I've thought on this for a bit now, and recent events on a variety of fronts have pushed things too far...
I simply can't go on working for BMG (with the exception of managing the Diplo Game). I have neither the time nor inclination to spend any more time on the constant fighting that BMG's current system of rule by committee spawns.
In the past few month, rather than make progress, we've debated over and over again the same issues - because whenever a new staff member is hired, whenever someone can safely hijack a thread, we go back to discussing some old issue that should have been solved months ago.
It happened with some issues regarding World a few months ago, it happened more recently in shipping, and now it's happening again with forums listing. At some pints, if we keep debating the same issues over and over again, we'll never make progress.
And the main reason we keep debating those issues over and over again is the weak central leadership BMG has to deal with. A strong centralized leadership would be able to take those issues, and when someone raise them again, say flat-out, "This was debated already, we will not go over this again." Not democratic, but at least it's effective.
A strong leadership would also have long since got other things done - the main page, for a start.
The reason we have such a weak leadership is that, to a large extent, Archaic (and to a not too dissimilar extent myself) is too much of a dreamer to effectively lead. He's omeone who think up great vivid pictures of what COULD be done - but is rarely able to carry the project to completion, because it's just not in his personality to do that - he's too busy thinking up new ideas!
This is the kind of person Arcy is. Not that there's anythign wrong with it, far from it! The world NEED thinkers and dreamers to avoid stasis, to get new ideas, new projects.
But what the world also need is doers and leaders - people who can take the thinkers's idea, and make it into reality, actually getting the job done. THIS Is the sort of people who should assume leadership in most any major project.
And yet, what we have on BMG, is exactly the reverse. A dreamer is in charge, while a number of leaders doers - people like Zhen Lin, evkl, etc - are relegated to second-rate duties. Even that hasn't prevented them from bringing some projects forward (Bulbapedia comes to mind - Arcy dreamt up the idea, but Evan and Zhen took it and ran with it, and were able to actually bring it to a reasonable level)
In any event. I simply don't have the time or inclination to work in these conditions anymore, hence why I am stepping down as an admin.
I simply can't go on working for BMG (with the exception of managing the Diplo Game). I have neither the time nor inclination to spend any more time on the constant fighting that BMG's current system of rule by committee spawns.
In the past few month, rather than make progress, we've debated over and over again the same issues - because whenever a new staff member is hired, whenever someone can safely hijack a thread, we go back to discussing some old issue that should have been solved months ago.
It happened with some issues regarding World a few months ago, it happened more recently in shipping, and now it's happening again with forums listing. At some pints, if we keep debating the same issues over and over again, we'll never make progress.
And the main reason we keep debating those issues over and over again is the weak central leadership BMG has to deal with. A strong centralized leadership would be able to take those issues, and when someone raise them again, say flat-out, "This was debated already, we will not go over this again." Not democratic, but at least it's effective.
A strong leadership would also have long since got other things done - the main page, for a start.
The reason we have such a weak leadership is that, to a large extent, Archaic (and to a not too dissimilar extent myself) is too much of a dreamer to effectively lead. He's omeone who think up great vivid pictures of what COULD be done - but is rarely able to carry the project to completion, because it's just not in his personality to do that - he's too busy thinking up new ideas!
This is the kind of person Arcy is. Not that there's anythign wrong with it, far from it! The world NEED thinkers and dreamers to avoid stasis, to get new ideas, new projects.
But what the world also need is doers and leaders - people who can take the thinkers's idea, and make it into reality, actually getting the job done. THIS Is the sort of people who should assume leadership in most any major project.
And yet, what we have on BMG, is exactly the reverse. A dreamer is in charge, while a number of leaders doers - people like Zhen Lin, evkl, etc - are relegated to second-rate duties. Even that hasn't prevented them from bringing some projects forward (Bulbapedia comes to mind - Arcy dreamt up the idea, but Evan and Zhen took it and ran with it, and were able to actually bring it to a reasonable level)
In any event. I simply don't have the time or inclination to work in these conditions anymore, hence why I am stepping down as an admin.
