We're fat and happy.

This is a continuation of my thoughts from Post #24 in this thread.

When y'all come to this board, I ask you to do your jobs, or you dishonor all those that have come before you. I want you to remember this, you are moderators, and when you're in your respective fora the poster's aren't just your friends. You're leaders. We've all forgotten that.

I've let some of you get to close. I've dropped my guard. I've given some of you breaks. I've let some things go which should have been addressed. We've recently shrank the size of the staff and I believe we're starting to pay the price. We cannot go forward like this.

We all have a life outside of the board. I know I have a career, a girlfriend, and my friends and family. That's where we all need to spend the majority of our time. But, when I'm here, I do my job first and post second.

We're all going to have to do some unpopular things to get back where we were. Threads need to be moved or closed. Warnings need to be issued. Nick, O2C, we need to get moving on the gallery and quick. Let's get it done.

My suggestion is to take it slow; there's not much going on in the Forums right now and a heavy handed approach is going to cause an uproar. Dangle a few carrots to make sure people are distracted - gallery, arcade, and perhaps letting a Misc forum open up like Tamar suggested will help. I worry about the idea that we, as the operators of this place, might leave some obvious things undone while running around issuing warnings and generally stirring up things if we're not actively improving the board in other areas as well.

Doing unpopular things without a clear goal in mind is dangerous for the health of the board. And the health of the board is the people that post here, nothing else.

I gotta agree with faisent. If we shift gears overnight, people will get upset, but if you do it gradually and not call attention to it while diverting their attention, you're golden.

I will concur with my esteemed peers above me.

Last year was an election year, so I wouldn't be too worried about a drop of posts. Nevermind that some of our most prolific posters are MIA or on vacation.

Plus, Cassie, aren't we a bit overdue for the latest writing contest?

^ Are we? Wasn't the last one only a few months ago? Anyway, I'm up to it as long as prizes are donated.

And I do agree that you guys should move stuff around more to where it belongs. What's the point in having different rooms with different rules when everybody just dumps everything into the RR. That's kinda TK-ish - I can hardly see any difference between their fora. It's all one long spam & flamealooza. Don't think we want that here, do we.

With all due respect, you must forgive me if I take your advice with a grain of salt considering you've posted in The Help Desk more in the last 24 hours than you have in the past two months, you know, when you were actually on the staff.

Yeah, I know. That's kinda why I made Tamar the mod of the Help Desk and resigned.

Okay, Elwood, in Chris's defense, I explicitly remember him telling you that his ability to be on staff would be diminished once he got his job at GM, and you were fine with that and wanted him to stay on staff.

Funny, how he had no time to comment when he was on staff but plenty of time when he isn't.

Anywho, it's all pointless to bicker over now...it's over and done.

*Pokes head in*
Okay, so what exactly would this "shifting gears", entail?

What warnings aren't being handed out that should?

What threads aren't being moved that should?

Sorry, but this has the whiff of the "we have to look busy by doing something", mentality that started the slippery slope at TrekBBS.

It's not because of lack of a boot on someone's neck that there's a "poster exodus", or that things are dull.

For example, I've been away to get some writing done.

And, frankly, I'm sick of the assholes.
Same old assholes we've always had too, so that ain't changed.
I just need a recharge.
I'm probabbly not the only one.

Putting the boots to our assholes ain't gonna fix that.

And if things are dull, well, I'm sorry, but a lotta folks here are just plain fuckin dull, and I always livened the place up.

Third reason I've stayed away.
Atlas is shrugging.
And again, I'm probably not the only one.

Boots ain't gonna fix that either.

I MISS YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(outta rep)

The point of my original post was not to suggest anything you mentioned. I do not believe in "busy work" and I never will.

My point, and I thought it was pretty clear, is that some things have been let to slide. We've slacked off in some areas. That's over now. This is a notice that if I think there's a problem with anyone's performance, I'm going to be coming to you about it, in private, instead of just letting it go.

Edit: I've let some things slide because I consider most all of you to be friends and I just didn't want to rock the boat. But, now that I'm back, I'm trying to firm up WF's direction and that's going to occasionally make me put on my campaign hat.

Such as?

Also, going back to the opening post...

How so?
And what sort of "leaders", should we be?

I thought we were libertarians of one stripe or another who feared strict hierarchy bacause of it's tendancy to overreach into tyranny.

If only you'd done that in the first place.

Nothing I care to discuss even in this fora. The people I have issues with know about them. Again, this is just a reminder to everyone.

That was very specific. Again, I will not name names because I'm going to discipline in private, but I've seen a moderator let something go because the offending user was their friend, and I can only assume they let their friendship get in the way of their duty because they didn't act even after having the post reported.

Sorry, bubba, if you think that thread was discipline, you're dead wrong. I can be a straight up asshole. That was merely a friendly reminder.

If you'll pardon the obvious hyperbole, if I put a boot in y'all ass, the membership will eventually come around too. That's how I try to deal with things. I deal with y'all, y'all deal with them.

It's not a hierarchial or insulation issue, it's a motivational one.

When did I say I thought it was discipline?

Because I was holding my tongue. Abrasive as I was, there was still some sort of decorum.

Now, I'm free. Sweet, sweet freedom.

Keep it clean, mister, or I'll cuff ya in the ear!