Hi ozylynx,
An email to bbover3 certainly gets attention and tends to get results. I don't know what his inbox looks like, but several things got re-prioritized recently, so your email might be one of the causes.

You have probably noticed that he is not given to discussing things until they are out of beta and running, at which time knreed or nelsoc or uplinger announce them. There is a lot running on the internal beta right now that they are trying to push out the door before Christmas.

Lawrence

Hi Keith I'm back from the land of nod

It went something like this.....

Coup away Keith you know who would be right behind you up at the front

ozylynx I'm not sure what we would have to vote on (looks like this might not be possible in light of Lawrence’s post above) If you could give examples though as to when a crunching decision could be made like this I'm keen to understand

here's how it works at the moment

The general hubbub of the forum goes along Points PC issues projects how are we doing feedback new kids on the block stats all that kind of thing. In amongst the crowd you have these keen crunchers in there helping out giving advice noting that cruncher X Y and Z have the same problem is this the tip of the Iceberg these are your CA's

Now at the end of a hard day at the Coal Face your CA's have somewhere where they can go and chew the cud. Lick their wounds if the have been chewed up badly and generally raise the issues of the day with each other and IBM (The current hot topic being fair(er) points allocation to which plans are afoot). Now I'm sure you are aware (hence this post) that there has been a bit of a disconnect between ourselves and IBM but this has been recognised and is being worked upon. We can talk with the IBM Project Manager bbover3 and the rest of the WCG Crew knreed, Alther, nelsoc to name but a few.

But I have to admit it's a bit like turning a Supertanker most of the time but rest assured if we shout loud enough for long enough we do get heard eventually.

Keith I think this was the gist of what I was trying to say before my mouse caused the BSOD yesterday but it has provided me with an opportunity to make a point about how the CA's work

What is this image trying to say to me?



It says I'll stubbornly back a good product when I see one (even if it has a Microsoft Label on it <- little aside just for Sekerob) but there is plainly a underlying problem that someone needs to do something about in this case

This is where your CA's with their eyes and ears to the ground can feedback valuable considered info back to IBM - no fly by nights

Over to you

Dave

Oh how I LOVE senility! I had completely forgotten about our backlevel forum software. SIGH!!!

If I thought for a second that the forum regulars represented a typical cross-section of the WCG crunching membership, then I would push for some sort of democratic representation. But I don't.

At the moment, Community Advisor positions are by invitation only. From time to time IBM will ask the existing CAs if there is anyone in the running. Potential nominees are fairly easy to spot. They are the ones doing the job already.

However, I'm sure the WCG staff would consider a nomination "from the floor" so to speak. So, if you feel really strongly that someone ought to be a CA but isn't, then feel free to say so. Perhaps, to avoid hurt feelings, it may be better if such a nomination were to be made by email. Also, you should get the nominee's permission first. This would a) avoid wasting time volunteering someone for a job they don't want, and b) prevent duplicate nominations.

No need to do anything like that just yet, though. The latest recruits are still being processed.

After reading all this I'm left with these thoughts:
1)You have some pretty good and caring CA's here.
2)They all need powers to lock a thread and delete an offensive post.
3)They have to be answerable to one guy who has shown that he is impartial for their actions and know that they could be "called on the carpet" to explain any actions.
4)IBM needs to understand the importance both morally and legally of running a public forum.
5) You'd be much better off with better software that would make your job easier.There is forum software that will allow a mod(CA) to go into a post and just remove offensive words if the rest of the post is worth leaving. Like surgery, not necessary to kill the patient if the finger has gangrene.
6) Last, by and large you have a great group of people here who care and thats what is important.
Best wishes on solving these issues.