A Thought on Administration
Discussion in the Administrative forum
A Thought on Administration
If you need help for site administration and such (i.e. constant stats and such), why not have advertisers and then have some money for better upkeep and co-admins?
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Re: A Thought on Administration
[ Author: torakichi | Posted: Sep 25, 2004 11:11 AM
| HT Fan
]
God no! Please, Westbaystars-san, no ads!
Re: A Thought on Administration
[ Author: westbaystars | Posted: Sep 25, 2004 11:59 PM
| YBS Fan
]
I think you might want to take a look at the "about page." It could use an update, but the basic premise is the same. This site is basically a hobby site I do to experiment with new technologies (I'm a programmer by day) and to try to educate the English-speaking public about NPB (by night). I has evolved into a lot more since I started writing about Pro Yakyu once a week back in 1995, but it remains a hobby, not a commercial venture.
Why wouldn't I want to make money off of the site? It's simple. I don't want to give up control over what I write. As soon as I start accepting money from advertisers, those advertisers have a vested interest in what I cover. If, say, they don't like me complaining about Watanabe-owner's work behind the scenes, they can use their "investment" in the site for leverage to stifle such commentary. If the investors want me to focus more on a particular topic, such as players who have gone to the MLB, a topic I really don't care about, then this site wouldn't give me the pleasure that it does now.
The only real administrative task is approving (and editing) messages. I started moderating when a particular individual started posting rather mean spirited (to downright racist) posts back in 2001. I'm sure you've seen similar posts on other public boards like MLB.com. I asked him to stop, he started attacking my character. I started deleting his posts, he started calling me "Adolf Webmaster." I started moderating posts, he went away.
I still get spammers trying to post here every couple of weeks. The most enjoyable was one who tried to post about a web site to teach one to relax and become one with the world. The posts kept getting more and more frustrated until I thought that maybe the spammer could use the site he/she was recommending in a very bad way. Some people just don't read that all posts are moderated and that spam is not tollerated. It sure would save them a lot of trouble.
Another reason I moderate posts is to try to make everything clearer, especially for those who speak English as a second language. There was a guy someone called "Peter the Jerk" on the Pro Yakyu mailing list I contributed a great deal to during the two years I took off from writing on my site. He was attacking a number of the more informative members of the list because their English wasn't that good. It didn't matter that their content was relevant, he just attacked their broken English. I value content more, so I try to make the presentation as transparent as possible.
As time has evolved, I've gone from moderator to editor. Please have a look at how I've edited your own posts. Are they more clear than you wrote? For example, you didn't include the date of the game you were writing about in this article, which is confusing when reading it two days later. I added the date to make it more clear what game you were writing about. You didn't say why it was "do or die," but adding that to your post would be a bit more than clarifying, so I posted a follow up to make it more clear. Please review the edits and use them to become a better writer.
Back to the topic of administration, I do make more "administrative" work for myself when I do some experimenting (which I've been doing the past week, for those of you who have hit the site to find it down), but that's the "fun" part of administering the site to me. FreeBSD has a much lower cost to administer than a Microsoft box, especially in terms of time. (No SP2 nightmare here, and no need to reset every 30 days.)
The only "upkeep" required right now is the replacement of the hard drive which has some physical problems that come up now and then. I've been told that it is scheduled to be replaced in November. I'm not sure what a "co-admin" will do. But most of all, I don't like the idea of advertisements on the site. Quality is more important than money, and I don't see how more money will necessarily equal better quality. (Look at Microsoft. With all the money they have they're still losing to a bunch of "hippy programmers" working for free!)
Why wouldn't I want to make money off of the site? It's simple. I don't want to give up control over what I write. As soon as I start accepting money from advertisers, those advertisers have a vested interest in what I cover. If, say, they don't like me complaining about Watanabe-owner's work behind the scenes, they can use their "investment" in the site for leverage to stifle such commentary. If the investors want me to focus more on a particular topic, such as players who have gone to the MLB, a topic I really don't care about, then this site wouldn't give me the pleasure that it does now.
The only real administrative task is approving (and editing) messages. I started moderating when a particular individual started posting rather mean spirited (to downright racist) posts back in 2001. I'm sure you've seen similar posts on other public boards like MLB.com. I asked him to stop, he started attacking my character. I started deleting his posts, he started calling me "Adolf Webmaster." I started moderating posts, he went away.
I still get spammers trying to post here every couple of weeks. The most enjoyable was one who tried to post about a web site to teach one to relax and become one with the world. The posts kept getting more and more frustrated until I thought that maybe the spammer could use the site he/she was recommending in a very bad way. Some people just don't read that all posts are moderated and that spam is not tollerated. It sure would save them a lot of trouble.
Another reason I moderate posts is to try to make everything clearer, especially for those who speak English as a second language. There was a guy someone called "Peter the Jerk" on the Pro Yakyu mailing list I contributed a great deal to during the two years I took off from writing on my site. He was attacking a number of the more informative members of the list because their English wasn't that good. It didn't matter that their content was relevant, he just attacked their broken English. I value content more, so I try to make the presentation as transparent as possible.
As time has evolved, I've gone from moderator to editor. Please have a look at how I've edited your own posts. Are they more clear than you wrote? For example, you didn't include the date of the game you were writing about in this article, which is confusing when reading it two days later. I added the date to make it more clear what game you were writing about. You didn't say why it was "do or die," but adding that to your post would be a bit more than clarifying, so I posted a follow up to make it more clear. Please review the edits and use them to become a better writer.
Back to the topic of administration, I do make more "administrative" work for myself when I do some experimenting (which I've been doing the past week, for those of you who have hit the site to find it down), but that's the "fun" part of administering the site to me. FreeBSD has a much lower cost to administer than a Microsoft box, especially in terms of time. (No SP2 nightmare here, and no need to reset every 30 days.)
The only "upkeep" required right now is the replacement of the hard drive which has some physical problems that come up now and then. I've been told that it is scheduled to be replaced in November. I'm not sure what a "co-admin" will do. But most of all, I don't like the idea of advertisements on the site. Quality is more important than money, and I don't see how more money will necessarily equal better quality. (Look at Microsoft. With all the money they have they're still losing to a bunch of "hippy programmers" working for free!)
Re: A Thought on Administration
[ Author: torakichi | Posted: Sep 26, 2004 12:40 AM
| HT Fan
]
Right on! Ads are an abomination, and JapaneseBaseball.com is an excellent site without advertising revenue.
Re: A Thought on Administration
[ Author: LUCKY 7 | Posted: Sep 26, 2004 5:24 AM
| HT Fan
]
I now see your point. It makes some very good sense.
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(aka westbaystars)
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Some rights reserved.