Thanks for having me as Admin for the past 4 years, on and off. :)
 

Hi all

I've stepped down as Admin. Being an Admin on this site has become impossible - it's one thing that I have to keep consulting Jelsoft as this is their site after all, but it's another thing that as an Admin I can't even implement strategies to get things done on the site because Mods disagree with it. It's no way to run a forum site, and I've run forums with over 100 staff.

Since my hands are completely tied as an Admin on this site, there's really no point hanging around and feeling helpless, so I've just stepped down. What's the point really.

I've got better things to do (like my day job running a cancer hospital, or managing my own forums) to be stressed over something I should be enjoying as a hobby.

Thanks for having me around. It's been a great experience.

Stefan or Brad, please change my user title - I can't remove it as I've changed myself back to Licensed.

Nice one Erwin. I think you've done a good job where you could, I've always thought of you as 'for the people' so to speak. You've helped me many times and created some great hacks in your time, especially for vB2. I didn't realise you worked in a cancer hospital, I think it's amazing you've chosen to help people live as your career. Good luck (as I can tell from your post that there'll be no changing your mind) and take care! Hopefully you'll still be around. :)

Erwin, please clear some PMs.

I completely understand your decision Erwin and wish you all the best! You are a true gentleman of the internet and the org has been fortunate to have had you serve! Hope it gets back to being that "enjoyable hobby" for you :)

Best of luck in your endevors; if you aren't enjoying it, then I totally understand. If there is room for compromise and conditions change I hope you'll reconsider.

I have never heard that said before; I think it is the most appropriate thing to say!

I think I first heard John, theMusicMan, use it to describe someone once...yes, I think it describes Erwin as well :)

I share your frustrations Erwin and wish you and your family the best :)

I don't post that all that often, but I would like to say that you will be missed as Admin here, I hope that you stick around and continue to help the peeps out (including myself) with your wise advice :)

I can understand why under the current climate of the site, I have been doing a lot of lurking of late as I do not feel compelled to add additional oil to the flames, they are hot enough as it is.

Good luck with all of your endeavours :)

Erwin,
I'm not a big vb.org user. Though I have followed this whole yes/no/maybe coders/staff thing recently.

I haven't had any dealings with you that I'm aware of, I just wanted to say that you posted this the other day:
And I sense just that phrase gave you a whole heap of respect. Not just because the communication did lack, but because for any staff member to essentially say "Hey, we screwed up, sorry" takes great courage.

Based on that sentiment alone, I think this decision is a loss to the staff team.

say it aint so Dr. Erwin! say it aint so!

Good luck Sir.

Thank You for your time and energy.

I wish you the best Erwin and hope you still frequent the site. The beautiful things about these sites is that once they get too stressful and are no longer pleasurable, you can just walk away. You will be missed I am sure.

This is definately a set back. I don't know about your four year career hear but you where a great voice of reason the last few days.

Thank you, and good luck.

Thanks for all your work, time and effort Erwin.

You'll be missed as an admin, I'm sure.

I hope you still stick around though and don't drop off the face of the planet.

Take Care,

Kerry-Anne

Well this will certainly add fuel to the fire.

Thank you for trying, Erwin. You have my utmost respect for trying your very best to change the way this forum works for the better. You shall be missed, indeed.

What a strange way to run a site. On my site, as I would guess is true with most sites, if an Admin and a Mod disagree, the site gets a new mod.

Woah - your post just disappeared.

I mean big differences - like the one in question here would appear to be.

This is a great blow to making things move forward in a positive way.

When people stand down because of frustrations with getting things done, there are that many fewer people that will try to get things done.

Less leadership != Good thing

However I respect your decision and wish you the best, I just think from a selfish angle it sucks ass.

You will be missed.

hambil - yeah I deleted it shortly after posting. I realised it may to cause a whole debate about the whos and whys of admin and mods, and I didn't want to hijack Erwin's thread.

While I hate to see you go, I can't understand this logic..

Admin < Moderators

Errrr exactly how does that work? Is that by request of Jelsoft or ?

I wish you a very farewell Erwin, i will truely miss you.

As for all the others, i can just say, that we don't have a good time these days, but you have noticed that yourself. Please all consider, that we are humans as well, there was a lot of talk about no respect and frustration the last days by coders, but some seems to forget, that frustration can also hit staff members. I won'T go into more details now, Erwins descision makes it harder for me and the rest of the team to bring the site back up to what it was, so all i'd like to asky all of you is: try to be patient, and don'T bring in more fuel to the fire.

Hear hear. Im not quite shure, but i dont have a good feeling about everything that happens in here.
:confused:

Its about time, the mods is willing to do some changes in here. What do you expect, when we members are sitting on the side and see how things turn.
This is no good for VBorg ang vBulletins reputation.

Goodbye and goodluck :)

You shall sorely be missed Erwin, we all know you where a great admin. But with the mods disagreeing with everything you want to do, I think is rather wrong. But good luck and have fun, Hope to see you around the forums :)

wow, this was unexpected! I wish you luck with your ventures in life. Hope you will still come around from time to time! :(

Thanks for your time and efforts Erwin, wish you the best of luck in life :)

It can wear on the best of people when their members express themselves poorly when critizing the administration of a site. I have no doubt that if those who whined the most had just spent a little extra effort trying to get their point across without being rude and condesending in the process, then it wouldn't have gone down like this.

What has changed is not the people who run the site, its the people who use the site. Over the years the ratio of coders to leechers has declined considerably and some of those who are coders have developed a sense of entitlement.

Anyone who admins a site here knows exactly what I am trying to say.

That vb users who pay for the privilage of accessing this site are leeches?

or users for that matter ;)

Best of luck to you Mr. Erwin. Thanks for everything.

Goodluck Erwin.

I've gained a great deal of vB knowledge from some of your posts

Erwin;

Thank you for all your time and effort.

You'll be missed, I hope you continue to visit the community from time to time....

Take care,
Roms :)

Hey does that mean I'll be having your position? Just kidding. :P

Man you have done a great job for vB.org so thanks for your support and everything. :)

Strange, I always thought admins ran a site and had the final decision ?

Anyway, Good luck in whatever you do now Erwin.

Hopefully VBO will survive all these events and emerge a better place. :)

This is messed up. I never heard of an admin being prevented from action by a moderator... Instead of resigning, I'd change staff organization around a little.

as far as i can remember we are currently working on the restructurization ;)

We'll miss you Erwin. All the work and effort you put into this site is commendable, and we thank you for all of it. Good luck with everything.

He was also the only one who had the class to publicly apologize:

With that post I recognized Erwin as an adult, with a clear vision and an eye on "the bigger picture." It's too bad he was a lone voice amidst the din. He gave me hope that the was a light at the end of the tunnel.

I'll kick back and see what developments are in the works for change around here; based on what I've seen over the last week though, I'm not optimistic.

Erwin, you will be missed.

I've only had the pleasure of knowing you a short time, Erwin. I was looking forward to future conversations. Anyway, take care and continue to do good at the hospital. :)

Best wishes Erwin. You're a good man and an asset that I'm sure will be missed at the org.