Greetings, earthlings and visitors,

Though it's been a long time since I ventured out of my shell to offer my wisdoms to the great nation of Everything2, rumours of my demise are greatly exaggerated. There has actually been very little to report. I've been supervising rather than directing. The coding team has been responsible for almost all news and progress this year so I've been quite happy to sit back and watch them deliver. This being said, everyone please buy DonJaime and OldMiner a beer. They've earned it and then some.

Gods are dead. Long live Content Editors

For as long as there have been two staff groups, the Content Editors have held an inferior status compared to the "gods" group. In the past a CE with some seniority could be expected to be asked to join the gods group. This sort of "promotion" practically ceased under dann and me, mostly because the gods group was overpopulated. The nature of the gods group is also such that its members have access to tech buttons that are of no use to the average editor but are dangerous, as the accounts of the legendary exploits of jessicapierce, Jet-Poop, and others bear witness to. Just a few months ago I myself managed to fat-finger an admin bar link and briefly kill Node Heaven. As a sysadmin, I consider the current gods group an access control nightmare that's awfully hard to work around.

The current crop of Content Editors are of such quality that the inferiority to the gods group has ended up being purely nominal. Their wealth of experience and their dedication are such that I decided that it was fair to all to formally and officially let Content Editors supplant the gods group. For the last three years there has already been a trend to give CEs more and more tools that used to be reserved for the gods group, to the point where a new CE today has much better editorial buttons than I did when I joined gods. We (meaning mostly DonJaime) have been working more intensively on extending powers to the CE group with the goal of giving its members the gods group's toolset minus the buttons that can Blow Shit Up.

The "gods" group as we know it will no longer have an administrative function. Those who remain in it shall be there strictly for their technical know-how. Members without a technical role will transfer to the Content Editors group. The "gods" name and term will have to remain because it's rather deeply ingrained in the code.

The King is (almost) Dead. Long Live the Revolutionary Committee for Public Safety and Order

I think I said before that I do not plan to occupy this throne forever, nor was it ever my intention to do so. I also believe that a conscientious manager must have a plan for his succession. With this in mind my co-conspirators and I have been plotting to overthrow the constitutional order--or perhaps to establish one.

Eventually (exact date to be determined but probably sooner rather than later) the reins of E2 will pass from me to a collective leadership. I have asked several people to share the burden of executive power in a group I call the "core". You might want to call it rule by committee but that's a pretty negative way of putting it given the quality and character of the people involved. I borrowed the "core" term from the FreeBSD development hierarchy, by the way, and not from a dystopian science fiction novel.

You're already familiar with wertperch as my immediate deputy, Oolong as chief of code and technologery, and The Debutante as maven of user relations and guardian of your immortal noder souls. These folks have been joined by Aerobe, Auspice, and mauler. I will serve as a member until it's time to yield the spot to someone else. Finer details on the Core's role and authority will follow when the transition is made.

The Usual Comings and Goings

Over the last few months, tentative, Gorgonzola, Wiccanpiper, rootbeer277, and TheDeadGuy retired due to inactivity on the site or other endeavours in life. I then went on a jaunt to Columbus with a promise of beer. This resulted in the recruitment of misterfuffie (who paid for the beer) and the return of the great borgo (who missed out on free beer). I am misrepresenting both the facts and the timeline here but you don't want to know what really happened in the wilds of downtown Columbus.


"He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils; for time is the
greatest innovator."
--Francis Bacon

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