It's been a long time. The last time I posted here was over four months ago. The reason that I stopped posting is because I perceived a decrease in
activity and interesting conversation here and was able to find it abundantly elsewhere (The Cave of Dragonflies for example).
I also became a moderator and admin on two highly active forums, as well as picking up other duties on them. Combine that with a girlfriend, a band, some sick family,being captain of my school's debating team, restarting my school's drama club and all sorts of other craziness, you get a pretty tight schedule. But tonight, I had a break. And I spent some of it looking through my imageshack account and ended up coming across some of my old sprites. So I decided to pay a visit here. And I have to say, I'm disappointed.
Helping run the two sites I'm on has given me a lot of perspective into the workings of maintaining a site. The first one was well-established but going through a period of change; the site was operating off four different continuities and a committee, of which I was a member, had to reconcile them as much as possible into a new one, the various institutions on the site were being re-examined and re-tooled, activity levels were fluctuating and they needed to be brought to a consistent level. The second one was brand-new and I had to play a leading role in setting it up, at one point being the only person logging on every day, deleting truckloads of spam while the site's owner more or less left it to die. Both these sites were permeated with the seemingly random loss of important members at various intervals; no less than fifteen key people have left the first one since I joined, about three have left the second one since its inception. This was all hard work. But thanks to the sites' respective owners, the various members of staff on both (both sites shared many common staff, including myself), both sites pulled through. One is still going strong, the other is going through a low period due to a long-term server crash but we hope to get on our feet again.
But what is my point in all these ramblings, you may ask? The answer lies with the first site.
The site used to be a myfreeforum.org forum but for technical reasons, legal reasons and all sorts of other marvelous reasons, the site's current owner, Will, decided it was time for a move. On October 1st, he bought a domain. On October 2nd, the resident techie started making a forum for the domain. By October 18th, the forum itself was ready, but it was empty. By November 29th, all the important institutions had been completely redone and moved to the new site. On December 3rd, the 4th anniversary of Will's joining the site, the new one opened. Although there are still some minor businesses to finish off, RPs are under way, the General Discussion is over 30 pages, great fun and craic abound. On January 3rd, Will will be announcing the resolutions to the remaining issues and then all will be good.
Again, what is my point, you may ask?
My point is that a forum with roughly ten seriously active members and about a dozen kinda-active members at any given time, with the leader of the site being in the kinda-active group, and only five real staff members managed to move to a new forum, with a new canon, new continuity, its own legal institutions and own government within a two-month timeframe.
I know that although the PF has about the same amount of staff, it has a lot less active members and a lot less kinda-active members. I know that, I've known that since I first joined. The PF has never been a very large community. I'm not questioning the dedication of its staff. I'm not saying that the staff should give up their no doubt very active social lives in pursuit of this site. But I am no less disappointed that it has been over two years since suggestions closed and the D/P switch still hasn't come about. The Suggest a Pokémon forum closed in September of 2007. We have just rolled into 2010. Bar the staff, I'd bet money that no more than three of the active members of the site have even posted in the Suggest a Pokémon forum since they joined, let alone actually suggested a Pokémon. There was a time when my questioning the speed at which these things are being done could be responded to with "Are you willing to trade quality of the dexes for a fast reopening?" and I would of course say no. But that time has passed.
Maybe I'm in no position to criticise. I ditched the site. I gave up on spriting. I was never a good enough spriter to begin with. I was an arrogant tosser to everyone at some point or another. I matured towards the end but what's the end compared to the over a year of arguments and flame wars? Maybe I'm in no position to criticise, maybe I'm in the perfect position to criticise. I'll let you decide that yourselves.
But whatever you decide, I am disappointed. I honestly believe that the Staff have let down the forum, its members and the Factory itself. Maybe that belief is unjustified, and if it is, feel free to justify yourselves and I will be glad to apologise. I want to apologise. But I can only apologise if I'm given a justification for why it has taken over two years to complete the RSE-to-DP switch.
Without or without justification, I am returning to the fold as of now. Maybe I won't be welcomed back into the fold. Maybe the fact that I abandoned you all for over four months, then made criticisms of the Staff as a returning post is enough reason to shun me. Again, I'll let you decide. But I felt this was necessary. I felt maybe a person who is simultaneously an old face and an outsider might be able to give some objective perspective. Maybe I was wrong. Either way, I'm back.
Hi.
I also became a moderator and admin on two highly active forums, as well as picking up other duties on them. Combine that with a girlfriend, a band, some sick family,being captain of my school's debating team, restarting my school's drama club and all sorts of other craziness, you get a pretty tight schedule. But tonight, I had a break. And I spent some of it looking through my imageshack account and ended up coming across some of my old sprites. So I decided to pay a visit here. And I have to say, I'm disappointed.
Helping run the two sites I'm on has given me a lot of perspective into the workings of maintaining a site. The first one was well-established but going through a period of change; the site was operating off four different continuities and a committee, of which I was a member, had to reconcile them as much as possible into a new one, the various institutions on the site were being re-examined and re-tooled, activity levels were fluctuating and they needed to be brought to a consistent level. The second one was brand-new and I had to play a leading role in setting it up, at one point being the only person logging on every day, deleting truckloads of spam while the site's owner more or less left it to die. Both these sites were permeated with the seemingly random loss of important members at various intervals; no less than fifteen key people have left the first one since I joined, about three have left the second one since its inception. This was all hard work. But thanks to the sites' respective owners, the various members of staff on both (both sites shared many common staff, including myself), both sites pulled through. One is still going strong, the other is going through a low period due to a long-term server crash but we hope to get on our feet again.
But what is my point in all these ramblings, you may ask? The answer lies with the first site.
The site used to be a myfreeforum.org forum but for technical reasons, legal reasons and all sorts of other marvelous reasons, the site's current owner, Will, decided it was time for a move. On October 1st, he bought a domain. On October 2nd, the resident techie started making a forum for the domain. By October 18th, the forum itself was ready, but it was empty. By November 29th, all the important institutions had been completely redone and moved to the new site. On December 3rd, the 4th anniversary of Will's joining the site, the new one opened. Although there are still some minor businesses to finish off, RPs are under way, the General Discussion is over 30 pages, great fun and craic abound. On January 3rd, Will will be announcing the resolutions to the remaining issues and then all will be good.
Again, what is my point, you may ask?
My point is that a forum with roughly ten seriously active members and about a dozen kinda-active members at any given time, with the leader of the site being in the kinda-active group, and only five real staff members managed to move to a new forum, with a new canon, new continuity, its own legal institutions and own government within a two-month timeframe.
I know that although the PF has about the same amount of staff, it has a lot less active members and a lot less kinda-active members. I know that, I've known that since I first joined. The PF has never been a very large community. I'm not questioning the dedication of its staff. I'm not saying that the staff should give up their no doubt very active social lives in pursuit of this site. But I am no less disappointed that it has been over two years since suggestions closed and the D/P switch still hasn't come about. The Suggest a Pokémon forum closed in September of 2007. We have just rolled into 2010. Bar the staff, I'd bet money that no more than three of the active members of the site have even posted in the Suggest a Pokémon forum since they joined, let alone actually suggested a Pokémon. There was a time when my questioning the speed at which these things are being done could be responded to with "Are you willing to trade quality of the dexes for a fast reopening?" and I would of course say no. But that time has passed.
Maybe I'm in no position to criticise. I ditched the site. I gave up on spriting. I was never a good enough spriter to begin with. I was an arrogant tosser to everyone at some point or another. I matured towards the end but what's the end compared to the over a year of arguments and flame wars? Maybe I'm in no position to criticise, maybe I'm in the perfect position to criticise. I'll let you decide that yourselves.
But whatever you decide, I am disappointed. I honestly believe that the Staff have let down the forum, its members and the Factory itself. Maybe that belief is unjustified, and if it is, feel free to justify yourselves and I will be glad to apologise. I want to apologise. But I can only apologise if I'm given a justification for why it has taken over two years to complete the RSE-to-DP switch.
Without or without justification, I am returning to the fold as of now. Maybe I won't be welcomed back into the fold. Maybe the fact that I abandoned you all for over four months, then made criticisms of the Staff as a returning post is enough reason to shun me. Again, I'll let you decide. But I felt this was necessary. I felt maybe a person who is simultaneously an old face and an outsider might be able to give some objective perspective. Maybe I was wrong. Either way, I'm back.
Hi.
