JoeP
03-10-2007, 12:06
Hi,
The more observant of you will have noticed that I've not been on SF for a couple of weeks. I took this 'sabbatical' (the word holiday has unfortunate connotations around here!) to do some serious thinking about me and my role here at Sheffield Forum.
I joined SF in February 2004, and became a Moderator quite quickly - I've been a Mod or a Co-Admin for most of my time on here, and have probably spent an average of 3 to 4 hours a day on the site - sometimes longer - and have lost count of the number of words I must have typed! If it wasn't for the purges we have on posts, I reckon I'd have something like 23,000 posts on here by now - way too many! :)
I've enjoyed my time doing these jobs enormously, and am particularly proud of my work on the growth of the site, the setting up of the Special Interest Groups, the activities during the floods and many other good things on SF. Some people have gone so far as to say that I define the culture and ethos of SF, but I regard that as a collective effort in which we've all participated.
However, 'all good things must come to an end' and I've decided that I'm going to step down from my roles as Moderator and CoAdmin - effective as soon as Geoff can 'flick the switch' on my account. This hasn't been an easy decision; in a perfect world I'd have happily stayed on but I realised that I needed some time for my own projects to come to fruition, and those 4 hours a day spent on SF add up to a lot of time over the weeks and months which I now intend to put in to developing my own ideas. A couple of these are hopefully 'moneymakers' and a couple are philanthropic projects. I'm sure that news of what I'm doing will soon emerge on SF!
What I won't miss is dealing with the minority of small minded and unpleasant folks I've encountered on here who've made it their mission to be personally abusive, offensive and libellous to me and people close to me. They know who they are; I just find it sad and quite pathetic that they feel they need to validate themselves by being nasty and vindictive towards others. At least now I have the option of telling them publically what I really think of them or putting those that remain on SF on ignore and just removing them from my SF life. :)
To the great, wonderful, fantastic vast majority of SF users - who've made Sheffield Forum their online homes - thank you. We have a community that is probably unique in the whole world. I hope to see it continue to grow in the future. I hope to be able to get to know more and more users now as 'me' rather than as an Admin or Moderator! I'm going to be an active member on SF - losing the badge means I get the opportunity to speak my mind more regularly - and may even make the odd appearance at Meets and such now I'm a 'civillian'!
And who knows...one day.... I may return. I never say never - but right now, I need time to do other things and I can't really give SF the input required whilst giving my own projects the time and energy they need. :)
Finally, to paraphrase one of my great heroes, General George S Patton, "the only way for a Forum Admin to bow out is with the last word, of the last post, of a locked thread." :)
The more observant of you will have noticed that I've not been on SF for a couple of weeks. I took this 'sabbatical' (the word holiday has unfortunate connotations around here!) to do some serious thinking about me and my role here at Sheffield Forum.
I joined SF in February 2004, and became a Moderator quite quickly - I've been a Mod or a Co-Admin for most of my time on here, and have probably spent an average of 3 to 4 hours a day on the site - sometimes longer - and have lost count of the number of words I must have typed! If it wasn't for the purges we have on posts, I reckon I'd have something like 23,000 posts on here by now - way too many! :)
I've enjoyed my time doing these jobs enormously, and am particularly proud of my work on the growth of the site, the setting up of the Special Interest Groups, the activities during the floods and many other good things on SF. Some people have gone so far as to say that I define the culture and ethos of SF, but I regard that as a collective effort in which we've all participated.
However, 'all good things must come to an end' and I've decided that I'm going to step down from my roles as Moderator and CoAdmin - effective as soon as Geoff can 'flick the switch' on my account. This hasn't been an easy decision; in a perfect world I'd have happily stayed on but I realised that I needed some time for my own projects to come to fruition, and those 4 hours a day spent on SF add up to a lot of time over the weeks and months which I now intend to put in to developing my own ideas. A couple of these are hopefully 'moneymakers' and a couple are philanthropic projects. I'm sure that news of what I'm doing will soon emerge on SF!
What I won't miss is dealing with the minority of small minded and unpleasant folks I've encountered on here who've made it their mission to be personally abusive, offensive and libellous to me and people close to me. They know who they are; I just find it sad and quite pathetic that they feel they need to validate themselves by being nasty and vindictive towards others. At least now I have the option of telling them publically what I really think of them or putting those that remain on SF on ignore and just removing them from my SF life. :)
To the great, wonderful, fantastic vast majority of SF users - who've made Sheffield Forum their online homes - thank you. We have a community that is probably unique in the whole world. I hope to see it continue to grow in the future. I hope to be able to get to know more and more users now as 'me' rather than as an Admin or Moderator! I'm going to be an active member on SF - losing the badge means I get the opportunity to speak my mind more regularly - and may even make the odd appearance at Meets and such now I'm a 'civillian'!
And who knows...one day.... I may return. I never say never - but right now, I need time to do other things and I can't really give SF the input required whilst giving my own projects the time and energy they need. :)
Finally, to paraphrase one of my great heroes, General George S Patton, "the only way for a Forum Admin to bow out is with the last word, of the last post, of a locked thread." :)