The Winds Of Change

[Melrick]

The topic from Solaris thanking people got me to thinking. When all the brouhaha hit about the ownership of the site not too long ago, my first thoughts were along the line of, “Oh great, here we go again, back to long periods of no changes or improvements, which means the website becoming more and more antiquated and therefore harder and harder to actually do anything with, until we reach the point where it just implodes in on itself.” I had very, very low expectations.

I’ve never been privy to the behind-the-scenes goings on (no one tells peon’s like me anything) so all I could make judgements from was what I could see. Power struggles are never pretty, and the person or group that wins isn’t necessarily the best people for the job, just the strongest. Therefore, my hopes and expectations were low.

So imagine my surprise when things actually started getting done, on the website and forum! Actual worthwhile changes started being made, with plans for further improvements made public.

Some of my queries from earlier are still there since they were never adequately answered, and I’m not dumb enough to assume everything will be smooth sailing from here on out. But on the face of things, and in the relatively short term at least, things really are looking up for the website, and I hope they continue to do so, for the good of the great number of writers that never view these forums.

[DemonGoddess]

Some of my queries from earlier are still there since they were never adequately answered, and I’m not dumb enough to assume everything will be smooth sailing from here on out. But on the face of things, and in the relatively short term at least, things really are looking up for the website, and I hope they continue to do so, for the good of the great number of writers that never view these forums.

Thanks. What kinds of questions did you have?

[Guest Jaxxy]

When all the brouhaha hit about the ownership of the site not too long ago, my first thoughts were along the line of, “Oh great, here we go again, back to long periods of no changes or improvements, which means the website becoming more and more antiquated and therefore harder and harder to actually do anything with, until we reach the point where it just implodes in on itself.” I had very, very low expectations.

I'm very grateful that you took the time to tell us how you've felt, and to give us the good word now.

That is exactly what I feared AFF would come to! The implosion thing, I mean. For so very long, I've felt like the driver of a car that had no steering wheel... or engine! Since the original programmer left (without commenting out his modifications!), I've been horrified!

Here's what I can tellya though -- too many cooks (and cooks' assistants, and their helpers, and from time to time, their beloved-if-talkative mamas) do most indeedily spoil the stew. In light of the recent (and thankfully, growing old) spectacle, I thought I'd give a try at reducing the number of anonymous Staff, reducing the scattered-ness of Staff tasks, and even the number of jobs (and steps within them) we have. So far, the results are promising, I think... baby steps! Lordy knows things are still getting back on their feet -- it certainly does not hurt that the people who've come to help out are so unbelievably talented and devoted!

However you slice it, I'm glad you are feeling encouraged (cause if you are, that means someone else is, too).

For my part, I knew the only way to assure Members that things'd be okay was to just do it, not talk about it (and, unfortunately, that that would take time). Hence the "unanswered questions".

I knew that, being in my position, most of what I could try to say would only drag up more questions (or be fodder for more gossip, which would only hurt the site). I knew any promises, too, would be seen as empty. So even if it was no fault of my own, I'm really sorry if anyone's questions were left unaddressed.

So ask 'em, and if I can, I'll help clear things up, along with DemonGoddess, who has already offered.

[Melrick]

I'm very grateful that you took the time to tell us how you've felt, and to give us the good word now.

That is exactly what I feared AFF would come to! The implosion thing, I mean. For so very long, I've felt like the driver of a car that had no steering wheel... or engine! Since the original programmer left (without commenting out his modifications!), I've been horrified!

Here's what I can tellya though -- too many cooks (and cooks' assistants, and their helpers, and from time to time, their beloved-if-talkative mamas) do most indeedily spoil the stew. In light of the recent (and thankfully, growing old) spectacle, I thought I'd give a try at reducing the number of anonymous Staff, reducing the scattered-ness of Staff tasks, and even the number of jobs (and steps within them) we have. So far, the results are promising, I think... baby steps! Lordy knows things are still getting back on their feet -- it certainly does not hurt that the people who've come to help out are so unbelievably talented and devoted!

However you slice it, I'm glad you are feeling encouraged (cause if you are, that means someone else is, too).

For my part, I knew the only way to assure Members that things'd be okay was to just do it, not talk about it (and, unfortunately, that that would take time). Hence the "unanswered questions".

I knew that, being in my position, most of what I could try to say would only drag up more questions (or be fodder for more gossip, which would only hurt the site). I knew any promises, too, would be seen as empty. So even if it was no fault of my own, I'm really sorry if anyone's questions were left unaddressed.

So ask 'em, and if I can, I'll help clear things up, along with DemonGoddess, who has already offered.

Well the one main question I have isn't something I really want to ask in public.

As far as promises are concerned... what I hate is when people or groups make elaborate promises but fail to actually implement most of them. Politicians come readily to mind. (They're like that down here, and I'm sure up there too!). The best way to answer questions is to actually do things. Mind you, keeping people in the dark is also a good way to breed distrust. It tends to make people think either, a) Changes aren't being made at all, or B) Changes are being made, but they don't want us to know what they are. Public relations are a bit of a tight rope walk.

I've never felt large committees were a smart way to run anything at all. Try to have ten people run something and they'll want to do things eleven different ways.

Anyway, for the people actually working on the guts of the website, the best of luck, because I'm pretty sure you'll need it. lol

[manta2g]

Well the one main question I have isn't something I really want to ask in public.

As far as promises are concerned... what I hate is when people or groups make elaborate promises but fail to actually implement most of them. Politicians come readily to mind. (They're like that down here, and I'm sure up there too!). The best way to answer questions is to actually do things. Mind you, keeping people in the dark is also a good way to breed distrust. It tends to make people think either, a) Changes aren't being made at all, or Changes are being made, but they don't want us to know what they are. Public relations are a bit of a tight rope walk.

I've never felt large committees were a smart way to run anything at all. Try to have ten people run something and they'll want to do things eleven different ways.

Anyway, for the people actually working on the guts of the website, the best of luck, because I'm pretty sure you'll need it. lol

Luck? Luck has nothing to do with it, when it comes to fixing the mess that is the coding in the archives.

It takes a good bit of elbow grease, knowledge of the inner workings, and a good deal of patience.

Now I'm not sure how long you have been with AFF but I can definitely say that I've encountered most of the admins from just after Ayla left. In fact I was originally brought on to staff before the 3rd year anniversary when the domain name was recovered form yahoo. There was an administration fiasco just after that and another owner took charge and the committee thing began, as well as the original hard coder left, so core coding was left on my plate. The forums are finally being used for what I had intended them for (yes I was the person who originally installed the forums.) The subdivide was my own call as a coder to help stabilize the site since the crashes were caused by a database too large to run stably. I know it caused downtime, though what had extended it was another administration change, and a few admins that didn't like how things were going and I was forced to leave the administration though certain technical things off the server were still in my care. The admin who took over from me was green at best when it came to hard code (I know this because when she was first brought on she needed help in editing her own sites css, and configing of php files). So as I have been going though the hard code I am finding a lot of bad code syntax that had been causing load problems or some features not working like they should. Since none of these things were commented they take a while to find but when we do we fix them, though not always publicly visible. As things stand, considering from when Jaxxy first became owner till the standoff back in September, Jaxxy became owner with the committees from the prior still around and they did not pay much heed to the owners authority, in fact had taken as much as the could away. The September fiasco was decided on more then he said she said, since there are two main items that pinpoints ownership and it can't be changed because some one thinks they should be owner and that is the paperwork (domain registration & Hosting account info). The server contract was illegally changed from Jaxxy's name since her consent was not given and nexcess did have her full contact information. The other was the domain name registration which was in my own care approved by the owners before Jaxxy had ever took over, and the owner prior to Jaxxy had given consent to have it changed over to her. When my successor had e-mailed me demanding the registration to be handed over to her early September, Which is when I got back in contact with Jaxxy to find out that no such authorization was given, and she checked in with nexcess to find out they had changed the account info without her authorization. As per procedure the domain registration information was forwarded to nexcess and the matter was settled fairly quickly. Though after helping Jaxxy re-secure the site, the committees were dropped, and domain registration transferred into her care without a 3rd party.

*looks up at post* it's a bit long but it's from my end.... on a lighter note, I've got two new features coming up in February, a few bug fixes, and in the long run the archive software is being rewritten to serve members better.

Manta 2nd Gen.

Sorry Jaxxy, I know the September fiasco stresses you out, but I really wanted to give my two cents.