Commend....

Hey,

I just wanted to commend JC and md for their efforts since taking over DevShed. It's nice to see them actually taking part in the community and technological discussions rather than sitting back and letting everyone else do the talking.

I second this notion and add that they seem to be listening to us, which is very nice.

agree definitly with the listening to us part

Thanks guys - we wanted to play an active role in DevShed as we all have some background in coding and I honestly believe DevShed is the place to come to for programming discussion.

Sorry for the lack of participation on my part but been busy like a bee. I will make a much larger effort to show my face :-B more often.

Thanks for the kind words guys. I am just happy to be accepted as part of this great community!

I was going to start a thread similar to this, but I had a different viewpoint. Simply put, I think the admins are too approachable.

Maybe my thinking is old school or maybe it has to do with being in the military, but I like a clear division between "users", "moderators" and "admin". Users talk to moderators who talk to admin, and then it flows back "down-hill". Of course, you always have the option of going straight to the admins if the situation warrants it, but that's a rare case.

Is this "division" just not viable in a business like this? Do the admins need to be as active in the forums as they are? Do you eliminate the need or effectiveness of the moderators if the admins are so approachable?

Just curious what others think. I certainly think the new owners are doing great things and I wouldn't tell them how to run their business, so think of this as a general management question.

Where you work, can you go directly to the owner of your company about a simple issue? Or do you have to "go up the ladder" Is that a good or a bad thing? Is that something that can/should be carried over to an internet business?

Awaiting the responses or deletion of my account...

---John Holmes...

Most of the time go up the ladder but at times I go staright up.

Yeah, but it should be rare. You should always have the option to skip over any rungs in the ladder youwant. In the military, we call it an "open door policy"

---John Holmes...

Wow Ive never been accused of being -too- approachable. I suppose I could ignore our users, only write one post a week, etc - but what fun would that be?

I'm not talking entirely about the business side of things. I will put it to you bluntly, the previous owners very rarely posted, in fact the only time I remember them posting was in reply to posts in this forum which directly related to a problem or question about DevShed itself.

The new owners have probably generated more posts between them in the couple of months they have had the site, than the previous owners accumulated over five years.

Interaction is great, in my company if any of my staff have a problem or some kind of issue that they want to talk to someone I have made it clear that my door is always open to everyone regardless of their status within the company. Similar to your open door policy except without the ladders (or ranks )

And this policy goes against everything I learnt in business studies classes and what not, but I beleive it promotes a healthy atmosphere. It allows issues and change to flow much more freely.

In closing, I think it's a good thing they are interacting with us, there are no class distinctions, I'm a moderator so you should talk to me and I will talk to the admin type of thing. And they are also growing their own community rather than letting us do the work for them they are getting their hands dirty.

Yeah, in a business like this, I think it can work. It's not really a big deal for specifically Devshed; how it is now is fine with me.

For other, more traditional businesses, though, I don't see how it could work or I'm just not used to seeing it work. In the military, if you become too approachable, it can have devastating effects for your junior leadership.

I guess each situation is unique, though, on whether or not it'll work.

Now that I think about it a little more, I guess the real issue can be traced to how the leader uses the "data" he's given when he's approached. If Joe Blow says X is wrong and the leader instantly acts upon it, that's wrong (IMO). Now, if the leader stays approachable, takes in the data, polls his junior leadership as to courses of action, and then makes a decision... it's a better program, I think. But then you have to maintain a fine line of acting upon things and choosing not to...

It's early on a Sunday morning...

---John Holmes...