[Brad]

I do not, and have never seen any logic in having the community vote for staff members. Yes I've tried it, seen it done on multiple client forums, and watched it spawn a flame war multiple times.

This thread has already shown that people will criticize staff members no matter who they are, do you honestly think that will not carry over to a public vote on 'who should be staff?'. What makes the masses qualified to pick a staff member in the first place? Yes I know you are all admins with your own forum, and what I said might get you a little hot because I'm sure you manage your own staff. You have your own plans and ways of doing things, and you pick staff members to see these plans to their end. You need to understand that I go through the same thing.

A good staff member is much more than someone that has the ability to code, or design. They have to be a good fit with the current staff, they have to be willing to compromise for the good of the team, they have to be willing to work with the team leader and understand that sometimes they may not agree with their leader, they have to show customers the same respect they expect to be treated with, often times they have to enforce things they do not agree with, and above all else they must have a love for the community and what it stands for. These are some of the basic things I look for when I go hunting for staff members, and while I appreciate someone throwing me a name every now and again at the end of the day I have to make sure that person is suitable to be on the staff.

I am sorry some of you don't agree with the choice of staff, but we can't make everyone happy and only pick people that the entire community adores (in fact I'm doubtful I can find someone for staff that at least one person wouldn't have a problem with). So far they have all done a great job even without all the tools they need, and I hope they will continue doing a good job in the future. They were all picked based on what they have done in the community in the past. While some members of the coder/design team may not be producing 'killer apps' they have all shown at least some understanding of working with the software. Some of them will be coding additions for .org, some of them will be moderating the forums and answering technical questions and depending on the person they may do a little of both.