Subject:
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Re: Hope to help, edify and soothe, but probably won't
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Tue, 17 Dec 2002 19:40:02 GMT
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Viewed:
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562 times
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In lugnet.general, John P. Henderson writes:
> In lugnet.general, Justin Pratt writes:
> > In lugnet.general, David Koudys writes:
> <lil' snippage>
>
> First, let me say thank you to Dave K., who I think wrote a wonderful post
> at the beginning of this thread. Then Justin wrote...
>
> > ...but this comes with the understanding
> > that the sites exist largely at the whims of their owners. If they think that
> > it's not worth it, the sites will expire, despite anyone's best wishes or
> > well-written posts.
Agreed--this is the obvious part. I have a personal website that's been up
since '94 and continues to be up only at the auspices of, well, me. Why do
I have a website up? There's never been a consensus on that one ;) It'll
stay up until, frankly, I'm sick of it, and I'm nowhere near that point at
this time--I have never received any negative comment since the sites
inception, and I find it to be one of my enjoyable hobbies. That said,
since '94, I have received approiximately 20000ish hits (only up to half can
be from me ;) ) I would imagine that LUGNET receives substantially more
hits than that every month, and I have read 'negative' comments directed at
the admins in the guise of 'help'.
I look at the volunteer organizations that I have been involved with over
the years--boy scouts, church groups, et al, and the number one reason for
people quitting their positions (that I was privy to) in the volunteer
community, was negative flak from participants. One or two negative
comments can be 'shrugged off'. However, when you feel get to the point
that all you hear is the bad criticisms, you wonder if its worth it, and
then you get out or you get bitter.
Yes there would be other things that would make someone stop their volunteer
services, but negativity from those that are, basically, using the
volunteer's time and resources, in my opinion, is ranking right up there.
And, again, in my opinion, mentioning that we, as a community, can go on all
fine and dandy without their support, i.e. LUGNET, Brickshelf, et al, while
true in a sense, is about as helpful as saying, "Stop bleeding" to an
injured person and then walking away.
>
> This may be true with regards to the specific sites mentioned. It does give
> me reason to provide thanks and gratitude to certain people (such as Todd &
> Suz & a few other 'founding members'). However, and I mean no offense to
> them, my love for the online FOL community is such that I would hate to see
> it ever dissolve simply because of a hypothetical future decision on the
> part of any of them. I'd like to think our community is bigger than that,
> that somehow these sites exist because of all of us. I'd like to think that
> we as a group would find a replacement if one or more of these sites up and
> closed.
Agreed--the community wouldn't disappear, just this bright little corner of it.
> It is almost frightening that our community could be shut down at the whims
> of a tiny number of people. Don't get me wrong, I think that our Admins
> have done a fine job of recognizing even the parts of FOLdom that don't
> interest them by being relatively unbiased when operating in an Admin role.
> However, there are a million reasons why they could lose heart or be forced
> to turn away from their duties at some point in the future.
I would imagine that the admins here in LUGNET would 'hand-off' LUGNET to
someone, or some people, should they choose to ever 'get out'. But that's
just me talking--I have no idea what would actually happen. The thing is to
support people, even with just our words.
Supporting folks doesn't mean be all 'flowerly' and stuff--I love
constructive criticism! There are ways of getting your point across without
sounding condescending or disagreeable.
>
> One wonders what could be done to prevent that sort of thing. What do other
> hobbyists and clubs do to prevent being shut down if their founding members
> leave the community? Do they incorporate? Do they form official
> organizations that in turn legally buy the 'property' of things like
> websites? One wonders... How do we preserve our community? How do we plan
> for all future contingenies? ... Should we?
All good questions. Mayhaps we should open up a dialogue if the admins are
so inclined. If not, we leave it alone.
>
> Regardless of all my babbling here, I will note that Lugnet and certain
> other AFOL related sites are my primary reason for going online. If not for
> the online FOL community, I would seriously consider saving my money and not
> even bothering to have an ISP.
I'm getting to that point. Since I have basically given up my on-line
roleplaying game, EverQuest, I find myself hitting CNN.com, LUGNET (and all
other LEGO related sites) and my own homepage--that's about it.
>
> Whether these sites are perfect or not, I commend everyone who runs them and
> everyone who contributes to them, you have transformed my hobby to have an
> added dimension I would not wish to be without.
>
> Thank you all!
> -Hendo
Thanks Hendo for a great post!
Dave K
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Hope to help, edify and soothe, but probably won't
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| (...) <lil' snippage> First, let me say thank you to Dave K., who I think wrote a wonderful post at the beginning of this thread. Then Justin wrote... (...) This may be true with regards to the specific sites mentioned. It does give me reason to (...) (22 years ago, 17-Dec-02, to lugnet.general)
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