(no subject)

[strredwolf]

I usually don't blog about stuff inside Comic Genesis, but then... well, a bit of work philosophy.

You see, I'm a bit open about how I work.  I've found out that the more people know, the less they question and the less they bother you about things.  I'd rather know what's going on and have some documentation over having to dig through source code myself (the latter is evident with AutoKeen, which I rewrote into WolfKeen and hopefully will soon test publicly).  I try to maintain a To-Do list on the CG Wiki, so that everyone knows what I'm trying to work on and that I know what I have to do (because I forget, I'm only human).

However, my co-admin has a different philosophy that doesn't mesh -- she rather do it and leave everyone behind, causing major problems when I try to do something that was valid before her changes.  She doesn't tell anyone despite being asked many times, having several avenues of communications availible to her.  I keep asking and asking, and nothing is being replied back until I force the issue.  It makes me look bad, it makes her look bad, it makes CG look bad, it makes Keenspot look bad.

Over CG's IRC channel, we got into an argument.  I didn't know what was going on and I ask.  I wait and ask again.  I wait again.  And then I tell people that I will wait, with was a passing threat (even though I felt it wasn't).  Then the co-admin starts virtually wailing into me while questions finally get answered... and it devoles down to a volunteer asking the co-admin about something, getting a friend to help her, and the co-admin saying yes.  I wasn't told.  I didn't get any word of this, after asking her to.  And I get hell when I try to find out myself.

I asked her again, over and over, to talk to me, tell me what she's doing so I can:

• Get out of her way
• Raise objections if need be
• Support the end product when folks email me

It's such a simple thing.  Tell me what you're doing.  I'm already telling you what I'm doing.  Talk to me.  I don't automatically shoot everything down.  Just talk to me.

And yet she doesn't do it, and does her own thing, giving me the excuse that I'd shoot it down or kill it. 

Yeah.  Like the individual forums idea she wanted to do.  Folks couldn't wait, and wanted forums now.  I dragged that out and asked folks opinions.  I told her that before, durring, and now I've had to clean up her attempts because we need the server for another use.

I know about the co-admin's problems outside CG.  I do read her journal.  She did contact me and Keenspot when she was having problems securing Internet access, and Keenspot helped out. 

I know we're having problems.  I'm willing to work things out, but it's like I'm being left behind.  I don't like that, especially when I asked to be kept in the loop in order to perform my role at CG admin.  When I'm unable to do that, I will make myself known so I can...

...and if it continues on for too long, I will have to take drastic action.

Comments

[strredwolf.livejournal.com]

Let me go through your post:

I'll be honest and admit I've been leaving you behind in development matters because I don't want you even trying to fix anything I write, because when you do, it gets broken worse. There are three rules I try to abide by in coding:
1. Write bug-free code (always fix warnings)
2. Write secure-first code (always initialze variables, validate everything)
3. Write flexible code (no throw-away code, a lot of perl stuff uses the same framework)

Nowhere in there is "document clearly" or "get approvals from 15 layers of management"

Unfortunately, you have a problem. You have at least one person (me) who has to support CG along with you, and who know who else will come down the line and become a full admin. Leaving me out of the development causes me to do what you describe: take unilateral action BECAUSE I don't know better AND take flack for it. I HATE THAT!

What really pisses me off is when you decide to do something that has a major effect on ComicGenesis and people complain. I always put a poll in the forums to see if people even want said feature if it's going to be significant. Check out the newsbox size poll, I opted to implement all the sizes anyways (as different ad caches), but the 150x300 image size is still the newsbox size. There were times where you were saying that you were going to change the size to the keenspot size and I was like NO we aren't, and you still repeated it.

What pisses me off is when you decide to do something that has a major effect on CG, and I'm left out of the loop. I don't check the forums often, and sometimes I don't see you polling on stuff you do change. I see things that are broken and there's no bug report, no notice saying "This is broken, don't touch it, I'm working on it" and I get people calling me on IM, Email, on LJ and the Forums saying "WHAT'S GOING ON, THIS IS BROKEN!!!"

Take Siteadmin for instance. Folks are complaining they can't log in, and I'm turning into a FAQ machine saying "Use your forum account, then hook your comic account to it." I just now inserted a one-line mod there saying "Please use your CG Forum account to login" to try to kill the whole mess.

Now, I've made what I want to change public. It's on the CG Wiki as RedWolf's Todo List (http://cgwiki.comicgenesis.com/index.php/RedWolf%27s_Todo_List). I'm going to keep that updated, and I'd love people come to me when they have a concern about what I'm doing.

You keep getting complaints about me, and I've asked you to forward them to me. I think last night was the second time I've asked you to do so. If you want me to change, and I don't know what is wrong, how am I going to know what I do need to change?