[stressedoutatumc]

2 Questions.

[1] Why the formatting change? Like who's calling for it. I'm not mad at yall, but is it works for works sake or is there a big push to get it all changed around. Same with the move to the rulebook. The searchable glossary is such a helpful thing it's crazy to think that anyone thinks it should change at all. The move to the rulebook has honestly made things more obnoxious to search.

[2] The suggested format seems to make printing the glossary easier, but who is trying to print the glossary? It's a living document and its 2021. Meaning, we all have smart devices. Who is trying to flip out a paper glossary? Who's trying to PRINT a new glossary when the current one gets updated. That three-column format smacks of formatting for like 2001. Again, not to be offensive, but it is what it is.

In the end, I doubt anyone will really care either way as long as I can do a search like I can in the current glossary AND have a bunch of links to the increasingly messy and weirdly formatted rulebook.

[BCSWowbagger]

[1] Why the formatting change? Like who's calling for it. I'm not mad at yall, but is it works for works sake or is there a big push to get it all changed around.

I received a request from a respected player to make the Glossary more friendly (in a variety of ways) to people who print it out instead of using the web rulebook. This was one of them. I decided to submit the question to the community again, since a lot has changed, Glossary-wise, over the past year. Turns out that opinion has actually hardened in favor of the current layout! I'm mildly surprised about that, but it's fine. (The current layout will, obviously, stay, since support for it in this poll is unanimous.)

[2] The suggested format seems to make printing the glossary easier, but who is trying to print the glossary? It's a living document and its 2021. Meaning, we all have smart devices. Who is trying to flip out a paper glossary?

According to this poll, a little more than one-third of the community still relies on a printed Glossary at least some of the time. I'm not one of them -- I don't think I've seen a print Glossary since the mid-2010s--but one of my jobs as Rules Manager is to see that their needs are met.

I am working on some other quality-of-life improvements for users of the print Glossary, but didn't need community input on them. They'll be rolling out as they are completed.

Same with the move to the rulebook. The searchable glossary is such a helpful thing it's crazy to think that anyone thinks it should change at all. The move to the rulebook has honestly made things more obnoxious to search.

This is me, albeit with the support of the Rules Committee. I've written about the reasons for it here, here, and to some extent here, among other places, but the upshot is that the Glossary should (and ultimately will) contain only card-specific rulings, very particular vocabulary explanations, and an index to the Rulebook.

We are in a transitional state right now, where some rules are in both places but others are only in the Rulebook-- and that can suck, I admit--but, now that the Rulebook exists, is comprehensive and authoritative, and requires maintenance in parallel with the Glossary, no other solution is really tenable over the long term.

My door is always open, of course, and I am particularly interested in hearing any suggestions for making things easier, especially during this transitional period where some general rules are in both documents but some are only in one. We don't want rules to be hard to find -- just the opposite! That's ultimately why this transition is happening, but it's also why it's important for me to give whatever support I can provide while it's going on.

In my Rules Soapbox column next month, I will write about some of the improvements I am already working on, such as a full-text search (which will be like a normal ctrl-F search, but which covers the Rulebook and the Glossary and the DRG simultaneously), inline notes where a rule has recently been changed, and a numeric outline system for the Rulebook to make it easier to look things up quickly.