George Herbert wrote:
On 2/8/07, SonOfYoungwood@aol.com SonOfYoungwood@aol.com wrote:
To keep burned out admins from leaving, we need to give them praise and encouragement. They need to be seen as some of our most valued contributors. We might also want to set up incentives.
I agree with this, but we also have the problem that a common (but not universal) near-the-end trait is blocks or other user admin stuff which turn out to be very controversial. How do you say "we really like what you've done for the project and we want you to stay" and "...but can you stop beating up newbies this badly?" at the same time?
What you describe seems like a sign of frustration and siege mentality. The task becomes so huge that the admin becomes overwhelmed. For some it appears even bigger than it really is. Combine this with an atmosphere of serious mistrust where he believes the other guy is either trying to delete everything or keep everything, and you can soon become non-functional.
Every admin should severely limit the amount of time he spends on admin duties. Spending a greater proportion of time on what really matters helps maintain a vision of what this is all about.
Ec