Crygor64 said: The entire point of this web site was to preserve the original trilogy. And that's mainly because most of us were disgusted with the changes made by George Lucas. Some of us feel art should remain consistent to its original vision. Adding your own changes makes you just as bad as George Lucas, if not worse. (At least he can say "they're my films.")
Yes; this site is here to preserve the theatrical versions of the original trilogy, but that does not mean that people here have to dislike the concept of a special edition. I have no problem whatsoever with any filmmaker making a special edition or director's cut of one of their films, even it turns out to be radically different from the theatrical cut, as long as the theatrical version is treated as a part of cinema history and preserved in high quality.
Adywan wants both the original trilogy and his ideal versions preserved and available to people. George Lucas only wants the latter, and is strongly opposed to the former. That is what makes Adywan and George Lucas different. In fact, Adywan has already restored the theatrical cut of The Empire Strikes in the highest quality that he could, and has pledged to restore Star Wars (A New Hope) too. We all hope that he will turn his efforts towards Return of the Jedi in due course.
Furthermore, I am not certain that Adywan's edits are the most popular feature of the site, although I can see why you would think that. It is true that the threads for ANH:R and ESB:R are the biggest, but that is because the majority of the interest in making additions and changes to the films is concentrated in those two places, whereas posts by those primarily interested in preservations are dispersed throughout the many project and technical discussion threads that relate to preservations. There is also the fact that discussion of new ideas generates many posts, whereas with preservations people more or less agree on what needs to be done and there is less to debate. Finally, there is the fact that people frequently use Adywan's threads for off topic discussion, which is why I rarely read them any more (although I admit that I have been guilty of this myself on more than one occasion.)