On 2/9/07, Stan Shebs stanshebs@earthlink.net wrote:
Marc Riddell wrote:
[...] But, by not having such an organized support system for the reasons you stated, don't the wackos win? Who gives a damn if they see it as a cabal or whatever, the benefits can far outweigh the bullshit. I don't mean to belabor this, but, as you might guess, I'm a great believer in interpersonal support systems.
If it was just a matter of wackos, then yeah, we would just ignore them. But there seem to be a bunch of otherwise-rational editors who would make trouble over it as well, and would take mutual support as a reason to escalate the whole thing into "impending destruction of WP by power-hungry admins". Just look at Cunctator's one-liner here - an admin leaves in pain, and his response is "well, a little churn is good". I encourage you to try designing a support system though, WP can't afford to lose all its admins to "churn".
Stan
Let me follow that up a bit. I think a little churn is good, too. But there's a difference between "Joe's taking a break right now and will be back later" and someone getting so frustrated that they start getting abusive and then leave with no intent to return.
The difference between a break, or even taking a sabattical from admin stuff while still contributing, and a burnout is rather clear.
People taking breaks is healthy and good. Burnouts aren't. I would be extremely happy if we could figure out a consistent way to convert impending burnouts into breaks.