ADMIN Sent on Behalf of Abigail: A Proposal

[elfundeb]

Because Abigail is overwhelmed with RL at the moment, I am sending this message on her behalf as FAQ liaison:

Dear Members of FAQ,

As you've all no doubt noticed, FAQ has faded into silence in the weeks since our most recent unpleasantness. We feel that perhaps enough time has passed, and we're being nudged by list members wanting to know why the FPs haven't yet been updated.

As Tom pointed out, the recent resignations have left several FP teams unmanned or undermanned. Other teams which still have nominal members are stuck in neutral. It is time to make a coherent plan of action. Even if all of you take on a new FP or update, it's clear that we don't have enough hands to get the project done in a timely manner. In light of that constraint, a number of us have come up with a proposal to find the needed manpower that we'd like to put before you.

Instead of selecting good posters and inviting them to join the team, let's ask for volunteers, and let them select which FPs they'd like to work on. There are good reasons to make this a volunteer project -- it would get back to the project's roots, since the first FPs were written by volunteers. And even more importantly, there are many enthusiastic and talented members whom we would inevitably overlook if we undertook to select candidates.

We will provide guidelines for how to write FPs, as well as a list of specific resources (such as the Enchilada). We envision that volunteers
would choose which FPs they would like to work on. If each volunteer is working on a topic that interests them, they're likely to put more energy into the project, and the FPs that get written will be the ones the members want most. If
more than one person is interested in the same FP, then they can split up the
work as they see fit.

While membership of this list would still be by invitation, we would generally allow anyone who expresses interest to join, as long as they've been active on the list for a sufficient period of time to have a good feel for the list and its culture. The leaders of the project (who will be drawn from among the list elves, reflecting the fact that Fantastic Post is an HPFGU project) will function as the "go to" people if the team members have problems or issues, and will
monitor the progress of the FP project and its component parts.

What would be the drawbacks? Would we get volunteers who don't write well? Probably, but we already have good editors on the FP team. Besides, most of the work is culling the archives for good posts, which doesn't involve writing skills. Would some of them not complete the FPs they chose to work on? Undoubtedly, but that already happens. We believe the benefits of recruiting volunteers far outweigh these drawbacks.

But we'd like to hear what the rest of you think. Please, tell us what you think of this idea.

Debbie (on behalf of Abigail)
for the list admin team


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