h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

i,ve got grunge cow's just how cool is that


off to do the school run in a mo so see you lot later

>>UNDER CONSTRUCTION - PLEASE BE PATIENT>>

Eh, surely that should be 'Under Construction. We Apologise For The Inconvenience'?

I'm just happy to have a working site of our own - well, the bits I use work at least

I just wrote an answer to this and lost it. Whoops. (Am at work and got a phone call and must have closed the browser in my confusion)

Anyway, I did say that

1. There are far too many threads saying the same thing, because
2. There are so many places to post this sort of thing in. People start threads about it in their journals, and in Ask, and a few even do it where they're supposed to - in various Announcements or Feedback threads. This is what must be making Ben's life so difficult.
3. There was an appeal for people to come forward as volunteers. (I think fluffy asked) Here: F21546918?thread=8268576
4. Announcements and simple directions are missing somewhat on the FP. If you follow the Feedback button, you land at an "A" number which has a link at the top to a new "A"-number which takes you to a huge page regarding feedback which no one will plough through if they only came in for a bunch of daffs.

I agree TC.

I'd liek to see three feedback forums

Technical
Editorial
Community
Everything else

Or just maybe four

Technical
Editorial
Community
Everything else

Three woudl be

Technical
Editorial
Everything else

I'd go for

Technical
Editorial
Community

Quite kea - there should never be such a thing as "Miscellaneous" or people get too lazy to think where it should go. But Ben's the Boss.

<>

Did you *really* mean that the way I read it?

I really REALLY hope not.

hey i'm back that was one hell of a school run today

doesn't time fly when you are having fun on a tractor

yeah! (off topic but hey who cares)

>>>
I'd go for

Technical
Editorial
Community
<<<


Or even:

Editorial
Technical
Community



('cept I would probably resist the Community being last ).

I have been thinking that I am one of those who has been conspicious by their absence today.
It is all down to not knowing what to say.

Ben, you are overloaded and stressed, state the obvious Peanut. I am very relieved that you are now no longer a mod, I think it was a wise move.

You now need to let the CE's step into threads to firefight or do explainations when it comes issues to do with moderation. If there isn't the capabilty within the team to take on that aspect of their role (and sorry it is their role not yours) then there is a big problem that needs to resolved with that team.

I do not really understand why you are writing up the mod pages, the mod process or yikesing pages. Again this should be in the CE's remit and they should be doing with the help of Aly. Again I don't know why this isn't happening.

With regard the help pages, yep I would be overwhelmed by 150, but as has been already suggested, is that really necessary and again why isn't the workload being shared out into the teams that there are, why is this coming down to you and Happy Nerd? Really is there no-one is the guide, tech, community teams that can not take responibility for those help pages that need priortising and be liasing with 'the board' instead of this all going through you

If the help pages are out-dated in the short term put out a shout out, can volunteers and researchers sub to help pages so if someone is asking for help they can a) help them or b) steer that individual in the right direction.

Noesis, Kea and I bang on about processes, so everyone I am going to do it again.

I urge you, all editors, all volunteers to look at the discussions, the processes that you are going through there and ask yourselves, could we in fact be doing that here on h2g2. In areas already set up.

I'll leave out all the stuff about inclusivity and positive dynamics with the potential for crossover between teams,etc and the fact that I think having all volunteer activities and discussions happening on Noesis is stifling and somewhat divisive and leave it at that.

It is time effective, you are redoubling your discussion, consultation is 'just' listening to people and discussing with them. Ok it is more than that, it *does* take facilitation skills, but again, I think that that the team leadersand their teams have these skills to manage onsite discussions. They should be now in a position to discuss volunteers structures, roles, responsibilities, ideas and challanges with the community. If you are the only person that can put or pull this together. Then yes we have massive problems.

It is more productive, this community is resourceful, it is highly skilled, full of very capable people and there is a hell of a lot of good will out there for it. In my field we call this community capacity. For instance there will be reseachers that will not want to be involved in committee stuff, they will not want to volunteer for a role such as Ace, Guru whatever, but they will be prepared to volunteer to do tasks, very useful tasks. You will find that some gaps are filled quite organically.

So your role, Ben, is NOT to manage h2g2 in it's entirity. This is going to sound brutal put on public record but actually it appears to me that that is what you are doing, it's just that you are in some denial about it and you think it is manageable because it is just temporary, for the interium. I don't think it is manageable, it is an unreasonable ask of you. Sod the site, you know I am concerned for you, I really am. As I have already said you need to step back from other roles, be clear about your responsibilities and let others step up and grow into theirs.


Your skill set put you in the business team, you have a pivotal role the setting up of these company structures and a responsibilty to explain that to the community. That is, or should be your role, imo.


So lets deal with those questions that have been asked about the company set up. I get that you want everything to be just be so before you come back to us. For me personally, I am quite happy with the start of the explaination that has been given me by Z and by you ( and a bit extra that I got off on Effers space), I think there is a good enough idea of what the board is going to look like re NPL and those are the key points that I wanted to know.


I get that you can't give me precise details about shares and dividends at this time and I was not and am not going bellyache about it.

I did not think that I was demanding of you or of your time in asking those questions. I didn't demand answers, I didn't demand more information than what you or Z could give, I did not realise that you and Z did not have even those minutes to give. I am sorry.

I need to get my head round the fact that we are 2/3 owned by a 'for profit' company that is made up of the Larholms and Robbie Stamp. I need to think through the general implications of this, I would like to discuss it with reseachers, generally, I don't see why that has to be so stressy and so difficult to make a start on this. Although I do see that is stressy and difficult for you because you don't have the time to do it, until you have done everything else.


I don't see that if there was a general discussion about it, why it is only you and Z who have to 'deal' with it. Maybe it is something we could discuss amongst ourselves, you never know You were not the only ones involved the decisions that were made, there was a whole IC.

I fail to see why Robbie and the Larholms couldn't sub to a discussion thread that discusses where we at now, again spreading the load so it isn't all on your shoulders, Some of the questions that researchers have are for them, so Robbie, Aly and Brian, what were your intentions/vision when you brought this site, how that's working out for you? For instance. Surely they can speak for themselves to us, not through you.



If no-one has the time, then it is so, I will wait then till you do, because I don't want to add to your workload, I don't want you to be spending time talking to me instead of working on how you are going to present this to the community because really I am not that selfish and I don't consider myself to be that important.



Finally, if you do not have the time to reply to this post, just don't. Really I don't actually mind if you don't. In fact I feel really guilty making you read it, it didn't look this long

As always, all the best Peanut

Hi there peanut.

I'm writing this from the computer next to Ben's where she has done all the work!

I have to admit at first I thought *why does Ben have to do this all,it's not fair, I want some of Ben'. If there was a workable alternative to Ben doing this work, I would be the first to suggest it. I want to spend time with my wife!

And then I realised that actually what Ben is doing, diagraming and defining processes and documenting them in clean explainable diagrams is actually a specific skill. What we could do with out Ben we did without Ben, and we could muddle through without Ben. With the help pages someone needs an overview of them, not to write them, all but a structure and an overview.

What Ben is doing with the mods isn't writing up the processes or help pages, as they've done that themselves, what she's done is designing new software tools to make life easier for them.

With the other teams she is helping them with processes and structures, and she is also working on the overall processes and structure.

It looks dead easy, but it isn't. It's not something I can do, it's not really something that the rest of the teams can do. Well they can, but the crux of the matter is that Ben can do it better, as can Happy Nerd as they have been doing this for a living. If they weren't here the processes that they would end up with would be disjointed, inconsistent, messy and frustrating to use.

Most of what Ben is doing is getting the work that has already been done, been discussed, getting it down in one place, checking it with the people that are using it and documenting it. Some of it is designing software tools to make everyone's lives easier behind the scenes.

I would have agreed with you exactly when we started, but it's a *lot* harder than that.

As for the legal structure, at the moment it isn't set up, It's still with the lawyers, once it's set up then we can launch the help files that are nearly ready already and then we can all have an informed discussion.

At the moment I would hate to see an uninformed discussion, I would hate to see someone get really upset because, for example, they assume that someone from outside the UK couldn't vote in the not-for-profit elections. When actually we are discussing processes where they could take part in the elections, but we need to check them with the lawyers, and then check they're workable structures, but we really hope that they can.

I could just let people get involved in uninformed speculation, and not correct misinformation and rumours when they cropped up but I would really worry about that. After all someone might leave because they thought X was the case, when in fact X wasn't the case, it was just that I hadn't had time to correct them.

Anyway... I'm sure Ben does need help with what she's doing, and you look like you're volunteering?

Ok, you'll have to ask her exactly what help she needs. But you've got her e mail address haven't you?

I'd also love to have a session where people could ask Robbie, Aly, and Brian questions about how it all came together, and what their thoughts were. I'd need to check with them! But I'm fairly sure they'd be up for it...

Thank you Peanut.

I am doing much less than you think I am, and less than Z thinks too, but don't tell him that!

The teams are either using existing processes, or designing heir own. People who do a job know bettter than anyone else where it can be made better and easier.

The help page project, whih Iam working on with HN will be 85% analysing what to say, and only 15% actually saying it, but the full project will take maybe 8-9 months.

I am writing up pages which really need to go out now, but I am only doing the ones where I am the Subject Matter Expert. Where someone else knows better, then they are writing them. Last night I sent the four about consulting the community and community involvement to Robbie and Brian. Yep. Four. It's a subject I feel as strongly about as you and kea do.

Milla is working up a list of requested enhancements to the site.

My four problems are

I have a fraction of the time I want for this - I love doing this for h2g2 and really want to do it fast and well.

I am poor at delegating, but my focus over the next few days is to prioritise and delegate. It's really good for me to delegate, and it's good fo me to help others learn how to do this stuff.

I am not by nature or training a Project Manager, so I am having to learn how to do that - I've worked on enough projects, you'd think I could do it. Unfortunately I find it rather dull, sterile work. We really need a PM though.

Things keep on hijacking my time. That's down to me to manage, and once I've got my to do list in a nice orderly structure, I'll be harder to hijack.

I just got very overwhelmed at the weekend and on Monday, but I have talked all this through with Z and with Robbie and things are less scary and more in proportion now, which is good. The long and the short is some things will just have to wait.

I do need some people to sanity-check the help pages while they are still in draft, and if you would do this I would be reallly grateful. I need people with good bullcrap detectors to read them before the go up on site.

Thanks very much for posting.

Ben

.... aaaannnnnd BREATHE, Ben.

.... And get dressed and go to work

... me too!

Z and Ben, what you have both just said makes alot of sense to me. *And* I think you have missed the substantive points in Peanut's post.

I'm starting to get that banging head on a brick wall feeling.

Ben, I'm glad you've sorted some stuff out in yourself