I posted this as a comment on another website, but I felt the analogies were good and wanted to add them here.

Just remember Dave's side of things, too. He's a person, like the rest of us, that has worked hard for years on something he believes in. Others come along and want to reinvent the wheel, so he says “Why not just make better wheels? I've already figured out they are round!” He also pouts a little since no one asked him to help. Everyone labels Dave as a “control freak” and doesn't say anything nice about him any more.

Take the personalities out of it. Think about the business community's perception: I just dropped money on blogging tool X and now a bunch of other folks want to “officially” rewrite the spec. What happens to the money I spent? What happens to the jobs I created? Can the developer that I bought the software from turn around new tools quickly so my feeds are compliant? Can I afford to pay the developer's fees for the upgrade?

Most of all: Why in the hell do the upgrade anyway? 7 different versions of RSS say so, but here's a cheaper way: Pick one and say *it's* official. No wheel inventing needed. Pick up a can of polish and a rag and make *that* RSS the best one ever.