[GEN] Announcement about the Administration (Updated June 21, 2004)

After consultation among ourselves, Raven and I have taken a few temporary measures until we can communicate with the owners to get some things sorted out over Grilled-Sarlacc's resignation.

1) Raven is currently the Acting Head Admin. Until the owners have decided who should assume the post, Raven will handle the duties associated with Head Admin. Again, I stress that this is only temporary until the owners decide on the final solution.

2) We have temporarily promoted Darth_Sapient to admin to assist in the transition. We hope that his experience and knowledge will provide a large measure of the stability that we need until this can all be straightened out.

More details will come as they are available.

Kimball Kinnison

UPDATE: Josh Griffin has decided to assume the post of Head Admin. He is assuming additional personal responsibility in the day-to-day operations of the boards. Raven will continue as the Tech Admin, I will remain as the Comms/PR Admin, and Sapient will remain as a "General Admin".

 

Good luck.

Course, all I really care bout is the Fanfic& EUC fourms+icons


My only recomendation is whoever the new icon admin is, pick someone the icon community knows if possible.

 

Wow. I assume this decisions was made in consultation with the rest of MS, right? Or has our friend, the Leadership Council, reared its ugly head again?

Oh, and why the urgency? Why did you need to arbitrarily promote an admin so quickly? Shouldn't Josh and Phillip have been consulted before something so drastic? Or are we just trying to keep our e-power and push the bosses into a corner?

 

Isn't this against procedure? I personally don't think this is a good setup, and while it may not be my call, I don't think it's yours, either.

 

Yeah ...

//quiet cheers for stinrab

_Free_FIDo_-_he's_arbitrary_

 

Isn't this against procedure? I personally don't think this is a good setup, and while it may not be my call, I don't think it's yours, either.

This is following pretty much the same procedure that has been followed in the past. 3 months ago, after Sape was demoted, Grilled assumed the role of Acting Head Admin until the owners had decided who should fill the role permanently.

As for promoting another admin, that has always been done by consultation only within the existing admins to keep mods from campaigning for the position. Sapient's temporary promotionis not that different from when we will temporarily promote a moderator to manager to fill a temporary need (such as posting a sticky thread).

Kimball Kinnison

 

Oh, and why the urgency? Why did you need to arbitrarily promote an admin so quickly? Shouldn't Josh and Phillip have been consulted before something so drastic?

Well as KK said, it's to provide stability, as I predict mass riots and civil disorder.

 

We already have looting in 3SA, but I'm armed with tear gas, so beware.

Raven's new title is an interim step, nothing intended to be permanent. It's merely to let people know that someone's still steering the ship. We're still waiting to hear from Josh and Phil in regards to their thoughts on the matter.

And since, as far as I know, Josh and Phil were not consulted for G-S's, Raven's or KK's promotion, I don't know why they'd be consulted for Sape's re-promotion. They're not consulted when users are made mods, when mods are made managers, or when managers are made admins.

 

Josh is on halfway regulary, so ought not be that hard to contact them.

Wis on the otherhand..........

We better prepare the stasis pods, could be a long wait. (unles Josh knows his phone # )

 

What's so drastic about a temproary promotion to help smooth things along to the real one? I'm confused where Stinrab's seeing DRAMA here.

 

Is this what happened last time? You just arbitrarily decided to promote yourselves?

 

As for promoting another admin, that has always been done by consultation only within the existing admins to keep mods from campaigning for the position.

As opposed to, say, admins campaigning for the Head Admin position? I'd prefer we stopped that.

it's to provide stability, as I predict mass riots and civil disorder.

Waiting for a few days is hardly going to cause instability. On the flipside, putting people in place, and then taking them away, hardly causes stability.

Unless the admins think they can try to force the owners hands, by putting people in place without their approval, and trying to keep them there, citing 'stability' as the reason. But, of course, our wonderful admins would never do that now, would they?

Josh and Phil were not consulted for G-S's, Raven's or KK's promotion

Difference: the Head Admin promoted them. Raven and KK are not the Head Admin. Even in the Head Admin's absence, such an arbitrary measure is unnecessary and uncalled for.

 

stinrab...
"Oh, and why the urgency? Why did you need to arbitrarily promote an admin so quickly?"

I suppose it all depends on how important it is you view having a single, endpoint where the buck stops.

I see having such a position as being desirable for a site like this which has its share of disagreements over moderating or administrative decisions as being a positive thing overall for the general community. There may be specific cases where one may not like the outcome of a "final" decision, but the fact that you have a place to go to to make that decision is ultimately a good thing.

I suppose if they were cynical and abusive, they could leave the SC position unfilled, go and do a bunch of things and then tell you to appeal their actions to the SC. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm sure that would be a boatload of laughs for those involved, but it probably isn't good for the site.

Regardless of what form the interim position comes in, the fact that we have an acting SC is IMO a good thing.

That's as opposed to the other alternative - Not having anyplace where the buck stops until Phil and Josh are able to weigh in on the matter. That's simply not just a good situation to be in.

 

Waiting for a few days is hardly going to cause instability. On the flipside, putting people in place, and then taking them away, hardly causes stability.

I think I needed a at the end of my sentence for clarity.

 

zac: noted

Genghis: That's nice. I think we should have a place where the buck stops too. However, not having such a place for 24 hours is not going to cause the entire place to fall apart.

 

I agree with stinrab here.

 

In addition, this obviously was not intended to be temporary or you wouldn't have devised this scheme so quickly.

 

Difference: the Head Admin promoted them. Raven and KK are not the Head Admin. Even in the Head Admin's absence, such an arbitrary measure is unnecessary and uncalled for.

You're right, there is a difference. In those cases the previous head named his successor. G-S didn't. So they had to figure it out for themselves. And considering that Phil didn't even realize that Sapient was head admin recently (he thought it was G-S, prior to G-S's promotion), I'm not sure Phil really cares. So they made a temp decision to fill the gap until Phil and Josh got back to them with their thoughts on the matter, should they have any.

The current head admin has always been named by another admin. Generally it's one leaving the position. But it's also always been named to someone who's already an admin. So G-S was either going to name Raven or KK. No offense to KK (I like the guy), but he's been an admin 3 months, and a mod less than a year. Raven's been doing this a lot longer. If you need to temporarily fill the gap with someone, you want to go with the person who has experience.

 

stinrab...
"However, not having such a place for 24 hours is not going to cause the entire place to fall apart."

Oh, I agree. In fact, I have a high degree of confidence that when I log off tonight that this place will still go on and will exist the next time I log back on.

The question is, then, is guestimating when one believes the site owners will not only log on, but also address the situation in an acceptable manner.

And their frequency of visits is, shall we say, not very frequent. Whether it's 24 hours, 25 hours, 36 hours, 72 hours... Who knows?

At some point there is a line when any prudent administrator will say alright, we need to do something. I submit that that line is somewhere between say a minute after Sarlacc's resignation and the release of Star Wars Episode III. Will some people have a different preference for where that line should be drawn within that range? Sure.

Am I bent out of shape that it was after several hours instead of several days? Not really. Because if several days have gone by and nothing's been done, I'd be complaining why something wasn't done earlier.

Will there be disagreement on the exact moment an acting SC be created? You bet there is. They chose this moment. Whether it's any better or worse than any other remains to be seen.

 

Dehrian:

I'm not sure Phil really cares.

No arguments here

So they made a temp decision to fill the gap until Phil and Josh got back to them with their thoughts on the matter, should they have any.

Thing is, it's not like you'd be waiting too long for Josh and Phil to reply. A couple of days is not going to send the forums into chaos. I just feel that, by arbitrarily promoting one of their own, the Admins are sorta pushing Josh and co. into a corner as to his final decision. And that just ain't cricket.

Genghis:

The question is, then, is guestimating when one believes the site owners will not only log on, but also address the situation in an acceptable manner.

And their frequency of visits is, shall we say, not very frequent. Whether it's 24 hours, 25 hours, 36 hours, 72 hours... Who knows?

Firstly, Josh logs on fairly regularly.

Secondly, Josh and Phillip have email addresses, both of which would be regularly checked.

 

We know Josh cares+actualy visits here regularly, so I bet KK and Raven are allready PMing/EMailing him.

 

Do you really believe that Josh will log on, read that G-S has stepped down, and want to make head admin someone other than one of the two current admins?

 

Unless Sape is willing to take it back ? Nope.

 

Wow, an interesting night.

I'm sorry to see G-S go, he was an invaluable assest to the JC.

Semper Fi GS.

 

GS was a nice guy, I am sorry to see him go.
I guess it's obvious that the new Head Admin will be one of three people. So good luck in advance to either Raven, Kimball, or Darth Attorney when you receive this position.