Guys, as discussed before I intend to post a request for volunteers for the site publically. I aim to do that by this same time next week and would like you to please post here to share your thoughts on what qualities we desire in new team mates.
Secondly we need to consider what work we’ll ask new team members to undertake for the site. Your thoughts on this would be great also, but this is also something we can figure out later if needs be. I know we couldn’t decide this for sure in a week but if you have some general thoughts right now please air them now.
Lastly, if you have an objection to adding new team members we need to hear from you now also, because these will be full team members like the rest of us, not satellite team members like we’ve tinkered with in the past.
What I have in mind is to post for two positions:
The position of ‘site content author’ - somebody who will mostly be in charge of writing content to go with pictures, features, captions, special stories etc.
The other position I think would help is probably something that Manny could sketch out further for us - and would be a support role to him as webmaster. I think it would help if someone could take content that we have put together and publish it to the site.
Thoughts? Other ideas? Objections?
Mostly I’d like to hear the criteria you would look for in new team members. What is it about our current team members that you like and want to make sure we include in new team members?
First of all, hope everybody is doing ok.. I haven’t been on for a while.
I definitely agree about the need for new members to boost site productivity. I would just be careful with your selections. I was passed 3 people a while ago to help with the cartoon section who never progressed past the first..“lets see what your work is like” stage.
Good look with this, I look forward to seeing what comes of it!
On a personal level, my lack of contributions in the past months with regards to the encyclopedia have been 100% due to my final year of university. This is a priority for me and can not be avoided.
Another writer, of a good standard, who is capable of putting together articles for the Cartoon Section - of primary importance IMO would be their ability to contribute to the Encyclopedia (which was Martin’s primary role), and also, potentially, Season 2 of the Episode Guide (but without wanting to sound like a control freak I’d like to see examples of their work published to the site before letting go of the reigns in that regard - so, I’d prefer it if this wasn’t advertised as a potential role to fill just yet, but may be something I’d ask a new team member for help with later).
Someone who can help with getting pages online - i.e. someone with a good grasp of HTML (or who can easily modify templates without making the sort of messes I do, LOL!) and also an eye for layouts, etc. For myself I’d like to see someone working in HTML rather than Dreamweaver or such because I find using anything other than hand coding can throw up problems - however, there may be someone who has a real flair for using Dreamweaver in the same way that MannyF does, in which case obviously the HTML thing would be less of an issue.
For the Cartoon Section, even though my time is slightly limited, I can say that if someone were able to present me with finished content (such as a completed article complete with two images they wanted to use to illustrate it), I can get that online very quickly. What I find I currently no longer have the same amount of time to do is compile or create stuff from scratch.
Writer/researcher for the Encyclopedia - basically someone with a real passion for the cartoon who’s happy to trawl through making notes. Heck, if someone can come up with the raw data, knowing what Kyle’s looking for I might be able to write it - but, if they could write up their own raw data, that would be good.
Obviously Kyle is the man as regards the Encyclopedia - but, having spoken to him, I’d be surprised if he disagreed with what I’ve just said.
Synopsis writer for the Comic Section - someone who can write up info about each comic. If they wanted to do reviews as well, provided they could present them in a somewhat “official-looking” and educated way (i.e., not have a review that goes “Oh jeez, who the hell writes this **** anyway?”, which is what a lot of ThunderCats sites on the Internet are full of), that also would be more than fine by me - and, I should (knock on wood) be able to get their content online HTML-wise relatively quickly.
I have plans to create some more articles and features for the Comic Section too - however, needless to say it would be awesome if someone else wanted to add some too.
Someone to take control of the Merchandise Section. This, officially, is I think either Matt or Manny’s job, however, no work has been done to this ever in the lifetime of this site. With the Toy Section so close to completion, I think the next phase for optimising this site for ThunderCats collectors would be to include info on the Merchandise. We’ve talked about this at great length, but never done anything about it - let’s use this to change that!
Basically what would be nice is someone who could do what Kyle and more recently Nick have done and reinvigorate the team with their passion and enthusiasm. I’d like to think that it would have something of a “snowball” effect on the team as a whole.
These are my thoughts - I’d love to read those of my fellow team members, I think this is a great (and important) thread!
Chris has hit on a lot of good points and I think he is right on with his suggestions, as far as adding members I can fully trust Mark on making the best decisions possible. We’ve been working together for so long that we have a great idea of what to expect of a new team member, 2 thumbs up on my end
Guys here is my proposed post for new team members. Please let me know your thoughts or suggest edits:
Site management positions open - how to apply
Hi ThunderFans,
ThunderCatsLair.org is growing and we’re expanding our strong team so that we can keep up with all the demands of the fanbase and visitors. We’re opening 2-3 new management roles to join the site and help take the site to the next level. This is your chance to contribute. If any of the roles described below sound like a good fit with your interests and your skills then please contact us so that you can be considered.
Our goals this year and next are to boost the original content up on the site. As such we are looking for the following…
The roles:
A site content author to contribute feature stories, to assist with the ThunderCatsLair encyclopedia effort, episode reviews etc. This person will have a writing background and will have broad knowledge of the ThunderCats property. We’re looking for somebody who can cover stories from the cartoon to the comics to the toys to the new movie etc.
We’re looking for an intermediate level web designer or webmaster. This person will assist with publishing our content to the site. This person would assist the team by posting raw content to the site using a consistent look and feel and would suggest a standard style guide so that the various sections continue to feel like part of the same site.
Lastly we need a co-manager of the Merchandise section which has a ton of good content ready to go, but we’re lacking the resources to get that area organized, designed and published. This person will be a fan and probably a collector of T-Cat merchandise and will source images of merchandise from other collectors, from ebay auctions etc. They will research the history of merchandise and help bring this section to life for the site. Good writing skills and an understanding of good website design are necessary skills for this role.
The application process
Please e-mail your application to grizzlor@thundercatslair.org for consideration. We’ll accept applications between now and the end of May and we’ll get back to the successful candidates to welcome them aboard. Your application can take what ever format you feel will best describe to us how you’re uniquely qualified to join the team. A simple e-mail describing how you’d be able to help will do, or you can take a more unique approach and provide samples of your work, or you could mock up web pages to show us what you’re capable of. You may want to submit draft articles or story or content ideas… you choose how you want to wow us!
Please forward this to your friends if you can think of someone that would be a good fit for this work.
I’d like to leave out mention of episode reviews at the moment - I’m very protective of that area and whilst I would consider handing that over to somebody else if I was happy enough with their writing skill, I’d like to get a feel for someone’s ability and style before letting it be known that that role is available…
It may also be worth checking with Kyle as the Encyclopedia section manager that he’d be happy for the Encyclopedia writer role being put out there - I must admit based on our conversations in the past I’d be shocked if he had a problem, but obviously I can’t speak for him.
Other than that, I think that’s a beautifully put-together post, I don’t think anyone could have put it better - to quote Captain Jean-Luc Picard, I’d say “Make it so, Number One!”
Well no applications received to date… am wondering if anybody can think of somebody on our boards who is pretty regular of a reasonable disposition that we could approach directly about joining the team?
Who has the skills we’re looking for, and slots in with our way of working? Probably not - plus, I would have thought that if there was someone on the forums interested in joining, they would be amongst the first to jump in and say they were interested…
There are some folks who I think could contribute content of value, but it’s whether we’d be comfortable with having them as team members - for example, Queen Lynxana is, frankly, a complete drunken mess of a woman, but as a contributor to our Comic Section I think would, ironically, deliver much the sort of thing I’d be looking for. But, there’s no way on God’s earth that she’d be TCL team member material!
I think the bottom line is that contributing material to a project like this site looks like a really exciting project when you’re in your teens and have a lot of spare time, but when you’re pitching to a core audience of twenty-somethings (because those are the folks who grew up with ThunderCats) who are juggling families, relationships, jobs, higher education, etc., etc., it could actually seem like a daunting prospect.
If this doesn’t work out, maybe the only other alternative would be to ask for submissions to site content, rather than look for full-time team members - in this way, anyone interested could contribute as much or as little as they felt able, with no commitment to the site beyond each immediate piece. What do you think?
Well guys sadly to date I’ve had no new applicants for a position on the team. I’m wondering if anybody has a personal friend that was into the ThunderCats that they think would be a good addition to the team?
Re: a personal friend, I know one guy that I get on with very well, is a very good writer (writes semi-professionally) and is a huge ThunderCats fan. The biggest problem is, I hardly ever see him around Internet forums anymore, which means that (as I understand is the case) his writing is keeping him very busy, as last I heard he was contributing regularly to a music magazine.
He can be highly strung, but is no Queen Lynxana-type and as I say, I get on well with him - MannyF and Neil will both know of him, his name’s Michael Holloway and goes by the name of Mikey on the He-Man.Org forums, and also on our forums too: http://www.thundercatslair.org/forums/member.php?u=277 .
Chances are he’d be too busy, but having wracked and wracked my brains, he’s the only person I can think of who I think would make a TCL site writer that I for one would be truly happy with (all current members of the team accepted, of course).
Chris, could you approach Mikey and see if he’d be interested to do some writing for us? It couldn’t hurt to give it a try. Do you think he’d help with episode reviews?
What do you guys think of Spideristic? He’s been really on the ball with posting statue updates. I was thinking of asking him if he’d like to help build out the merchandise section. Would that be cool with the rest of the team?
My gut instinct is that he’d be too busy, but if you guys were cool with it, I’d love to approach Mikey about this - and yes, he’s one of the only people I would trust to take over writing for the Episode Guide, I am 150% confident that anything he contributed would be of top quality, and fit in perfectly with the tone of the site.
He’s an excellent forum member, so I’d say go for it for certain - the only question in my mind is what knowledge he’d have to contribute outside of the statue side of things (which I’d say we have covered at present), but I’d be more than happy to see him added to the TCL team if he can help flesh out the Merchandise Section!
Don’t forget too that when he was working on the site, Matt wrote up and photographed TONS of stuff we’ve never used, and MannyF also has a load of Merchandise photos that he sourced from a guy called Craig - so, if we could find somebody to contribute HTML to the site on a more regular basis, there is content sitting there waiting to be added!
