttal, in the first place, is
> already a sign that something is very wrong.

I don't argue with that. But when we explain why the GFDL is bad, we
shouldn't exaggerate problems, any more than we should try to play them
down.

 
> > There is no need for the rebuttal to be made invariant, and the
> > rebuttal could just be a brief note explaining that the invariant
> > section refers to a situation which has gone away.
> 
> Well, yeah, in the specific example I gave. Consider the possibility
> that the original section refers to a situation which has not gone away,
> but that the original author of the document has moved on to go do other
> stuff, and that the current maintainers have a different opinion on what
> the problem exactly is.

In that case, the 'rebuttal' can just be a brief note explaining that
the invariant section was the personal opinion of someone who no longer
works on the document.
 

> ... and now they move on to other things as well.

If the current maintainers want to explain their opinions on the
secondary matter, they can still do that without making their new piece
invariant. So there need be no more bloat when they move on.

-M-



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