The Elephant in the Room. (The Next Generation.)

[BossTamsin (imported)]

It's been mentioned before, I know. Usually not in a post like this, though.

Where are the next generation of EA admins?

This place seems fairly active, and the chat room is definitely active enough. Only, where are those who want to step forward and help tale up the burden of running this place? They seem to not be around. I'm seeing a lot of people who enjoy using the site, enjoy getting whatever jollies they get out of visiting here, but I don't see people willing to take the next step and help ensure the place keeps going. Nobody seems to want to come out of the woodwork to, say, help set up a backup chat server, help administer the chat room, the personals, the message boards, the stories....

Is this it? Is this place over when the current admins have finally had enough, and decide to step back? I'm not about to, but what would happen if (say) I decided I was done tomorrow? The chat would shut down, and there's nobody who can step up to keep it going. As near as I can tell, essentially the same goes for any one of those currently running the site.

You might enjoy visiting, but if nobody is willing to step up and help out, a massively valuable resource will be lost. This site is unique, it's come so far over the years, and helped so many people... it'd be a shame to lose it.

[Riverwind (imported)]

I can only add that I to feel this way, my involvement over the last couple years can be best described as winding down. We are all getting older, some of us are retired, we need new blood, we need it soon, like yesterday.

[hopper44 (imported)]

I personally didn't realize this was a problem. Is there a thread that describes what type of help is needed and how one can go about helping out?

[Losethem (imported)]

I personally didn't realize this was a problem. Is there a thread that describes what type of help is needed and how one can go about helping out?

Ding! We have a winner.

[Riverwind (imported)]

I personally didn't realize this was a problem. Is there a thread that describes what type of help is needed and how one can go about helping out?

No and maybe that's the problem or question we should be asking, however over the past several years we have asked people to step up to the plate as it were.

Maybe what we should do is give job descriptions like for a real job, note this one pays nothing.

[ZeuterMe (imported)]

It's always easier to volunteer when you know what you're getting into. And also, what's needed. :p

[Paolo]

Yeah, that's why story Mod's run screaming after a short tenure...

[BossTamsin (imported)]

Yeah, that's why story Mod's run screaming after a short tenure...

And why, over the last few years, nine out of the ten people I've asked to help Op in the chat have flat out refused.

[Riverwind (imported)]

Yeah, that's why story Mod's run scr

eaming after a short tenure...

And why, over the last few years, nine out of the ten people I've asked to

help Op in the chat have flat out refused.

It's always easier to volunteer when you know what you're getting into. And also, what's needed. :p

I think maybe the reason is that we who run the archive need to realize that what we need is not one person to take over the storyboard but 5 or 7 people, that it takes several people to moderate the chat room.

Suggestions: That we write up each job and its responsibility, we also need to have some people from France, Germany, and maybe a thread just for them.

When the job is spread over several people it makes the work easier. One person can not do it all or should.

So

I invite all who might be interested into a, and we will need to set it up, private blog posting discussion to lay out what we want our expectations, qualifications, etc. then bring it back to the main Archive and let people weigh in.

[fhunter]

Well, I avoided writing here for some time... but...

I think I can host a backup chat server if needed. (If all components can run on Linux. I have a Linux server on hand in digital ocean's cloud, and another at home, though I'd prefer to avoid using that one).

All in all - I think I can help with other things too. But it is a question of time and energy.