My Thoughts on Hot Take 2
- A pause in content creation and distribution is anathema to a burgeoning publication/podcast. Attention is short-lived and most people tend to move on pretty quickly to other content when their usual fare becomes unavailable.
- Conversations—and, well, the whole server, probably—could be better organized. #hot-take-2 took place in a thread, so breaking discussions into separate threads from within the thread isn’t viable, resulting in information that can be easily overlooked. Perhaps a separate category should exist for Hot Takes, so as topics begin building out, these discussions can be taken to separate threads for ease of access and organization.
- Asking for community input is great, but will only work if the conversations are clear enough to follow, where each community member can provide educated input.
- There are lots of chiefs with no clear direction. Everyone showing up has leadership aptitude, which is beautiful, but useless when there’s no clear idea of what needs to be done. I don’t mean to come off as insulting in saying this, and this is just my own (very limited) opinion, but after six+ seasons in operation, a poorly designed org structure is not a good look. This, to me, is the underlying issue from which most of the other issues discussed in this thread spring.
- humpty made an interesting comment with regard to hierarchy. He’s not wrong. But he’s also not right either. Accountability happens when you hold your people accountable. If a bottleneck needs to exist, make fucking sure you have the right people at that point of access to ensure everything flows properly. If someone consistently fails, remove them from the role. Community accountability is possible if the direction is clear.
- This needs to go on a fucking t-shirt. This too.
- In this same spirit, fuck the advisory committee. This project is not big enough to need one. This is just bureaucracy.
- Sprinklesforwinners raised several important points when she wrote “it seems there are multiple different growth strategies going around right now.” There is no one who works toward decentralization more than I, and even I understand that the path to decentralized work involves elements of centralization until the final goal can be realized. If there are, in fact, multiple growth strategies, they should be clearly defined, championed, and offered to the community to be decided upon. Execution of the chosen strategy should fall on the shoulders of that strategy’s champion.
- Not having a system in place to manage contributors and their contributions will become further problematic if not addressed sooner rather than later. Latsan hit the nail on the head here.
These are my initial thoughts as a newcomer to the server. I may be wrong on all points, and that’s okay. Ultimately, I seek to improve working conditions, that efficiency, engagement, and satisfaction be improved as well, which will all contribute to the project’s continued success. I’m happy to discuss any part of this document, if anyone is so willing. Or y’all can give me the boot, in which case there will be no hard feelings on my end.