[Fwd: [tug-board] state of TeX Live 4]

Arthur Ogawa ogawa@teleport.com
Mon, 28 Jun 1999 14:16:14 -0700


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I am forwarding this email to tex-live@tug.org

-- 
Arthur
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        robin.fairbairns@cl.cam.ac.uk
Subject: [tug-board] state of TeX Live 4
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RADHAKRISHNAN C V writes:
 > there is another incident. sebastian has ordered for 25 copies of TeXLive
 > 4 CDs for TUGIndia and to bill kaveh bazargan for the cost. have you heard
 > anything about that? one month has passed now. what should i assume?

I am deeply disappointed, and not a little angry, about the shambles
that the TeX Live 4 distribution has turned into. Back in January or
so, I asked for help in making the thing work more smoothly, and it
was agreed that TUG would take over the pressing and distribution from
UKTUG. If my memory serves me correctly, Mimi Jett asked Art Ogawa to
look after it, and act as liaison person. At first, things went
smoothly, and we got things like the artwork sorted nicely. But when
it came to getting orders, it was ages before anyone contacted the
LUGS, things seemed to fall apart, people started to vanish, and in
the last weeks Karl Berry had to step in and organize some chivvying
to get anything done at all. It was looking unhealthy.

Now the situation is worse. For some reason I simply cannot
understand, the stocks of CD-ROMs after initial distribution were not
sent to the TUG office, but kept by Pat Monohon in San
Francisco. No-one seems to know how many there are, and no more copies 
seem to have despatched. Queries do not get any reply.
Now I even see that email to Pat is bounced back. The result is that
(at a minimum) Bernard Gaulle (GUTenberg) and Radhakrishnan (TUGIndia) 
are getting more and more annoyed (rightly so); I am not sure whether
the Greek group, and AsTeX, got their copies.

So far as I am concerned, TUG has dropped *another* clanger. And its
the same old story - _NO COMMUNICATION_. Everyone gets upset if their
questions do not get answered. I entirely accept that we are all
volunteers, and fail to do things, but we *all* have time to *reply*
to messages, and explain that we have failed to do something.

I expect I am over-reacting, as usual. But if we cannot offer a
_professional_ service to our members, at least lets offer a _personal_
service, and stop upsetting them.

I pass over the perception of comp.text.tex that no TUG Board members
bother to monitor stuff on there :-}

sebastian

PS

Radhakrishnan wrote:
 > India has lived without TUG's assistance in matters of TeX so far and it
 > can do so in future too and i am equally wary of imagining that there are 
 > subtle ethnic feelings/tendencies of negligence when it comes to India so
 > far as TUG is concerned. 
I can assure you that complaints about TUG come equally from all parts 
of the world and from all cultures and religions :-}



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