Accountability

[Brown Jenkin]

reapersaurus, I'm sorry to hear your complaints about being shouted down. I too have been on the minority side here at times, and have come out against some of the policies of these boards. I have never however had reason to question the motivations of Morris in running this site. When the call for money came I imediately went to the ERP site and donated reasonable amount without thinking and even considered giving until it hurt if needed (fortunately many others thought the same). While I may still disagree with some policies and will likely still be shouted down in some threads I do not regret in the slightest what I did, nor am I worried at all that the money won't be well spent. In this instance I am with the majority and will support whatever Morris chooses to do, but I also support your descision to speak your mind. I hope you and others will continue to to post your thoughts no mater how contrary to the majority they may be, but sometimes we must just learn to accept that we are the minority and not let others goad us into extremisim in defence of our position (I am not accusing you of this, just making a point). I have found that as long as you can make a reasonable point most others will respect you even if dissagreeing with you and those that don't you can likely safely ignore (fighting fire with fire just leaves everthing burned).

 

[Angcuru]

(fighting fire with fire just leaves everthing burned).

actually (to go OT) if you're in the middle of a wildfire, the best thing to do is find an open field and star another fire. the fire will burn away a large section big enough for you to lay down in. the wildfire will not burn this already burned area, and since you are in it, you will be safe.

so it leaves everything burned, except for you.

now if you were to say fight drowning with a glass of ice water....

 

[tburdett]

We gave because we enjoy using this resource, for the information provided or for the community, or both. We gave because we want this place to continue.

I am sure that this knowledge is first and foremost in Morrus' thoughts when he ponders what to do with the windfall that he has received.

Personally, my only hope is that he does what is necessary to keep EN World up and running. Beyond that, I could not care less what he does with whatever money is left over.

 

[Umbran]

Am I disappointed that he got into financial trouble? Well, yeah. But we managed to scrape together to pull his (no, actually: this site's) fat outta the fire.

*nod*. Perhaps there's something to be noted here....

As far as I'm aware, Morrus stopped trying to run this site for profit some time ago. It stopped being a business. This was not at all kept secret. And anyone who has half a brain could realize that if it wasn't being run as a business, there might be financial difficulties, since nobody would be making sure the place pulled it's own weight. It was fairly clear that community support might be necessary.

So, where were we then? The ability to financially support the site has been around for a long time. We (collectively) weren't using it. When told it was a do-or-die situation, yes, we came out and did what needed to be done. We pulled our own butts out of the fire. But we were not foresightful and responsible enough to support ourselves before that.

If we had really been good do-bees, the crisis would never have happened, and there'd ahve been no question of Morrus' accountability. Before we start worring about holding other folks accountable for their actions, perhaps we need to be a little more sure we're responsible ourselves, hm?

 

[sawbones]

Not to dispute others concerns, but the way I looked at it was this: I pop by everyday for a quick look at the boards and the news, for that my donation paid for what I have already used at Morrus' expense. I plan on throwing a contribution annually at enworld because what Morrus' has offered has been an excellent service.

I think of it as a subscription, Morrus doesn't need to offer me an accounting, as long as the service I'm paying for is worth the money I pay for it, I will gladly support it, if it stops being worth it, then I stop paying. Certainly this service is worth the paltry pennies a day that my donation counted for. It is certainly a better value than a whole lot of other things I buy

But most of all, I would like to thank Morrus for all his hard work, and I do hope that when he ever needs us again, he won't wait for the last minute.

Grant Kinsley MD

 

[jdavis]

Great Googly Mooglies, don't we have more important stuff to do around here, like bickering about the Ranger class or posting about how there are too many OT threads in general. Just be happy the site is still up and get back to wasting your valuable time discussing D&D, that's what we are all here for right? More witty banter and less buisness plan talk people these threads don't write themselves.

(For the record I could care less what is done with the money just so long as I hit the link and the site comes up.)

 

[reapersaurus]

As far as I'm aware, Morrus stopped trying to run this site for profit some time ago. It stopped being a business. This was not at all kept secret.

I'm glad you bring this up.
I want to post a request to link to that thread wherein he described this, but I don't want to bug Meta with its own thread.

IIRC, some quite-relevant things were said in that thread, and have bearing on some of the questions I'd like to ask.

Wraith Form- I can't respond to you, if I want the thread to continue in the non-personal vein I'd prefer it to.

 

[reapersaurus]

(For the record I could care less what is done with the money just so long as I hit the link and the site comes up.)

If that's the case, than a discussion about the dollars and cents of the site would seem to be prudent.
Since unless the $ is handled well, that link might not work in the future.

 

[barsoomcore]

reaper, I'm (sorta) with you.

And sorta not.

Here's my take: I get a lot out of this site. When it was in trouble, and it became apparent that simply by giving a chunk of change I could help out, I did so. Happily and without concern for what might become of that money.

Unless I have been reading you wrong all this time, I suspect you feel the same way about whatever contribution you may have made. When you say you want Morrus to be a little more forthcoming, or whatever, I think (I hope) you're not saying, "Show me the account books or I want my money back!" I think you're saying, "Maybe things could be handled a little better in the future."

Now you can shout and complain about stuff, you can ask nosy questions, and ultimately one of two things will happen: either your concerns will be addresses sufficiently, or you'll stop hanging out at the site (and stop supporting it, both with your presence and your cash).

Morrus may or may not care about that. Time will tell.

But I totally agree with you that a little more knowledge of what's happening behind the scenes would ease my mind as to the stability of this great, great site. At the same time, I recognize that ENWorld is nothing less than a labour of love, and Morrus is beholden to no-one -- and my donation does not make him beholden to me.

The reason I'd like a little more visibility is NOT because I think my donation earns me the right to it -- I would like more visibility even if I HADN'T given anything. The two issues are not connected.

I'm sorta rambling here so I'll stop. Just wanted to offer a touch of support, there.

 

[BSF]

I would *like* to have a little more info on all of this so I can try to help avoid it happening again. This site is Morrus' responsibility since his name is on the bills. But, plenty of people on here ask advice from the community. Plenty of people receive unsolicited advice when they post regarding something that other people have a possible solution to. It would have been nice if Morrus could have said something sooner along the lines of "I'm falling behind on payments to Cyberstreet, can we get more Community Supporters or does anyone have any ideas?"

Don't get me wrong, I am not knocking on Morrus. It is a big leap to involve a bunch of people that are, essentially, strangers into your bills. Even if they are bills for a hobby site that those same strangers visit every day. I'm not sure I would have done anything any differently than he did if I were in his situation. But, I don't like the thought that he has probably been worrying about this for a while. I figure that the guy that runs the place should enjoy it as much as I do.