Road to Launch
RTL-002
The Launch Date Was Removed From the Site
Phase two, and one thing taken down
Phase
Open
A countdown ran on the front page for eleven days before it was taken down. It was accurate, and it was still the wrong thing to publish.
What Was Put Up
A countdown to a date the studio genuinely believed. It was not a marketing number; it was the real estimate, published honestly.
Why It Came Down
Because a countdown converts an estimate into a promise the moment it is displayed. Eleven days in, a material problem appeared that would move the date by a season, and the countdown had already made that ordinary fact into a broken commitment.
The estimate was correct when published and wrong afterwards. A countdown has no way to say that.
What Replaced It
This category. A written record of where the work actually is, published when there is something to say, with the reason attached.
Phase Milestones
| Milestone | Closed |
|---|---|
| Front page live | Yes |
| Countdown published | Yes, then removed |
| Written progress record opened | Yes |
| Fixed launch date | No — and not planned |
“It was accurate on the day it went up. That is not the same as being right to publish.”
Note written the day it came down
The archive would rather publish a paragraph that admits uncertainty than a number that hides it. A countdown cannot be uncertain; that is precisely its appeal, and precisely the problem.
Phase
- Phase
- Two of four.
- Removed
- The countdown, after eleven days.
- Reason
- It turned an estimate into a promise.
- Replaced by
- This record.