You will not believe how this guy runs his online community

That is a tough question, and I have given it some thought -
I don't really have literal sleeping issues, and part of me kept wondering why you'd ask that. Do I appear that close to loosing sleep? That was not intended, really.

I've you have read me thinking out loud so far, you know I have a fuzzy brain in some ways, let me share what crossed my mind as honest answers to your question:

1. It does give me a lot of re-assurance to have communications like we are having in this thread. To get the feedback that there is a basic level of trust despite of some shortcomings on my end let's me sleep better. It is lonely in the engine room at times, and I am fully aware the members of wikiloops do not share my interest in tech, social interaction enabling and whatnot. There are few freaks like me out there, knowing that some respond in a positive way to what I do is reassuring, thanks for that.
2. I'd sleep better if I didn't have a permanent bad conscience about unanswered messages. I sometimes fail to keep up and end up in loops of feeling guilty about that. Getting pressured by members via shoutbox is also not a nice experience, especially when such demanding/unhappy/"this seems broken messages" sit there unanswered for hours. I'd sleep better if someone would step in, recommend opening a ticket in the feedback forum and promote some of the trust some of you have... that sort of thing.
3. Since you asked and I am being honest: I'd love to be relieved of having to work a day job in parallel to operating wikiloops. Who would have guesses that :) Seriously, there is something unbalanced about having the responsibility for wikiloops for 15 years (it's not all fun and roses) and life telling you "nice and well, but, get a job son!". My current boss refers to wikiloops as "my hobby", that just does not feel 100% right as you may imagine.

Do I expect "the members" to act on any of that? No, I don't, I seriously didn't open this thread asking for help, but rather to pre-inform on the live widget, which I am still working on.
I can't help but mention the "[url=]asking you to do the 'loops a favor...[/url]" thread I posted a few weeks ago - the outcome told me something about my current foothold in the community, and what to realistically expect.

Let me put it this way:
It is a bit hard for me to think of "the members" of wikiloops - as I mentioned somewhere, I believe there are quite diverse types of members (and supporters, too) - just compare the number of people commenting on this thread or any of my blog posts to roughly 115k technical members of this platform.
Sure, I can reach a lot of people, but how many seriously give a f about my sleep?
I am not naive about that any longer, and I am quite aware a lot of people couldn't care less about my "let's collaborate globally" mission and the sometimes tough life decisions I have to make.
It may sound provocative, but I have come to realize that it is wrong to expect the sheep to care about the shepherds sleep, or to discuss the wool-markets situation with the herd - that only makes sense to a certain extent, and no, I do not consider anyone a sheep, it's just a good analogy.

Now I sit and wonder if it is a good idea to post this, we went astray from the titties & beer fun mood a bit...

Let me repeat - I sleep okay. And I am not at odds with doing what I do, as I find it rewarding in multiple ways. I have a giant playground here, and from what I read, some people really get a lot out of it.

If there is a single thing you guys can do to make my life easier, the that's upgrading to gold supporter status, even if the added gadgets like the image gallery are not really calling you.
Know that yes, I will be trying to fix the budget imbalance in the long run, but I'll try it without betraying the concept, but rather by making wikiloops smoother and hopefully more attractive.
One should think i should be possible to find 700 people who sponsor 5 bucks a month so something like wikiloops can exists - we stand at 195 today, so there is some way to go, but it can't be impossible, right?

I'll be rolling out the "live" widget soon, and am looking forward to your feedback once you have the chance to check it out -
and I might share some other ideas with you soonish to get some feedback from those who care to think along.

Thank you for your reading-time, Ladies and Gentlemen.

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Well, now I know you're AI, j/k. Thanks so much for your reply. You've created and maintained such a wonderful thing here. Since change is constant, maintaining excellence is beyond super demanding. Sucks to hear that you're burning the candle at both ends while we're having a big party here. (Ok, you didn't say that)

This site is way beyond valuable. You're the key ingredient that makes it all happen. Feeling alone while carrying the load sucks. I suggest factoring your personal well-being into the cost model. A certain level of operating income must be met and if not, it's up to the members to meet it.

Last renew, I dropped to silver because a) I don't make albums or any other Gold features and b) I possess the human tightwad gene.

I just bumped up to Gold again. Yes, the plans and/or benefits might could use some tweaking, especially if more revenue is needed.

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Perhaps the Shotbox, (I misspelled it but gonna leave it) could use a small banner pointing to the Tech Department. Full disclosure, I don't know how to submit a ticket.

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A WL app? Fricken huge! For whatever it's worth, perhaps some things need to be emailed or somehow shouted from the rooftops. Maybe my communication preferences are to blame. WL isn't flashy by design but news like that should be a major sticky on the main page. Like top center. Just my thoughts.

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What? Blasphemy!!!11 Those sheep care about you - haven't you seen this trailer? ;)

[youtube]pyZI5oM6hWk[/youtube]



Yup, back to brighter topics :D

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This is absolutely true - I should not be that shy of issuing news that appear on everybodys newsfeed and stick there till seen. The entire forum / shoutbox communication channel really only works well on desktop displays and with an audience that proactively checks the forum. I'm not fond of cluttering more stuff onto pages, but getting important news across is indeed to be improved.

I noticed you referring someone to the feedback forums earlier today, thanks for that, it made me smile.

I recommend you folks follow up on thread https://www.wikiloops.com/forum/viewthread.php?thread_id=4365 - yet another interesting loops-topic discussed there that most of you will have an opinion on :)

The live widget is ready to roll by now, expect it to appear soon, and let me hear your first impressions. I'm predicting it will create mixed feelings, and I'd love to get to know what you read out of it.

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