What do we expect of each other as team members

Guys,

I've been wondering recently about what I see as a fairly sad but understandable drop in our activity levels as a team. I remember back to the days that we started working on the site and how exciting it was to come together and grow this site out of nothing. We all came to the table with lots of passion, energy and we were greatly proud of what we put together.

I still am greatly proud and I think we continue to share that feeling as a team.

We're now working on a major relaunch and as we got started on this and as Manny pulled the wordpress together for us I expected to see the team come together again the same way we did five or six years ago.

Realistically we're all a bit older now, have more responsibilities now and its harder and harder to find time to dedicate to our passion.

I get that.

But what do we, or should we expect from each other as a minimum contribution to our team goal of relaunching the site and updating our sections as best we can?

I look forward to reading your thoughts on this and discussing this as a team.

Ive posted what could be expected of me which is basically nothing at this time. As many of you know Ive been going through a rough time for quite a while. If my lack of participation is of concern I would be more than glad to give up my spot and step away permanently until my life goes back to normal which IMO wont be for quite some time.

Next week Ill be having surgery which will put me on bedrest for over 30 days, so if there is anything expected of me during this relaunch, Im sorry but there is not much going to happen. My health and my life right now are my priorites

Manny has agreed to take over the transfering of the toy section and I havent been shown anything on porting things over so with that being said I trust his judgment on the matter and the guidance of Neil on the best look of the toy section.

Fortunately we worked overtime to put the toy section together early on which reuslted in less work now. Granted we are doing a relaunch which requires so much work but at this time truthfully I have no other choice but to give my input on the toy section and participating/moderating the forums when needed.

Chris here...

To be honest, my own individual expectations of other team members' contribution to the site relaunch are pretty low, not because of a low opinion of them but simply because I think some of the folks who work on this site have just moved into new phases in their lives and other things have taken over... :)

I fervently believe that all of the team members on the team currently have love and passion still for this site otherwise they wouldn't have stuck around, they'd have fallen by the fandom wayside like some of our other colleagues have along the way. But, realistically, for several members of the team real life has gotten in or gets in the way, and it's just not possible for an unpaid fan site to take priority in the way that it did in the very beginning. :(

I've been online now for over 12 years and I've seen a lot of fan sites come and go in that time - I've seen massive fan sites gradually dwindle and die as people move on to other projects, or as people grow up and have to focus on earning a living, and so then have to manage their spare time differently. I believe that that's what happened to our site. :)

In my case, my life has changed a lot since I joined this team back in the summer of 2005, but I'm lucky in that I still have some time to devote to the site - even in my case however I don't have as much time as I'd like, and had this relaunch come last year rather than this, I would never have been able to achieve what I've achieved and am achieving this year in terms of the site. :(

I also can't help but wonder if, with the site relaunch, there's a feeling of "been there, done that", given that what we're doing isn't adding new content but transferring old content - to coin one example, for the Toy Section this is now the third time that that content has been uploaded. I must confess with my own content I find some of it a bit gutty as I've uploaded all these pages once, but in my case I'm able to justify it in my mind by knowing how truly crap my early HTML attempts were, and how much better these new versions will be! :)

So yeah, I think what this relaunch is a victim of is people just getting older and having to assign different priorities, which is why I say I don't realistically expect a lot from most of the other members of the team, because I understand the situation they find themselves in. As long as somebody is contributing something and thus showing that they're still plugged in and involved, realistically that's all I personally expect. :)

...That said, with the mammoth amount of content I'm having to port over for the Cartoon & Comic Sections (over 760 pages of stuff), I must admit some help would be nice! :D

Take care... :)

Chris I think you hit it right on...a lot of us have other issues that were not on the horizon when we first started, and i think it is great we worked overtime back then as far as getting the content together. If we would not have done so much work back then I cant quite imagine what it would be like now. Technically most of the content for the toy section is complete except any extras that may come along.

Im not too keen on revealing much of my personal life but you guys are my friends and that is why I have to let you guys know of some of the stuff so you can understand.

I am very scared of my upcoming surgery because it will require some bone grafting and fusing one of my toes together with plates and screws. Depressing to say the least and to top it off I will need to do my college work while bed ridden.

Chris here...

Ouch, MannyC, that sounds really painful and scary - I'm so sorry to hear of everything that you're going through my friend! :(

In the interests of providing balance I will say that I do also understand completely what Mark is saying - when you're working on something as massive as the site relaunch and it feels like you're the only person who's doing anything towards it (which at times in the past couple of months it has been almost entirely me doing anything of note), it can feel a bit futile. But, I'm a pragmatic person and have seen so many fan sites come and go, it's a testament to the passion that we all had back in the day, and still have when time allows now, that this site is not just still here but actually still active and bringing great content to fans! :)

ThunderCats will always be one of the great passions of my life and I will always give this site whatever I can spare, but I'm realistic enough to know that that won't always be a lot - which is why I'm really trying to motivate myself with the site relaunch now, whilst I have some time to give to it, so that the content I've already added to this site will still be accessible to fans with new technology and web browsers for many years to come! :)

Despite my pragmatism, I'd nevertheless dearly love to see this site and the team involved (or at least the team members who are able) enjoy a huge spurt of energy as we head towards the site relaunch date - I know that this site is the greatest ThunderCats site on the Internet and with the relaunch it has the potential to achieve even more! :)

Take care... :)

Manny has basically said all I would have said. Manny and I went into over drive with the toy section back in the day (once the back bone of the site as other sections were in their infancy)

But to add and reiterate, until someone will give me a tutorial on WordPress, then my contribution will be zero to the transfer of the site. I am simply not confident with WordPress, so can't see the point in doing pages, for them potentially needing to be done again.

and Manny don't feel bad or the need to withdraw your role. You contributed more than enough when the toy section originally went up. Good luck with your surgery! :)

Realistically, I won't be able to contribute any major material for a while.

As I said before, my college work is busier and I need to focus on it now after taking two weeks holiday off. Along with my podcast, I'm pretty busy right now. I can do a podcast episode in a week or so if I can arrange it with Chris but, interviews wise, the path is cold for ThunderCats.

Warner Bros. seem to have shut down any cast member from discussing their roles. So it means that I either interview old writers (which I've done) or old cast members (which I've done as well). I am ambitious and am constantly trying to find ways to contribute - but, without wanting to offend anyone, I'm focusing right now on my studies and personal life.

As for Wordpress, I'm struggling with that as it is. I'm using it at the moment to write college blogs and that's still a chore - and there was me considering myself a computer pro. Chris has tidied up my interviews page and I'm very appreciative of that.

I understand that this is probably annoying and stressful to all of you - which is why I'm offering to step aside for the time being.. if it's necessary. I'll try my best to contribute at some point but I have to be upfront and honest about things.

Thanks for your thoughts guys. I'd like to add some more of my own based on what has been discussed so far.

For me there is no question at all about anybody being asked to leave the team. Not for a second would I entertain that thought, I think what keeps me engaged in this site is the relationships we've built over the years here. I feel connected to something more than my animation art or statues or toys by virtue of being part of the team.

You'll all remember my one year unannounced hiatus from the site, I was very appreciative to be invited back with open arms when I returned. This is a community.

At the same time we all want to see the site grow and thrive. Some of us are at patches in our life where we can't directly contribute to that and that's fair enough. In the best interests of the site I'd like to propose we consider something like the following:


Two categories of team member status:

Status 1: Active contributing member / day to day site manager
I think Chris is a shining example of what this means for me. Somebody who actively improves their section and adds new content as it comes in. Chris makes decisions about how to change sections, moving sub categories etc. He decides whether or not to include an article written by a fan submission etc.

Status 2: Founding member status:
Any of us who joined in the formative years of the site, prior to this years relaunch... I'd consider everyone from the first He-man.org members all the way through to relative newbie Nick as being a founding member. We take on this status when we need to pull back from actively managing a section. We continue on with the site in whatever way we can. If that means checking into the forums and this team thread to see how things are going... terrific. If that means finding some new content and passing it along for the active contributing team to build into the site... even better! If it means sharing a thought or an opinion, then great, contribute however you're able.


How it might work

Some of us will be both Founding Members and also Active Contributing members, but if we need to realistically step back from active site contribution for a while then we need to be ready to hand the reins to somebody else. Maybe someone who is less busy from our current team could help. Or maybe we bring on somebody new who runs the section actively. I'd expect founding team members who want to step back to play a big part in selecting somebody to replace their active work. And they would guide that new person on what the "flavour" of the section is, how it fits into the overall site etc.

I haven't thought it out much further than that but I think based on what I read that something like this may help us all stay engaged with the site while being able to realistically look after real life.


I'd be interested to hear if this kind of fits well for you guys. Thoughts?

Chris here...

I agree with Mark, I would hate to think of anyone feeling forced to leave the team or anything of that nature - I passionately believe that everyone here is still plugged into the site and has something to give, and indeed has given so much already, I would hate to see any of you guys leave because this whole team feels like a little family to me! Yeah, I'm a bit of a sap, but I really mean it! :)

As to your other suggestion, Mark, having only just read it I'd like to take the time to digest the idea, and maybe read some other opinions, before commenting, but as always I like how well thought-out your ideas are and I think all of this sort of thing is a discussion worth having. :)

I would like to see us all have an open discussion about how much realistically we think each of us is likely to be able to contribute to the site, not just in terms of what from the old-school stuff needs adding but also for when the new series stuff begins rolling out next year. Again, not because I want to see anyone leave, but just so we can consider whether or not it's necessary to bring new team members onto the team running this site if we can. :)
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Whilst we're on this subject, I do have something else I'd like to throw on the table that I've been nervous about broaching, but this seems like as good a thread as any to get it out there! :)

As you guys probably know, over the past 18 months or so I've made a concerted effort to up my web design skills and feel that, even though I still have a long way to go, I've really upped my game in that department. Whilst I have no immediate plans to become a professional website designer I would nevertheless like to continue to develop my skills (including by overcoming design / execution challenges) and build up a little portfolio of stuff that I've worked on... :)

To this end, once the re-design is out the way and we hopefully aren't talking about 800+ pages that need doing at once (:D), I'd be more than happy to take a proactive role in this area not just in my own sections but if anyone else needs help adding anything to their sections. If there's a sudden influx of new material as a result of the new series then I may end up needing some help myself, but I'd be very happy to give anyone a hand if they need. :)

Hand-in-hand with this, I was wondering whether you guys would consider or have any violent objection to the adding of some sort of HTML-based title to my "job description" here (in the way that I'm known as Comic Section manager, Cartoon Section co-manager, etc., etc.) - I'm not suggesting for a second that I be called "Webmaster" (that should be MannyF's title if it's anybody's) but just something that indicates that I do some of the HTML stuff. :)

My reason for this is that I think this new version of the site is going to be easily one of the most impressive things I've been involved in and I'd dearly be able to love to point to this site as an example of a) what I'm capable of achieving working in a team environment, b) showing that I'm capable of inputting material into WordPress (albeit not ready to set one up yet), and c) something damned awesome that I'm proud to be part of! :)

I hope no one is offended by my raising this and I equally won't be offended if someone wants to shoot this down - as I say, I was nervous about asking but thought this thread seemed a good place to throw the idea into the mix! :)

Take care... :)

Hi Chris, I would certainly say I think that you've earned a monicker of some sort in your title that indicates you are doing some pretty awesome coding work on the site.

Chris here...

"grizzlor, post: 30139" said:

Hi Chris, I would certainly say I think that you've earned a monicker of some sort in your title that indicates you are doing some pretty awesome coding work on the site.

Hey Mark, just to say thanks for this - hope everyone else is cool with the idea too. :) If so, then the only stumbling block would be thinking of a suitable title!! :D

Take care... :)