[theforum] movement for redundancy (was: movement for redesign)

Seb Potter seb at poked.org
Mon Aug 11 18:16:21 CDT 2003


>> <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
>> From: Seb Potter
>>
>> > > i'd think my participation would be critical to the
>> > > completion of weo.
>>
>> please don't take this personally, but I would really,
>> seriously hope that no single person is critical to
>> anything.
>> <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
>
> no one else knows the codebase or the database for weo like i do.
>
> redundancy in a volunteer organization is the ideal, but not usually the
> reality.  we are no different.

Considering the size and expertise of our community, there really is 
absolutely no excuse for any circumstance, be it deliberate or accidental, 
where a single person becomes the gatekeeper for the development of the 
entire community. We've been in this situation before, and I honestly 
thought we were past it a long time ago.

If you really feel that it's the case that nobody can take over what you 
see as your role within the community, then it's completely your 
responsibility to ensure that others within the community have the 
knowledge and access to do so. Do whatever is necessary (with the consensus 
of the community itself) to ensure that this happens, but *you cannot be 
personally responsible for the continued presence of evolt on the web*.

We call this the bus scenario, because if you go under one tomorrow, we're 
screwed.

>> <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
>> If we're in the position that a single person is
>> critical to the development of a part of evolt, and that
>> they feel that evolt's development cannot continue
>> without their involvement, we have to take a long hard
>> look at how we're developing as a community.
>> <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><
>
> then maybe we need to take a long hard look, because when i look around i
> see key individuals responsible for certain aspects and don't see much in
> the way of others that are able to step in and help.  at least that's 
> what i
> get from what i read on the various lists i'm subbed to.  perhaps i'm 
> just
> not subbed to the right ones.

Right then, as you appear to agree that we're in a position where you feel 
you're singularly responsible for our web presence, and that this system is 
unsustainable, we obviously need to do something about this.

After 5 years, we cannot continue to run this community as a series of 
single individuals taking isolated responsibility for key services.

There are a number of people available across sysadmin who can help with 
the list administration, as we have proven so far.

Are there other areas of evolt where we need to identify potential points 
of failure and confirm that we have contingency available to ensure evolt's 
continued presence on the web? the last thing I want to see is somebody 
disappear and leave the entire community in the lurch.

- seb

-- 
http://poked.org


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