Wow. This week has been tough on me as I’ve worked double time to insure that there would be content published on the site next week while managing to publish content for this week. Following meetings, watching WordCamp Coverage, and conducting interviews. I feel like I’ve done it all this week. All for a good reason. I’m going on vacation.
While it will be hard for me to completely let go, I’m pretty sure that my disappearance for 6 days will not cause the forums to implode. I have a good team of moderators to take care of forum user’s if they need help while everything else can wait until I return. Patrick O’ Keefe who is the author of a great book called Managing Online Forums recently went on a vacation himself and when he returned, his community was still there.
What did I come back to? Well, yes, hundreds and hundreds of new posts, public and in the staff forums, private messages and e-mails. But, beyond that, were my communities in ruin? Were all of the posts spam? Had numerous members left? No, no and no. Things were fine. Things were functioning. They could do without me for a while.
Sure, I’ll have a messy inbox to deal with as well as some catching up to do, but I think the community surrounding WPTavern is strong enough now to not need constant care.
I have a few posts in the queue for this week including three interviews which I hope you’ll enjoy. Until then, keep the beer on ice, the conversations flowing, and whatever you do, don’t let this place burn down!
Keep tabs on me by following @jeffr0 on Twitter and http://jeffc.me which is where I’ll be beta testing the new WordPress iPhone app.
Enjoy your vacation, Jeff. And don’t forget that everyone (except me, of course) will demand pictures!