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Who are the Admins, and what do they do?
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Mildew
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 4:02 am    Post subject: Who are the Admins, and what do they do? Reply with quote

If your answer would be "I have no idea who they are, and they don't seem to be doing much at all" then this is the thread for you!
And if that answer pisses you off, this is probably a thread for you too Wink

First of all I would like to make sure everyone understands the difference between a moderator and an administrator.
A moderator has the right to edit, move and even remove posts and threads in the forum. That's all.
An admin can do these things too, but can also modify and remove member accounts, change members postcount (we've had some fun with that haven't we Razz ), create new forum categories and change the forums visual appearance such as colors, layout and emoticons.
They also perform "hidden" tasks such as taking backups, making sure the BB code is up to date and that the server is up and running.

Now to the point:
Who are the admins?
Well, there's three of them; Jonnyv, Baldyhead, and .... ehm.... I'm not sure about the third one Embarassed
Was it mistajon?
These people was assigned the admin task during some turbulence a while back when we had a major restructuring of both admins and mods on the forum. The general idea was that most of the people running the forum never even visited, and the moderators had their positions due to the fact that they had always been moderators, not because people trusted them with the task.
We still have a few mods that haven't posted in years, but I guess we'll never get rid of them... Rolling Eyes
My point here is that when a person is no longer performing the task he/she was assigned, then perhaps it is better to make some changes. Neither mods nor admins are elected for life, and there's nothing wrong with making replacements or additions to improve the members trust in the position.
I'm not complaining about the "hidden" tasks performed by the admins. Those task seems to be taken care of, and we don't have any technical problems with the forum.
However, there has been several occasions when members have suggested visual improvements on the forum without getting any response from the admins. For example, there has been several requests for new emoticons, there was a project started concerning forum colors, and there's been a request for a new forum category. None of these has lead to any action from the admins.
I'm not saying that all member requests should be satisfied, but if there is a decision to not make the change there should at least be an answer and an explanation as to why the request was not considered.

My suggestion is this:
If the current admins are not interested in the task of managing the visual appearance of the forum, then one of them should be replaced or a fourth person should be added who's specific task it would be to care about the visual appearance.
My personal suggestion would be to replace the mysterious third admin, who obviously isn't very active since I don't even remember who it is (if it was mistajon, he hasn't posted in over a year). Adding a fourth person would also be satisfactory though.

Opinions please! Smile
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Eaving
Prince
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 4:25 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The main thing I would just like to say is I cannot say enough how appreciative I am that the Admins and the Moderators here are not abusive in any sense. Ive been on a few forums where the staff dearly loved to inflict their powers on others.
Beyond that I can't say I'm really in a position to comment to much, Im in and out of here infrequently enough myself. One or more seriously active admins generally benefits a forum, but Ive not payed to much attention to peoples tiles. The forums generally here and up so Ive assumed the powers that be are keeping it so Smile

Ah, the one thing I could offer if anyone was interested(And assuming this version of phpBB is basically the same as the one my wife is running) is a red and orange version of the subSilver theme. Its over at [url]rubysipes.com/RSForum/[/url]. My wifes website and she never decided to do anything with the forum.
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Michelle
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 5:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mildew, isn't MacG an admin? I seem to remember an announcement a couple of years ago.

Mildew wrote:
change members postcount (we've had some fun with that haven't we

Ah, yes. I've been on the receiving end of one of those. Don't forget the fun that has been had by changing people's titles too. Rolling Eyes Wink Laughing

I've noticed a difference. Over the last 12 months or so the admin and mod appearances have become further and further apart. Sir Hamster is probably the mod who posts more than the others...including yourself, young Mildew. I miss the taunting between you and Farty. In fact I rather miss a lot of the silliness that went on a couple of years ago.
There's still a lot of silly stuff with the newer members #ni-2 but it's a different kind of silly.

#ni-1

All in all, we have a great group of mods and admins here. The few times that I've seen their moderator/admin hats come on, I feel they've been justified. It would be nice to see them all taking a more active role in the forum again.

#ni-1
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JerWA
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 6:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Speaking as one that's personally lead a campaign for smiley improvements, theming and software updates, I can't say I'm impressed. For all intents and purposes this is a dead forum, administratively speaking. It took MONTHS for a thread to get stickied for crying out loud, an operation that requires checking a box and clicking OK. What few replies I've gotten have taken weeks to get, and resulted in nothing changing. In all honesty, it almost drove me to leave the team and go find one that's more actively interested in it's users.

I went to the effort of gathering smilies up and even making a smiley install pack. Result? Nothing. That's why I host all my own smilies and use them via IMG tags.

I went to the effort of setting up a test site, installing themes and modifications myself, taking screen shots, allowing test accounts, etc. Result? Nothing.

I researched solutions for keeping the spam bots out that were more robust than current measures. Result? Take a wild freaking guess.

I tried to help, I offered to do the work, I offered to explain how to do it if the admins didn't trust me to do it myself. The complete and utter lack of enthusiasm, communication, and willingness lead me to finally just give up on this site ever changing.

Having run several sites of my own, under several different software packages, and knowing exactly what's involved in setting up and maintaining a site like this, again I say I'm unimpressed. It's not brain surgery, it isn't even that big of a time commitment.

I guess I'm bitter. I cared, and I got ignored for my efforts. I imagine this thread will accomplish as much as my efforts did.
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mohrorless
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 6:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hear, Hear!!!

I do appreciate the efforts of the admins and the mods here, but it does seem that they have been kidnapped for an anal probe or something.

I'm not saying that we should get rid of out current batch, but if someone was interested in doing some of the work and taking some of the responsibility off of out current batch, then maybe we could get a couple more added to breathe some new life back into the forum.

After that the current batch could get back to enjoying their anal probe, if they really want to.

#ni-1
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Mildew
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 8:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Michelle, you are obviously not yet as forgetful as young me! Wink

Now that you mention it I also remember MacG being an admin. A good choise too, since he's a real nice and smart guy, but perhaps he also suffers from the lack of time that sometimes occurs in all of our lifes.

I know I'm not perfect myself, and I haven't been as active on the forum as I used to. As stated above, mods are not elected for life, and whenever you feel someone, anyone, isn't living up to their responsibilities, don't hesitate to post about it! I promise I won't get mad... Wink
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Killerrabbit
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 10:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Mildew is not young, I believe Jono is the other admin. We made as many mods as John Paul II made Cardinals ie a lot.

I like my personal title and my postcount as gone up and down and sideways more times than I can count (1, 2, .... errr I think it is 5).

Ni
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mohrorless
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 1:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Does anyone have a way of contacting the admin to see about getting another one (or more) annointed into their midst?
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 3:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The question is how do we contact the admins that are not really around. JV is still around ( he is and admin) and I talk to him often on IRC. I will tactfully broach this subject with him on IRC and see what he thinks.

Ni
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mohrorless
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 6:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I would approach it like:
Quote:
Since a number of the mods and admins aren't around as often as before, maybe a couple more of each could be added to take some of the work load off of the ones that are around more often


Good luck.
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JerWA
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 7:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

mohrorless wrote:
I would approach it like:
Quote:
Since a number of the mods and admins aren't around as often as before, maybe a couple more of each could be added to take some of the work load off of the ones that are around more often


Good luck.

It's a little more involved than that, however. Forum admins really can't do much more than mods, other than configuration changes. For example, while an admin can add smileys, they have to be on the server already (phpBB has no provision that I'm aware of for uploading the file itself, unlike some other forum softwares like SMF). That means file access of some kind. The same holds true for themes, modifications, etc.

So for these issues in particular, just adding another forum admin really won't address them. You need file access to the server hosting the site, something that's a lot more risky than adding an admin to the forum (which is fairly risky in and of itself).

Beyond that, you need some sort of quorum between the admins for anything to actually get done, which is what I really think is lacking now. If you can't get some sort of timely response from all of the powers involved, and get agreement, then nothing will change when you add more admins... except to make it even less likely for them to all agree about something.

That's why I gave up. It's one thing to tell someone how to drive while you're sitting in the back seat, and quite another to ask them for their keys.
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Michelle
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 8:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wabbit wrote:
Mildew is not young, I believe Jono is the other admin. We made as many mods as John Paul II made Cardinals ie a lot.

Mildew is young...compared to me. And looking at it in that light, you're a toddler. Laughing
The only 2 mods that I can think of at the moment are Mildew and Sir Hamster. I know there's more but I blame my forgettin' on a middle-age crisis. Confused Wink Wasn't MajorKong a mod years ago? That was before I joined up.
What about Lizard, the founder of the team? Is Lizard a forum admin?

Mildew wrote:
...but perhaps he also suffers from the lack of time that sometimes occurs in all of our lifes.

That's the killer, isn't it. I think nearly everybody on the net has gone through regular periods where RL has to take priority and they can't be around so much for internet friends and acquaintances. Message boards and internet groups sometimes remind me of real life situations too, like the ebb and flow of town residents. People move on to a different 'town' or 'workplace', new people move in. The social structure and personality of a suburb or small town can change as the residents change, and that effect can be felt even more strongly in a 'tiny town' like a message board or internet group.
Personally, I don't see the need for another admin unless our current admins have totally lost interest in the group. I'm hoping they haven't, and it would be nice to see them making themselves more visible again when whatever it is that is keeping them busy settles down.

jonnyv, I still haven't decided whether you have a wicked sense of humour or whether you're just plain wicked!
#ni-1
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 26, 2007 1:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

On the phpBB vs SMF front there is converter software. I'll say first and foremost Ive not researched this to heavily, so Ive no clue if it is compatable with whatever era of phpBB is running here, but the link is below.
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=142124

Regarding the access needed to Admin the forum itself, it should only require access to a specific folder on the site, so even if the person given the access wasn't 100 percent trusted they would only have the ability to upload to a folder that they could install new themes/styles from.
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JerWA
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 26, 2007 2:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Eaving wrote:
On the phpBB vs SMF front there is converter software. I'll say first and foremost Ive not researched this to heavily, so Ive no clue if it is compatable with whatever era of phpBB is running here, but the link is below.
http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=142124

Regarding the access needed to Admin the forum itself, it should only require access to a specific folder on the site, so even if the person given the access wasn't 100 percent trusted they would only have the ability to upload to a folder that they could install new themes/styles from.

Yeah, I researched the SMF converter before, on the off chance I could get them to switch. After realizing I couldn't even get a thread stickied, I decided that swapping software was way too grandiose of a plan.

Actually, with phpBB anyways, you need access to a lot of subfolders, basically everything from the forum root (which is not necessarily the site root, and actually shouldn't be the site root) and below. I don't know about version 3, it's still pre-release, and they've been working on it for like 4 years, but all previous versions pretty much suck for administration. Everything has to be done the hard way. V3 looks nice in their own forum, but that doesn't mean much about what's going on behind the scenes.

I had a webserver install running on my home network for awhile, maybe I'll fire it up again to check out phpBB3. Bet SMF is still better lol.
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Sir Furry Mark
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 26, 2007 4:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Michelle wrote:
The only 2 mods that I can think of at the moment are Mildew and Sir Hamster.

If you want to jog your memory just look for the Archbishop title.... Rolling Eyes
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jonnyv
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 26, 2007 4:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Why is everyone trying to remember who the mods are? The board will tell you. I count 3 or 4 mods who post semi-regularly - SHoE, Furry Mark, Mildew, and bpowe. I don't see the need for new mods. There just isn't much call for moderating around here. You guys don't get out of hand very often, so really the only moderating that needs done is moving spam posts into the spam dump so that an admin can delete the user.

All of the admins are in there too (sort of redundant, I know) - Lizard, simm, Baldy, MacG, and me. Just because we don't post very often doesn't mean we're not around.

Perhaps it would be helpful to have a loony in charge of change requests. A single point of contact who would take vague requests for improvements (more smilies!), turn them into specific requests (add smilies X, Y, and Z) and bring it to an admin.
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 26, 2007 4:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sir Furry Mark wrote:
Michelle wrote:
The only 2 mods that I can think of at the moment are Mildew and Sir Hamster.

If you want to jog your memory just look for the Archbishop title.... Rolling Eyes


D'oh! Sorry, Sir Furry. Sorry to bpowe too. It's the old brain, you see..... Confused

#ni-1
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 26, 2007 8:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Michelle wrote:
D'oh! Sorry, Sir Furry. Sorry to bpowe too. It's the old brain, you see..... Confused

#ni-1


Which one? The current one, or the one you stored in the moldy pumpkin?
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 3:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think change is a matter of necessity in every living organism. Aren't we a living organism? I'm spending too little time here to say anything about mods and admins, just that i don't read post from the most part of them, but, as jonnyv said, that doesn't mean they are not around the place.
However, there are some people like JerWa, that would like to get involved in some sort of way. Why don't you let them? They only need to follow the rules. I see nothing bad about it. As I said at the beginning, everything must change. Remaining the same for ever, only leads to a standstill and boredom.
It may be a little fresh air in the forum.
#ni-1
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Sir Hamster of Elderberry
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 10:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

jonnyv wrote:
...

Perhaps it would be helpful to have a loony in charge of change requests. A single point of contact who would take vague requests for improvements (more smilies!), turn them into specific requests (add smilies X, Y, and Z) and bring it to an admin.


That sounds like a call for nominations! I hearby nominate Sir MilMichVingJerMohrNus Smile

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