Posted by Jim Casteel on November 11, 2011 at 12:08 AM
This is a tough letter to write, it is wrought with emotion, full of pride, frustration and a little pain. I have finally got back into town after a terrible and expensive detour from Zion and have just been able to read some of the posts on the forum. Crazy how fast things can change. Looking at the top of the page apparently congratulations are in order for Joshua, Jack and Adam! This is a tough job with little help or thanks. It has been an extremely frustrating learning experience for me. If any of the knowledge I have struggled to obtain can be useful to you please let me know I would be happy to share.
I sincerely apologize for my part in the moderation duties being slacked on over the past several months. Part of that was not having enough time to do what was expected of me. The last year has been personally very challenging and my duties here slipped as a direct result. The other piece I feel was lacking in my tenure was I did not know what the group expected from me. It sometimes felt that I was just handed the keys to a car and I didn’t know how to drive.
I can’t say this situation was handled the best but I would like to thank everyone for allowing me to be moderator for the last 1.5 years. I would also like to thank Jim E for his openness, honesty and responsiveness in many of the threads. It shows as the owner of this business he truly does care about the success of this small slice just as much as the business as a whole.
I take a lot of pride in being a member of this community of photographers, I have gained several new friends, a wealth of knowledge, and even a little skill over the past 4 years of participation and look forward to many more.
To the new Moderators, a few words of advice:
My first word of advice to you is to not under any circumstance try and use our old contest page to run contests! (thanks Scott for setting up the new one!) The last one I ran through there I ran some numbers and it was averaging around an hour per image submitted. That put last years contest at roughly 60 Hours of labor in a month. Nobody should have to do that especially not one person.
My other word of advice is to share. Firstly the knowledge needs to be shared. When I came in there was only one person who knew the information I needed and a lot of it was still vague. Second, share the workload. Over the last 1.5 years I have learned this is not a small job and one person can’t do it alone.
Thanks
Jim Casteel
Posted by Jack Garrett on November 11, 2011 at 12:31 AM
Jim, I appreciate everything you did and tried to do. I am already finding out that this takes a lot of time...I've had about 40 emails today. Hopefully, with the workload you have on the job, you will be able to relax and enjoy life a little. Thanks for your offer of help and support, I'm sure we'll be calling on you.
Posted by Pam Colander on November 11, 2011 at 1:22 AM
You did well Jim, now get some rest. Glad you're home safe
Posted by Jim Erhardt on November 11, 2011 at 7:15 AM
Jim, thanks for all you have done! As a (perhaps insignificant) token of our appreciation, you are now a NPN Lifer - we hope you stick around!
Posted by Morris McClung on November 11, 2011 at 3:53 PM
Thanks for all you did, Jim!
Posted by Scott Fricke on November 11, 2011 at 7:52 PM
Thank you for all the time and effort you have put into the forum for the last 1.5 years. It is very much appreciated!
Posted by Adam Schallau on November 11, 2011 at 8:45 PM
Jim,
Having been a moderator a few times now, I understand how difficult the "job" can be.....especially if there is no one to guide you through the process. Thank you for the time and effort that you put into RMNP!
Posted by D J Kuklinski on November 11, 2011 at 9:45 PM
Thanks Jim, for all you have done.
Posted by Brian Jackson on November 11, 2011 at 11:55 PM
Discussion
8 repliesI sincerely apologize for my part in the moderation duties being slacked on over the past several months. Part of that was not having enough time to do what was expected of me. The last year has been personally very challenging and my duties here slipped as a direct result. The other piece I feel was lacking in my tenure was I did not know what the group expected from me. It sometimes felt that I was just handed the keys to a car and I didn’t know how to drive.
I can’t say this situation was handled the best but I would like to thank everyone for allowing me to be moderator for the last 1.5 years. I would also like to thank Jim E for his openness, honesty and responsiveness in many of the threads. It shows as the owner of this business he truly does care about the success of this small slice just as much as the business as a whole.
I take a lot of pride in being a member of this community of photographers, I have gained several new friends, a wealth of knowledge, and even a little skill over the past 4 years of participation and look forward to many more.
To the new Moderators, a few words of advice:
My first word of advice to you is to not under any circumstance try and use our old contest page to run contests! (thanks Scott for setting up the new one!) The last one I ran through there I ran some numbers and it was averaging around an hour per image submitted. That put last years contest at roughly 60 Hours of labor in a month. Nobody should have to do that especially not one person.
My other word of advice is to share. Firstly the knowledge needs to be shared. When I came in there was only one person who knew the information I needed and a lot of it was still vague. Second, share the workload. Over the last 1.5 years I have learned this is not a small job and one person can’t do it alone.
Thanks
Jim Casteel
Having been a moderator a few times now, I understand how difficult the "job" can be.....especially if there is no one to guide you through the process. Thank you for the time and effort that you put into RMNP!