sinking ship
I think that evolt.org as a community is dead. Of course we still get traffic to thelist and we still get random comments being posted on the evolt.org site but that doesn't make for a community. Ever since Dan Cody left, it feels like we can't get things done. I'm not saying that everything was perfect then either but things seemed to move forward. Every community needs a driving force to get things done. Every community needs to reach a certain critical mass before individuals withdraw themselves from the community. The odd thing is, it's the driving the community that forced Dan to leave.
Some of the community thought that running by committee was going to push evolt.org forward and that Dan's individualism was getting in the way. I should have learned my lesson from reading The Fountainhead that things don't necessarily work that way. Of course, I'm being a little melodramatic but it does seem that we've lost our motivation and drive and let inertia take over.
The most obvious instance is that the newest content on evolt.org is the re-design contest dated Mar 5. The contest was supposed to have closed Apr 30 and the discussion on the desdev list was supposed to end on Jul 1. The contest was supposed to drum up interest in the community but in reality we only received two entries from well-established evolters, Tara Cleveland and Martin Burns. So we can't even get the deck chairs re-arranged on the Titanic.
Many of the old time evolters that loved and pushed the commmunity have left, seemingly for good. Gone are aardvark, Mishka, r937, isaac, .jeff, and many others.
I'll admit to never being always there and when I was, I was usually a spectator, but I miss it a bit. (Heh. Another old man pining away for the golden years.) So why have I stayed since the beginning? I'm not really sure. Many times, I've thought about leaving the community altogether, the most recent, the day before yesterday. But I can't seem to get away. I love the idea of the community and I can't let them down no matter how loose we've become. I haven't left because I feel owned by the community. I don't like to ignore our members. I want them to come back. I want them to use evolt.org as a resource. I want them to feel valued. And I don't think that they will if I leave. Is that egotistical or just sad?
The motto of the admin group was that we were building the community so that the commmunity didn't need us anymore. We're as far away from that as we've ever been but many of the admin group have moved on. Will I go down with the ship? Probably. I'm too dumb and sentimental to have it any other way.
Some of the community thought that running by committee was going to push evolt.org forward and that Dan's individualism was getting in the way. I should have learned my lesson from reading The Fountainhead that things don't necessarily work that way. Of course, I'm being a little melodramatic but it does seem that we've lost our motivation and drive and let inertia take over.
The most obvious instance is that the newest content on evolt.org is the re-design contest dated Mar 5. The contest was supposed to have closed Apr 30 and the discussion on the desdev list was supposed to end on Jul 1. The contest was supposed to drum up interest in the community but in reality we only received two entries from well-established evolters, Tara Cleveland and Martin Burns. So we can't even get the deck chairs re-arranged on the Titanic.
Many of the old time evolters that loved and pushed the commmunity have left, seemingly for good. Gone are aardvark, Mishka, r937, isaac, .jeff, and many others.
I'll admit to never being always there and when I was, I was usually a spectator, but I miss it a bit. (Heh. Another old man pining away for the golden years.) So why have I stayed since the beginning? I'm not really sure. Many times, I've thought about leaving the community altogether, the most recent, the day before yesterday. But I can't seem to get away. I love the idea of the community and I can't let them down no matter how loose we've become. I haven't left because I feel owned by the community. I don't like to ignore our members. I want them to come back. I want them to use evolt.org as a resource. I want them to feel valued. And I don't think that they will if I leave. Is that egotistical or just sad?
The motto of the admin group was that we were building the community so that the commmunity didn't need us anymore. We're as far away from that as we've ever been but many of the admin group have moved on. Will I go down with the ship? Probably. I'm too dumb and sentimental to have it any other way.
posted by dmah at 9:56 AM
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