Sandy's Manifesto?

[RPGnet Columns]

Post originally by Nuredin at 2001-11-14 07:04:23
Converted from Phorums BB System

Okay, silly subject line.

I really, really enjoy RPG.Net and the mission statement really sets out what we already know -RPG.Net is the place to be, whether we want to know what's going on in the industry, or we want advice or if we just want to hang out.

There are no buts.

One thing worry's me, though. Is RPG.Net synonymous with Sandy? I mean (heaven forbid) Sandy gets pissed off with the whole Shebang and walks away tomorrow. What happens?

Would the mission statement still apply?

Alan.

[RPGnet Columns]

Post originally by Sandy Antunes at 2001-11-15 01:20:16
Converted from Phorums BB System

Hi,

Ooh, good question. The theoretical answer is "as a site with no editorial voice, the loss of the 'editor' would not be critical", but in many ways that's too theoretical and neglects the fact that RPGnet does have a voice, me as advocate for new projects and team leader. So let's look at its history.

For 1996-1997, if Sandy (me) had flaked and walked off, the site would have still continued with Emma and Etrigan/Shawn and Erich and the other volunteers, someone would have been there to step up and take my place. That was the "Sandy was noisiest of many" era.

In 1998-1999, the volunteer base was strong enough that it probably would have continued without me, but with the original founders drifting off I was in a more central role, so that's a tough call. That was the "Sandy as project manager" era.

In 2000, I _did_ disappear and the site continued with other people operating it, with mixed results. In 2001, I was operating the site solo so me flaking would have killed the site-- but we did a lot of rebuilding of morale then.

So I think we're back into a situation more akin to the 1998-1999 period. There are enough volunteers and contributors that I think the _voice_ of RPGnet will continue. Allan is now taking up co-operations (both of us get email to 'www@' and 'info@', and he's already handling the press releases aspect). So having me as "project manager" is no longer the single point of failure-- if I flake, there's someone to pick up the slack.

Since I'm finishing up my PhD thesis, me taking a lesser role with RPGnet is a very strong concern-- in fact, it's expected and was one of the big motivators in selling to Skotos. We needed to grow past a one-man effort. Already I'm no longer sys admin or tech lead, I won't be handling press releases or reviews soon, and I'm moving away from being the person who handles new partnerships and translations and such. I'll be still working with the site daily/weekly, but focusing on the columns (my first love).

The Mission Statement was so Allan and me and Shannon all started on the same footing with distributing the workload. But RPGnet will change because we change every year, and I'd argue that the readers and contributors have a stronger role in this than any single staffer.

For example, if you disagreed with the Mission Statement's portrayal of what RPGnet is, whose to say who is more valid: the person putting up the content, or 100 noisy readers saying what they want?

But that's just me :)
Sandy
sandy@rpg.net