For some time now, we on the POV-Team have been aware that users would like
better communication with us, for technical support, suggestions, development
issues (i.e. custom patches), and so forth.

  Unfortunately it has been nearly impossible to provide this simply due to
the fact that there are so many users. We are only a small group and want to
be able to dedicate our spare time to POV-Ray itself, rather than support.

  This, it appears, has left some people with the (incorrect) opinion that
we just don't care ; that we don't want to hear from them, that we don't
want their patches or suggestions.

  This is not so. The problem is quite simply that with so many users, the
ambient noise level is too high. We have alleviated the problem a little by
encouraging peer support on our private news server ; however, we have now
come to the conclusion that we ought to do even more about it.

  There is a solution to this problem.

                          Introducing the POv-Ray T.A.G.

  The POV-Ray TAG (short for Technical Assistance Group, and just TAG for short)
is a group of users who are known to the POV-Team and in whom we place a certain
amount of trust. They are users who have shown a genuine desire to help others
as shown by their activities on the POV news server. They have a fairly good
knowledge of POV-Ray and attend the news group regularly.

  TAG members are not members of the POV-Team. But they are, however, an official
conduit between us and the outside world. They have direct access to all members
of the POV-Team. They have the right to speak on our behalf on the POV news server
and on any official mailing lists that we set up for this purpose. Not everything
they say will be official ; only when they sign it as such. They can still act
'themselves' and have their own opinions at all other times.

  TAG members will keep an eye on postings and the user community in general,
and bring to our attention any issue that they, in their opinion, ought to be
answered by the POV-Team. The relevant team member(s) will then either answer
the question privately, so that the TAG members can then answer it on our
behalf in the public forums, or if it is appropriate the POV-Team member will
answer it personally to the original author.

  The POV-Team hopes that this system - which allows official communication to
flow between the public and ourselves far more easily than it has in the past -
will further promote the growth of POV-Ray by making us more accessible than it
had been physically possible in the past.

The founding TAG members are (in no particular order) -

  Ken Tyler
  Margus Ramst
  Chris Huff
  Warp (Nieminen Juha)
  Peter Popov
  Chris Colefax

-- Chris Cason
   POV-Ray Team Co-ordinator