Exactly so, Lee.
Another variable, which is probably the most important,
is what is the source of information about standing development ?
If a 'lore tradition' comes from a magazine article written in the 1940s,
which might be a breezy account of a photographer's work in the 1920s,
there might have been the common understanding amongst the readership (60 years ago !)
that 'standing development' involved a slow working developer for glass plates in a large tank,
and a photographer who took a peek at the plates every 15 minutes or so, each inspection providing adequate agitation.
In THAT case, and I'm think of Atget in particular, the writer might have said,
"Oh, Atget just put the plates in the tank and kept them there until they were ready."
Again, when the article was written, there probably was an understanding of how the process worked.
But if the 'lore tradition' connects to that primary source through 2 or 3 intermediary steps which, through time and misunderstanding, the details of the actual process fall away, leaving a 21st century student the understanding that old time photographers really DID just drop the film in the tank and didn't do anything for hours, days, weeks, months...
THAT lore, spreading like a dose of salts through photo forums, tweaks the imagination of photographers,
and sheer luck often determines whether the results will be any good or not.
Some of us connect recently to a photographic lore tradition many iterations from the primary source, while some can be still considered a primary source themselves, having begun to learn their craft in their youth from old photographers.
When photographers connect directly, one generation to another, to women and men who were making pictures one hundred years ago, or one hundred and fifty years ago, a different point of view might emerge in a discussion than from a photographer who has come recently to photography, and is interested in this thing called 'standing development'.
If photography is to survive and have energetic and strong photographers in 5 years or 25 years from now, our conversation has to encourage learning from each other. New things must always be tried, but wisdom is often ignored which might have supported the adventurous photographer. Forums tend, however, to (I'm searching for an accurate way to describe the process) reward enthusiasm, and has no real way to measure the veracity of an opinion.
WELL, it's the community we have, so we should take every chance we can to actually meet each other !
And always try to remember that a question might turn up a different type of information than you are expecting !
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