Introspective

I haven’t forgotten – I’ve been sick. In fact I still am. This damned cold/flu just won’t go the hell away. Anyhow – enough about me…

Building Blocks
I feel like there is giant gap in the membership. Maybe gap isn’t quite the word, but that’s all I can really equate it to. Let me explain:

There are three types of DJB member these days:

1 – The Newbie. This is a person who just joined, has joined fairly recently, or joined but isn’t all too active (at least not enough to know how things work in the DJB). These people ask a lot of questions, do a lot of things ‘wrong’ in the scope of the DJB procedure, but generally keep things interesting.

2 – The Sophomore. These people have been around long enough to know the rules and procedures. They follow them for the most part, and stay marginally active. These people answer a lot of questions, correct some mistakes made by newbies, and make the DJB machine function with their activity. Some of these people have contributed rather positively to the community, though there are quite a few troublemakers in the group.

3 – The Veteran. This is a broad range of members who are all too familiar with how things work in the DJB. They are divided in their activity, with some being inactive mostly and others picking up the slack. They tend to think they can get away with anything, and they’re usually right. These people are usually sarcastic, opinionated, a bit full of themselves, occasionally helpful but often can’t be bothered.

Sad to say but even I fall into the third category. This blog is solid proof. The part that truly annoys me about the third category has to be the “sarcastic, opinionated, a bit full of themselves” bit. These people tend to toot their own horn about how great they are for the DJB when in fact they haven’t done a damned thing. Some have done a couple good things and are playing those up as the greatest contribution to the club since the invention of the Internet.

With myself as an example – there are things I have done for the DJB, and there are things I continue to do for the DJB, that are shaping it into a better experience. You may not see my name attached to the memo or news post but doesn’t mean I wasn’t doing something on it. In this way I’m not quite like the stereotypical member presented in the third category. True – I have a bit of self-promotion here and there – but a lot of what I’ve done I haven’t really said anything about. That’s why there’s a huge article on the DJBWiki on me. Yeah – I’m there in the Influential Members section, and for a reason. I’m chock-full of ideas, and most of them never see the light of day because I tend to think well beyond my own capabilities. Depending on other people is probably the worst thing I do, especially when I trust them to follow my vision without doing much follow up.

Another rather particularly disturbing fact in my representation of the third category is when people are looking for help but the vets can’t be bothered. I saw some newbie say they aren’t going to bother with one of the key pillars of activity because no one would help him understand it better. It should NEVER come to this. Sure – some people are borderline retarded at reading the simple rules, but even still there are factors to consider, such as language and educational barriers.

There are notable exceptions to these categories, though their kind is few and far between. There is hope, however. If people change their attitudes a little, the health of the club could be improved. In a perfect world, the whole club would be full of #2’s... For now, 1’s need to strive to become 2’s, and 3’s need to re-evaluate their reasons for being here.

Myself included.

Spreading Thin
A lot of why the vets become so jaded is what I’m experiencing now – I’m nearly spreading myself a bit too thin. From Real Life interests to inter-club dealings I feel like I’m doing a lot without the time to spare. So far in just the DJB I’m:

- Administrator of the Forums
This might not sound like much, but just think: any time there is any change in leadership, I have to manually change their status around on the forums. Anytime someone wants any change there, I’m the one to do it. I'm the one often editing people's posts for spelling or grammar, or just flat out deleting messages that are really pointless. My editing doesn't leave a trace, and I don't keep track of what I do, but I'm usually fixing a handful of posts a day.

- Administrator of the DJB Wiki
Again, might not sound like much, but I’m heading up the newly formed Tribune. We’re supposed to expand the rules, templates and general ‘help’ files. I need to get a dependable staff assembled soon. I know a few people I want on it, mostly for their current level of dedication. I'll have to work more on this later this week.

- Advisor to the DC
This is unofficial, but rather an often occurrence. Some members of the DC include me in their conversations, asking my opinion on a range of topics. Not really all too time consuming, though I tend to throw in my 75 cents worth. Recently one topic was on education of the membership in an area I'm rather familiar with. It was a simple proposal offered, but what I had to say about it begged for the course to be expanded into a series of courses. Whether that will happen or not remains to be seen.

Outside of that there’s a host of RL things I’m trying to keep on top of. Work consumes 45 hours of my week. Sleep begs for 56 but is lucky to get 48. Time with the dogs and my wife kills about 35. That leaves me with about 4 and a half hours a day on average to do EVERYTHING else, including play games (either alone or with friends), work on DJB stuff, talk to internet friends, or look into some of my other interests like all those swords I collect or the latest “Weird Al” news.

Luckily a lot of my time at work seems to be relaxed on an average day, allowing me to do some of this while I’m supposed to be working. This blog entry? I’m typing it at work. A vast majority of my personal-interest research? I check things at work. Most DJB Forum administration? You guessed it.

My point here is that I do make an effort to devote the time, but when it comes down to using this little time I have to do the stuff that newbies want, I’ll get frustrated. I’ll ignore people or act a bit irrational because I’m just not in the mood to deal with things that other people are supposed to be doing. I know this is a flaw of mine, and I’m quite sure it’s one that others share.

It’s half the reason I stopped being HRLD. I didn’t have the time to devote to the DJB. I’m finding that I’m slowly getting back to that point.