To be honest, more and more I find myself gravitating towards MannyC’s suggestion about having “Contributors” rather than further Team Members - the reason why I say that to be honest is because I think the folks we have at the “top” of the site as it were have all worked together for several years, we all gel pretty well together and have our own vision of the site (which is, let’s face it, what brought us all together in the first place). Accepting Angie, who’s been and gone, the new kid on the block in the team is Matt, and IIRC he’s been a team member now for well over a year.
Also, you can create a differentiation between Team Members and “Contributors” in that pretty much all of the Team Members are actually heads of a section, or at least a sub-section - MannyF is Site Leader, MannyC is in charge of the forums and co-manager of the Toy Section, I’m manager of the Comics Section and co-manager of the Cartoon Section, Kyle is co-manager of the Cartoon Section and manager of the Encyclopedia, Mark is manager of the Animation Art Section, Neil is co-manager of the Toy Section, Matt is co-manager of the Merchandise Section, and so on.
With apologies if this comes over a bit tactlessly, the only thing that would make this tricky to implement would be the fact that Martin has Team Member status (as did Angie) and they were neither of them in charge of a section, but just on board as writers - however, maybe this could be explained away by stating that they became Team Members not just because they were contributors but because they’re Moderators…?
I have to say, I really like the idea of just having “Contributors” rather than fully-fledged Team Members because it’s much easier to get input from these folks without the “political” side of things coming into play. We’ve all got such an easy relationship now, a suggestion like MannyC’s would actually give us the best of both worlds!
I agree. I like MannyC’s idea as well. As for Martin…MannyC and I discussed this on Skype earlier…he’s been with us from almost the very beginning, so I think as a veteran he is deserving of being part of the main team.
Yep, in fact, Martin was actually a member of the team when the site launched (at least IIRC), so, there you go! FWIW, I think an idea like MannyC’s is definitely the way to go - I’m not quite sure how you’d explain away suddenly not needing more Team Members but just folks to do the donkey work, but I’d leave that pleasure up to you guys!
The only other consideration I can think of is whether anyone writing for the Encyclopedia in a “non-Team Member” capacity might want a writers’ credit, and how Kyle would feel about this from the perspective of the appearance of the Encyclopedia pages. Any thoughts about this anybody…?
And, one final question - if we go ahead with this idea, would it be OK for me to ask Queen Lynxana if she’d be willing to assist me in writing synopsies for the remaining ThunderCats comics? I’m aware that that section is ridiculously incomplete, but like I say, there’s no way I’ll even be able to make a start on writing it this side of next year!
I was on Skype earlier funnily enough, I must have just missed you guys or I’d have said hi!
Well, none of them really specified working on the encyclopedia…more of just general writing in the cartoon section.
If you’d like, I can give you and Chris the email addresses of those interested and you two can decide who you think would best fit in.
I believe there are four candidates…the only thing is I’ve already said yes to Brandon. The other three are from the UK…so you guys can choose who you like.
I can’t speak for Kyle, but FWIW that sounds like a plan to me!
The only thing I’d say about writing for the Cartoon area is that really there’s not a massive amount needed for that beyond the Encyclopedia - I’m handling the Episode Guide, and Martin has said he plans to write some short articles in the vein of my “Vultureman’s Voice” article and so we’d need to make sure that he and the others didn’t clash. Whereas, Martin’s post of writing and researching for the Encyclopedia has basically come up for grabs, as he’s stated that he doesn’t have time to do this any more (which is fair enough) - the front page “advert” did actually reference the Encyclopedia specifically, and really, IMO this is where another writer is most urgently (I’d almost say desperately) needed…
At the moment I know Kyle’s on holiday, I believe he’s back next weekend - so, probably won’t be able to make any movement till then, but like I say, if you’re happy with us making the call, MannyF, that’s cool by me!
EDIT: Actually, I’ll correct myself, the front page article did mention general writing for the Cartoon Section - I apologise, my memory is going! I still think that there’s not a hell of a lot needed for that side of things as much as some of the others, and more urgent jobs that need doing, and also reiterate that it would require everyone (including Martin) to work closely together to ensure there wasn’t a crossover of work. But, hopefully it should all work out!
