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

[Xenon]

Well, to tell the truth, i am not happy with what Erwin did here, and post some internals public. I have a great respect for him, but that wasn't really needed, and just makes it harder for myself and the rest.

Yes, the way we did run vb.org wasn't that good in the last month, it seems that such a big site needs more of an hierachial structure, and not such a democratic way of descissions we did in the past. But that's a mistake Erwin, myself and Brad made. We were the admins, and handled it this way. This way has lead to problems, that's bad. Actually a mod who disagreed with Erwin on a specific topic was now mentioned as the reason for Erwins step down. But that's not the only reason. For example i had the same opinion as the mentioned Moderator, and therefore, it was not just a mod who made it harder for Erwin, but also an Admin, namely me.

I want to excuse to those who got into the weels of our System. As i said, we namely Erwin, Brad and myself as Administrators during that time, are responsible, that it got that far. Everyone has to draw the consequences. I was close to resign myself, but i think the better way would be to bring vb.org back to what it was. That's why the structure of vb.org's staff will be changed deeply now.

We have three Admins, ever admin has his resort and is absolutelly responsible for his resort. If a member of the staff makes problems, then the Admin has and will take the needed actions. Also as admin of one resort, we won't interact into the other resorts, apert from 'giving a little help when there is a question'. Descission are made in the way they need to be made.

General descisions of vb.org will be made by all three Admins in a democratical way. Descissions in the specific resorts will be made by the group leader, and the staff will have to follow. Of course, we will always have an open ear for suggestions, but the final descission is made by the Admins.

Soa situation like that shouldn't appear anymore.

[sabret00the]

Originally Posted by Xenon

Well, to tell the truth, i am not happy with what Erwin did here, and post some internals public. I have a great respect for him, but that wasn't really needed, and just makes it harder for myself and the rest.

Yes, the way we did run vb.org wasn't that good in the last month, it seems that such a big site needs more of an hierachial structure, and not such a democratic way of descissions we did in the past. But that's a mistake Erwin, myself and Brad made. We were the admins, and handled it this way. This way has lead to problems, that's bad. Actually a mod who disagreed with Erwin on a specific topic was now mentioned as the reason for Erwins step down. But that's not the only reason. For example i had the same opinion as the mentioned Moderator, and therefore, it was not just a mod who made it harder for Erwin, but also an Admin, namely me.

I want to excuse to those who got into the weels of our System. As i said, we namely Erwin, Brad and myself as Administrators during that time, are responsible, that it got that far. Everyone has to draw the consequences. I was close to resign myself, but i think the better way would be to bring vb.org back to what it was. That's why the structure of vb.org's staff will be changed deeply now.

We have three Admins, ever admin has his resort and is absolutelly responsible for his resort. If a member of the staff makes problems, then the Admin has and will take the needed actions. Also as admin of one resort, we won't interact into the other resorts, apert from 'giving a little help when there is a question'. Descission are made in the way they need to be made.

General descisions of vb.org will be made by all three Admins in a democratical way. Descissions in the specific resorts will be made by the group leader, and the staff will have to follow. Of course, we will always have an open ear for suggestions, but the final descission is made by the Admins.

Soa situation like that shouldn't appear anymore.

Glad to hear it, it seems as though real progress is being made, is there an ETA of when these changes will come in to effect? and a projected ETA in which these changes will start to impact the end users here?

[Xenon]

Well, i have sent out some pms to potential staff members already, and made some changes in the back to get the system running smoothly soon. I think the restructurization of the staff will be done completely within the next week, at least for the coding staff i have set next friday as an eta for myself.

When the staff is built, each section will have their own etas on things, sorted by importance

[Reeve of shinra]

Erwin:

Thank you for the time and energy you've put into the community here. With everything you have going on, I was constantly suprised that you found the time to be here.

Off Topic:

My site runs in a fashion where the mods have equal as the administrators. That was great when there 5 of us but difficult when we reached over 20. Such a system does have drawbacks from my own experiences, it has advantages as well. I just wanted to add that bit in since it really isnt a common way of doing things.

[Ohiosweetheart]

Originally Posted by Xenon

Well, to tell the truth, i am not happy with what Erwin did here, and post some internals public. I have a great respect for him, but that wasn't really needed, and just makes it harder for myself and the rest.

sorry but I don't think explaining why he was leaving is a bad thing at all. People were bound to ask, speculate, come to their own conclusions, etc... so in my eyes, it's better to put the truth out there, even if it's not pretty, so that rumors don't grow wings.

[Xenon]

well, i have no problem about posting the reason that he has problems with some staffmembers, but posting direct examples of internal discussed issues is something different. Also as it's not the whole story, as i said, i had the same opinion as this mentioned moderator on that topic, but i wasn't mentioned, and so everyone came to the conclusion that the mods have more powers than admins, whats not correct, as it was actually an admin and a moderator in different opinion to Erwin.

As i said the situation at all wasn't nice and i could understand the reason why Erwin left, but it's not exactly what he posted in public. But now we have to live with it. I still have to thank Erwin for a good time as CoAdmin, and i hope he'll stay here on vb.org.

[Ohiosweetheart]

no we didn't think that Mods have more power than staff. Perhaps just too much say as to what will and won't happen.
But I think all of that has been cleared up now, thank you, Stefan.

[JD45]

Wow, staff stepping down is becoming common place around here..

[PixelFx]

thanks for all your hard work here

[yinyang]

perhaps less admining for edwin means more time for him to create more wonderful modifications?