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Superbus
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« on: October 21, 2008, 09:43:09 AM » |
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I've been an administrator here since April of 2004, and with a break for my "retirement" in 2006, I've been the #1 admin here, more or less, since about November of that year. In the time that I've been in charge, I've always maintained a policy of transparency with the user base; I try to let people know what's going on with the community, whether it's good or bad, and though it's led to some hairy moments - most notably the people I had to suspend just before the Jet Incident - I feel it's always been mutually beneficial to everyone, with the members knowing what's going on, and the staff - I hope - garnering trust that we have everyone's best interests in mine. Obviously, we can't tell people EVERYTHING that's going on - that's just bad security - but we keep people well informed, and don't really have a lot of secrets. Naturally, this is easier in some times than it is in others.
This is one of those times when I rethink that policy, because times like this suck. Let me explain our current situation to everyone.
Our activity is down. Very down. Our posting numbers outside the CD are atrocious, and furthermore, we're no longer even the most popular FE forum at the moment (that would be Serene's Forest). I've noticed a problem keeping non-shitty new members; they come, check out the place, but don't stick around to the effect that they used to. What's most disturbing about that is a general malaise about the whole thing; no one seems too concerned about it, and even activity among our staff is down. In short, these are the telltale signs of a community in decline; not just a blip, explainable by trends and real-life realities (school starting, Christmas coming up, etc.), but steadily, rapidly and potentially permanently declining, and furthermore, losing sight of what our main purpose is. For awhile now, we've have been less of a Fire Emblem board, and more of an insular community of friends that happens to have Fire Emblem in the name, and while that's good for us, that's not particularly welcoming to newbies. Again, not many people outside of myself and a few isolated members have really noticed this, but it's happening; there have been a few times when I've looked at our active members compared to Serene's Forest, and noticed that we'd have a good 10, 15 fewer active members at one time, during peak hours. Hell, we have a new Fire Emblem game out in Japan, and the board dedicated to that game sometimes goes days without posts! That NEVER happened with the prior games!
I'm seeing the writing on the wall, and the writing says that we have to make changes. Big changes. We essentially have to rebuild a few things from the ground up. And to do that, we're going to have to ruffle some feathers. Consider said feathers ruffled.
The first thing I've done - and easily the thing I've hated the most - is streamlined our staff. I can say whatever word I can think of that softens what happened, or euphemizes it, but the plain truth of the situation is that we've let people go. They weren't fired, becuase they did nothing wrong; in reality, they were laid off, because I want the remaining people to be known unequivocally as the leaders of this community; I feel that effect has been lessened of late because there's been too much staff for too little work, which is really a byproduct of our busier days. The staff members that have been let go are YokaiKnight, CrazyDitto, Neiko, and both Ice and Black Dragon. There will be no replacements for the time being, though if the situation arises that we need to add staff, I wouldn't be opposed to adding any of these people back, as they did their jobs well.
"Wait a minute... two retirements, five people being released..." Yes, they're linked. I asked for Togieduo's resignation because I needed to get things back under control in all aspects, and Jack's had a very tumultuous time for awhile, between school, and some other happenings in his personal life. He's tried, but he hasn't been able to stay active, and couldn't give me a promise that he could be as active as he'd like to be; that's definitely understandable considering his situation, and how things have changed for him recently, but the simple fact of the matter is that we need all of our admins to be the face of our site, and Jack didn't think he was able to promise me he could do that. Asking Jack to resign is easily the hardest thing I've had to do here; he's our oldest senior member, and very close to a lot of members, myself included, and it was very emotional and gut-wrenching to have to go through with that. Seeing his retirement thread almost made me break down, and I have no shame in saying that; it was definitely a transition, and while it's one I feel was necessary, that doesn't make things any easier.
"But what about Willfor?". Will had been planning retirement for quite awhile, but had never gotten around to it for one reason or another. We have conducted our business for a couple months with Will essentially out of the loop, so when I started to think seriously about this, I went to him and essentially let him know what was up, and gave him the chance to bow out the way he wanted to. I wish I could have given the other five that chance, to be honest.
There are more changes to come as well. For one, we're going to cut down the number of boards we have. I might consolidate some of the Fire Emblem boards, and I'm also considering putting fanfiction and art together. And unless someone tells me otherwise, I think I can consider Blacky Wacky's grand RPG project dead, so I'll just get rid of that. This will reduce the number of boards on the front page, and hopefully get rid of some of the clutter that a few people have complained about.
I'm also considering a change of aesthetics. Right now, we have three forum skins, but all anyone uses is the classic one, to my knowledge. I'm considering - if I can get the expertise to do it - changing our layout to be at least a bit more pleasing to the eye, or at the very least, less of a mess, as we've essentially had the same look for the past six years.
I'm also going to work on the main site. For this, I need - NEED - the memberbase. One of the main problems we've had is that people will promise us submissions and projects, but when it comes time to put their nose to the grindstone and get the work done, those same members oftentimes find another shiny object to stare at. Right now, we've got two people working on the main site, and of those two, only one of them - Crystal Shards - has any business being a webmaster, as it's definitely the area in which I'm at my worst. Anyone that wants to contribute, or work on, the main site should let Crystal or I know in PM.
Finally, I am, effective immediately, reinstating Crystal Eli/Otosareta Tenshi/Jyosua as a member of FESS, under a probationary GEOS period. We banned Eli way, way, WAY back in 2005, and back then, he was a problematic member; he came back as Otosareta Tenshi a year later, a markedly improved member, but wasn't forward with who he was, so we banned that member, too. Since then, he's been a model member of the fandom, and is currently the main administrator for SF's forums. To keep someone who's grown up so much in the past couple of years off the site because of something he did in March of 2005 is short-sighted and foolish, and this is something I've been pushing for for the past year and a half. Before, politics - well reasoned arguments from very smart people, but politics nonetheless - kept him out. I am not letting politics stand in our way anymore.
This leads to another big change: I'm taking the bull by the balls. When I retired in 2006, DMAJohnson took over as root administrator, a title that had significance on the old Invisionfree site, but doesn't mean as much now that we have our own site; the root basically is the board of directors. Going back to the main point, Dale left as root in 2007 after the Jet Incident, as I took it over on an interim basis. I gave it to Sword Saint per Dale's wishes. There's only one problem: no one took them seriously. Dale's reign as root was blistered by infighting among the staff (and before anyone says he was weak, as some of you pillocks are wont to do, the fact that the infighting didn't become public knowledge until Jet and Zephyr blew up is a testament to what he did. He did fantastic at keeping the members isolated from the bullshit behind the scenes), and Steve's natural inclination to let things work led members to believe that they weren't really in charge, and that I was still the man behind the scenes. The fact is that I really haven't been until recently, when I've decided that I need to step in and take control. Perception is reality in cases like this, so if the members - even if they're wrong - believe that I'm in charge, I really have to take charge, then. So from this point on, I'm once again the "root", and Sword Saint and Lord Glenn will be working with me to get us out of our current situation (and before anyone assumes this is a power grab, that was actually SS's idea).
That leads to the main reason why I'm going so hardcore with these changes: I can't keep this up. When I left in 2006, everyone assumed I was still in charge because I was paying the bills; only Dale got that it didn't matter who paid the bills, rules had to be followed by everyone, even me. That wasn't helped when Sword Saint took over, as he more or less defaulted to me because I pay the bills. The fact is this: as long as I am the backing of this community, I will always be The Man in the eyes of the memberbase, no matter what I do to prove that wrong. Therefore, I feel the community needs to get to the point where it can subsist without me, as if I got hit by a bus. Right now, it's not close, not only from a financial standpoint, but also from a leadership standpoint; the fact that I'm stepping up as the unquestioned top guy right now is testament to that. I pay for another year of our site in January (and yes, I will be paying), and that will lead me into my 29th birthday in May. Frankly, if I'm still root by that time, we have much bigger issues, and that's going to be indicative of our ability to lead once I move on, and to be honest, I WILL be moving on soon. I'm exhausted, and I feel a lot of the responsibility for the community stagnating falls on my shoulders, due to my lack of energy for the job at this point. I'm regarding all of this as a last stab towards the goals that I set forth in 2006.
All of the members will see some significant changes over the next few weeks. I need all of those members to let me know what they think, what they think can be done to improve things, what is thought of where we stand, and any ideas. I can't stress enough how important this period in our history is; it's crucial. And if the community is to continue the way it has, I need the members of said community to pitch in. Either we pull out of this, we slowly rot, or I explore other options; I absolutely will not accept option 2.
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