08-03-2018, 10:23 AM
First off, I agree that this is a great site, maybe the greatest of its kind. The quality of the average post here is breathtaking, including the critiques (self not included, of course - if it weren’t for false modesty I’d have no modesty at all).
However, there *has* been a break. I would pinpoint it to after NAPM, which would be the end of April. I lost, not interest, but focus on poetry after NAPM to concentrate on other hobbies, and when I got back about 20 June the place was dead as described. (And I’m not solipsist enough to think my going away had anything to do with the collapse.) My initial diagnosis was lack of involvement from the moderators (including newly-minted ones - you know who you are), but the reason (or lack of reason) may go deeper than that.
Another symptom I note is that no one is greeting new members. I know this because those greetings used to pop up constantly in the new-posts waterfall margin all the time; now there are none. This could be due to lack of new members, but I doubt it. Those greetings were a task theoretically shared by all members but actually performed mostly by mods and near-mods.
What we have here, if I may be so bold as to whip up a theory-of-everything from very little, is a lack of leadership. This is not to say our mods are bad, or that they’re not paying attention. They may have made a pact to stay on Valhalla for a season and see how the grunt Vikings manage without them: it’s an adult thing to do (assuming it’s done for adult reasons). But a critical part of leadership is, not issuing commendations and rebukes, commands, or promotions, but simply being there (hat tip to Peter Sellers). And not just being there, but being seen to be there.
Everyone knows Caesar (or Achilles, if you will) is in his tent, hears all and knows all. So long as there is no question of that, things run smoothly: the grunts know they are being appreciated as always even if Caesar is off playing some other game (getting his book published, for example).
The trouble is, people (grunt Myrmidons and poets included) don’t operate on faith - especially faith in themselves. To stay involved, they must see evidence that Caesar is still involved, even if it’s only a weekly hail-and-farewell for newcomers and fallen. If Caesar is not seen, if Achilles hides in his tent, we grunts feel our courage turn to water. The ground at the PigPen is wet. It stinks.
Like it or not, we need the mods’ authority to validate what we do. Without that authority to cover us, we hesitate and, eventually, fail to expose our naked folly - in the form of poems and critiques - to the world.
[I know my limitations (thanks, Dirty Harry) - I can do leadership where the mission is well-defined and the troops are not allowed to quit just because they’re upset. My most effective and upsetting management tool is that I don’t let anyone off the hook, self included, and my expressed or implied disappointment can be lethal. You do *not* want me anywhere close to running this circus.]
The question becomes, is this downturn weather, season, or climate change? It could be random - a couple of mods going off on personal business, Billy getting his car crushed in the Philippine anti-drug campaign, sort of thing. It could be northern summer/southern winter with few new poetry vocations while at the beach or skiing New Zealand, and September will bring the tide back in. Or it could be more permanent: is another site eating PigPen’s lunch?
I don’t know; it could just be that some of our sensitive sparkplug contributors are having a simultaneous snit over some perceived insult, taken their bat and ball and gone home (does this image work for cricket?) Time will tell.
Or the mods might just decide to descend from Valhalla and set things right again. It’s been known.
However, there *has* been a break. I would pinpoint it to after NAPM, which would be the end of April. I lost, not interest, but focus on poetry after NAPM to concentrate on other hobbies, and when I got back about 20 June the place was dead as described. (And I’m not solipsist enough to think my going away had anything to do with the collapse.) My initial diagnosis was lack of involvement from the moderators (including newly-minted ones - you know who you are), but the reason (or lack of reason) may go deeper than that.
Another symptom I note is that no one is greeting new members. I know this because those greetings used to pop up constantly in the new-posts waterfall margin all the time; now there are none. This could be due to lack of new members, but I doubt it. Those greetings were a task theoretically shared by all members but actually performed mostly by mods and near-mods.
What we have here, if I may be so bold as to whip up a theory-of-everything from very little, is a lack of leadership. This is not to say our mods are bad, or that they’re not paying attention. They may have made a pact to stay on Valhalla for a season and see how the grunt Vikings manage without them: it’s an adult thing to do (assuming it’s done for adult reasons). But a critical part of leadership is, not issuing commendations and rebukes, commands, or promotions, but simply being there (hat tip to Peter Sellers). And not just being there, but being seen to be there.
Everyone knows Caesar (or Achilles, if you will) is in his tent, hears all and knows all. So long as there is no question of that, things run smoothly: the grunts know they are being appreciated as always even if Caesar is off playing some other game (getting his book published, for example).
The trouble is, people (grunt Myrmidons and poets included) don’t operate on faith - especially faith in themselves. To stay involved, they must see evidence that Caesar is still involved, even if it’s only a weekly hail-and-farewell for newcomers and fallen. If Caesar is not seen, if Achilles hides in his tent, we grunts feel our courage turn to water. The ground at the PigPen is wet. It stinks.
Like it or not, we need the mods’ authority to validate what we do. Without that authority to cover us, we hesitate and, eventually, fail to expose our naked folly - in the form of poems and critiques - to the world.
[I know my limitations (thanks, Dirty Harry) - I can do leadership where the mission is well-defined and the troops are not allowed to quit just because they’re upset. My most effective and upsetting management tool is that I don’t let anyone off the hook, self included, and my expressed or implied disappointment can be lethal. You do *not* want me anywhere close to running this circus.]
The question becomes, is this downturn weather, season, or climate change? It could be random - a couple of mods going off on personal business, Billy getting his car crushed in the Philippine anti-drug campaign, sort of thing. It could be northern summer/southern winter with few new poetry vocations while at the beach or skiing New Zealand, and September will bring the tide back in. Or it could be more permanent: is another site eating PigPen’s lunch?
I don’t know; it could just be that some of our sensitive sparkplug contributors are having a simultaneous snit over some perceived insult, taken their bat and ball and gone home (does this image work for cricket?) Time will tell.
Or the mods might just decide to descend from Valhalla and set things right again. It’s been known.
Non-practicing atheist