The End of an Era

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ShadowSpectre
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The End of an Era

Post by ShadowSpectre »

I've been thinking for a good long while now that I'm not cut out to be an administrator of this forum. Not that I'm bad at what I do; I'm probably very good at what little I do in this role, but I personally don't believe I'm good enough to continue holding the position.

This isn't a reflection upon other staff members; although I personally believe that at present, no single staff member possesses all the qualities required for the "perfect" staff member; far from dictating a new ruling order, as it were, frankly, there doesn't seem to be a chronic issue with the staff at this moment in time, though it's my personal view that there needs to be an element of self-moderation and assessment amongst the staff at present. Regardless of this, I reiterate that my reason for resigning is a personal choice and not in protest at the other staff members.

My hunt for a successor actually started in early December. It was quite difficult; what I had to do was mentally list the traits to fulfil two criteria:

1. Being an effective administrator
2. Effectively balancing the staff interrelation dynamic

Eventually, I decided that I needed a balance that was leant towards the second point; the mixture of personalities and styles of moderation currently in existence resulted in something that was fairly stable: Alex's decisiveness, Pure's perceptiveness, VR's caution, IE's practical skill, each person had elements key to keeping a site running. Personally, I believed that I had a share in each of those traits, though with obvious flaws: a(n occasionally reckless) decisiveness that spurred a renovation of the forum layout; a quick (if sometimes naive) sense of perception, a (not always present) cautionary thoughtfulness and consideration; and a pragmatism that was comparable if not greater than IE's, although I will be the first to point out that I lack the actual skill to keep this place going smoothly in terms of systems. Those qualities were therefore redundant; they'd already been catered for, despite not being integrated into a single component to run the community. I therefore decided to turn to other attributes applicable to me.

Turns out there's a lot.

Whittling it down to the key few that I thought were most important and adding it to the aforementioned skills present in other moderators, I made a list of things to look out for in a potential administrator. For the purposes of preventing the slim possibility of offending people, I'll keep the full list of traits to myself.

The issue was this: no single person fit every shoe. It was horribly frustrating to have spent so long looking over past experiences and the rest of the staff and finding that the forum community doesn't have an Aragorn equivalent.

I had to assess people individually, and that has taken a great deal of time.

There were certainly mistakes in how I carried it out. I asked some people some questions and others none. I spent longer examining some than others. However, it is my opinion that I did enough; I had a shortlist. The people I was considering were, in no particular order:

• Spriterkid
• CoreShooter
• PureQuestion
• MintE
• SnipeHeart
• Zaximillian
• Dabir
• Concept
• SPIDER
• FireFox11

This was much too large a list, but it served its purpose.

I went through and assessed each person individually to eliminate them, and these were my thoughts:

Spriterkid is an active member of the forum community, and has proved to be a popular and well-respected one. Such respect is invaluable, and he has sense, though not in quantities that are necessarily enough to advocate owning it. He has bursts of sensibleness, if you will; however, he can occasionally be a bit of a volatile individual. He does have bouts of tetchiness that made me a little wary.

CoreShooter is a very honest person, from what I've seen of him on the forums. Thoughtful, he clearly pays attention to things before he talks about them. My "concern" is that he has other things to do. It isn't a real concern because frankly, I empathise, the forum isn't, wasn't and will not be, nor should be everything to a person. CoreShooter may be a little less than experienced, too; while I dislike discriminating against ages, he is one of the youngest members here, and I have concerns that when talking to more established people, he might be overruled a lot.

PureQuestion is the only one of the moderators that I'd consider for a promotion. The middle ground between Alex's decisiveness and VR's caution, he has demonstrated an intelligent approach to situations. However, he errs on the cautious side and therefore seems to lack a certain boldness that is often required to solve a problem; he's a bit too passive. In addition, PureQuestion already being part of the staff means there would merely be a lack of a staff member which, while reducing the problem of logistics in staff numbers that I've been worried about for a good few months, doesn't solve the problem that there's an element missing from the set of staff that I somehow managed to provide.

MintE is one of the most logical people on the forums with a very clear opinion (if not always a clear explanation) and the confidence to make it known. On issues that have come up in the past, he has made swift judgements that have made sense. However, he has an outspoken air of arrogance and a less-than-ideal amount of patience to deal with some issues that haven't necessarily interested him.

SnipeHeart's caution and care to assess a situation based on everything involved does not go unrecognised; he has been incredibly careful to reach a conclusion that is both fair and sensible while observing a development. However, this appears to be the problem; while observing it. There's a lack of decisiveness that comes as a result of being this careful. Snipe will do things and when he does, it's solid, but it's often slow to act.

Zaximillian is the most mature and reasonable person on the entire forum. Easily surpassing the levels of responsibility currently present in the staff (myself included) and with a deductive mind superior to most people and a creative streak that would result in innovative ideas and determination and drive to see most things through to the end, I have one grave, grave concern: that the role of administrator will become something that rules Zax. While administrator is indeed a high position here, be under no pretences, this forum is not that important. However, the way Zax puts his heart and soul into everything he does makes me worry that taking on a role like this would end up causing him to burn himself out, and he has better things to do than look after a poxy little forum like this one.

Dabir is clearly an able intellectual with an imaginative approach to a problem, whatever the problem is. He has excellently formed opinions and has no trouble picking things apart using basic logic, a calculator set to its native latin function and six pieces of silver. However, his perennial problem is his laziness. If he does things, he does them well, but only if he ever gets round to doing them.

Concept is the newest member on my list, and he's on it because he's a very thorough-minded person, from what little I've seen of him. He appears to have the qualities required, but he is the untested one on the list of people. I'd consider him much more highly for the position were it not for the fact that I haven't seen very much of him. However, I would keep an eye on his progress and interaction with other members for the future, since he shows a lot of promise for a regular member.

SPIDER is probably the most surprising member on the list on the basis that most of us agree that he can be an absolute prick at times. I'm not quite willing to overturn that ruling, but he is the most diligent member on the forum and will happily work at something if it needs work and get it done. He'd make an excellent practical administrator, but his whimsical nature makes me wonder what would happen under his rule.

FireFox11 is another very mature member of the forum. Incredibly reasonable, very intelligent and clearly amicable, not to mention embarrassingly (for most of the rest of us) modest, he'd be a very good choice, but his reluctance to involve himself in others' problems is a tad worrying. He does have a tendency to reserve opinion, and when it comes to administrating, that's a necessary trait.

Having gone through the names, I eventually pulled together a few names from the mix as those I thought were most suitable for the role and would work best in relation to, but not necessarily with the current administration so much as performing a balancing role. The others were eliminated due to their negative points outweighing their positives.

• Spriterkid
• CoreShooter
• MintE
• SnipeHeart
• Dabir
• FireFox11

From this shortlist, it was actually quite difficult to differentiate the "lesser of evils"; they're all good in different ways, but their negatives are, too.

I eventually decided to eliminate CoreShooter and Dabir; the former's youth would not bear him well to start with, nor should his own concerns be overshadowed. The latter's sloth nature would impede work that needed doing imminently.

This left a choice of four: FireFox11, Spriterkid, MintE and SnipeHeart.

After long consideration, I elected to promote, or, at the very least, commend MintE for promotion to the position of Administrator. While he does have a touch of arrogance, it isn't like I didn't; his logical mind and consideration of opinions as well as his own to make effective decisions that I believe will be correct, fair, and above all, just. While FireFox's abilities are not few in number, his passive personality would lend itself to stagnancy. SnipeHeart's lack of decisiveness would mean that there would be a greater lag in any applied moderation. Spriterkid may not be able to rely upon his bursts of sense to carry him through administrative decisions. Overall, I thought that Mint's style and thought processes would make for an excellent replacement for me.

I wish him every fortune for the future and hope that the membership of the forum shows him the kindnesses that they showed me.
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Re: The End of an Era

Post by Ex-Rumia »

We're all sad to see you step down Sir Spectre. But as long as you stick around we have no need to miss you. See ya around~
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Re: The End of an Era

Post by SnipeHeart »

Kudos to you, Mint.
Sad to see you step down, SS.

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Re: The End of an Era

Post by PureQuestion »

Honoured to have been considered; it was nice working with you, and I hope if nothing else you remain a visitor.
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Re: The End of an Era

Post by Aquamancia »

Grats to Mint on becoming an admin, and I hope you stay around, SS.
Last edited by Aquamancia on Mon Mar 05, 2012 12:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The End of an Era

Post by Infinity's End »

Final confirmation received. Promotion complete.

Welcome back, MintE.

Farewell, Spectre.
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Re: The End of an Era

Post by Xeilumardrox »

Congratulations, MintE.
And farewell, ShadowSpectre. Visit and/or stay around any time you want.
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Re: The End of an Era

Post by MintE »

Thank you for the warm welcome.

I'll try my best to at least fill the position SS had.


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Re: The End of an Era

Post by Kamui OS »

Congrats and good luck.
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Re: The End of an Era

Post by CoreShooter »

It's time to step up, Mint. I'm sure you'll do great!

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