I decided last night that it is time for me to step down as IFAS Webmaster. Why? The short answer is Bike Sheds (no, I haven't gone insane, I'll explain in a moment).
First though, a note on the events of last night. Yes, there was another IFAS teacup storm last night. No, it is not thre reason I am resigning, just the trigger, the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. Some things were said that I find deeply hurtful and un-fair and it got to me. It got to me FAR too much. I think the best description would be that I saw red. I made a hasty post in public that was not entirely accurate and also un-fair which didn't help defuse the situation. The user involved knows who they are and have accepted my appology for that so there is no need to name names and I'm not going to dredge up what exactly was said by the person who triggered the 'incident' or by me, there has been a lot of disussion behind the scenes and we have sorted things out amicably so I really don't want this post to un-do that, it would not help IFAS or anyone.
Anyhow, This place has gotten to me a few times recently and that's not right. This is supposed to be a fun place to have fun times sharing our great hobby, it's not supposed to be something you stress over or get upset about, hence I'm stepping down as webmaster.
Now, what's all this about bikesheds? Well, the way things stand at the moment the job of webmaster is an impossible one. The main reasons are that the role is not clearly defined. No one knows what the webmaster's responsibilities are, what the committee's are, where the committee ends and the webmaster begins etc. This results in micromangement, roundabouts, endless discussions and almost no actual work being done. This needs to be sorted out for my successor so that he/she/they can get on with it. Basically, as I see it, the policy decisions need to be made by the committee but the nuts and bolts need to be looked after by the webmaster who needs to be able to get a spec and then just get on with it and build the thing. I.e. he needs to be let build the bike shed! For an explanation of the bike shed analogy have a look here:
www.bikeshed.com/
. The committee in conjunction with the community (the most important people here) need to work out a set of requirements and then leave it to the new webmaster(s) to implement, they will have the skills needed. Then, when something is delivered the community need to get involved again to tweak it and give it direction for the future.
As I see it this has the potential to be a really positive thing for IFAS. I've had this job since the very start, I made it up! I used to love it and I was bubblying with enthusiasm about it, now I've lost a lot of that, I'm just worn out. I've laid a solid foundation, what we need now is a person or a team of people, bubbling with enthusiasm and fresh ideas to drive this site to the next level, yes we've come along way but we can go MUCH further! There is talk of a web team rather than a web master in the future and I'm fully in favour of that. There are a lot of very varied skills needed to be webmaster for a place like this. You need design skills, coding skills (client, server and database) and you need managment skills to look after the moderation aspects etc. It's hard to find one person who is very good at all those things, I wasn't! I muddled through because I have good coding skills and enough of the rest to get by. There is probably no one who is an expert at everything that is ideally needed but there most certainly are people who are very skilled at individual chunks so having a team makes sense.
Anyhow, if you have the enthusiasm, the energy and the skills to get involved please do so! The new team can count on my help during the transition period and I'll be volunteering to help out in what ever way I can. Give me a spec of some component that needs coding and I'll be as happy as a pig in muck. I just need out of the 'management' end, it's better for me and for IFAS. New blood, new ideas, new energy .... the sky's the limmit!
Bart B.
