Question for Skinner

[MilesColtrane]

Hi there.

I'm curious as to how much time you spend just perusing the various forums, not necessarily dealing with moderation questions or administrative functions.

Or, do you even have any time to occasionally read through the site as a casual user might?

(I'm not charging you with not having your finger on the pulse of your own site. I'm sure live and breathe this site. I'm just wondering how big the gap is between what we experience as users and what you experience as publisher/owner.)

[Skinner]

1. I think the gap between what we experience is pretty large.

I think on a typical day I probably spend an hour browsing DU. I may post a couple times if the spirit moves me.

A very large portion of my time is spent dealing with the negative: complaints, disruptive posts, people's personal squabbles, etc. So my typical DU experience is very skewed toward the negative, unfortunately.

You may have heard that we are working on a total redesign of the site, from scratch. One of my goals in this effort is to change the way the site is run so that I do not have to spend quite so much of my time dealing with so much negative stuff. Because DU really is a remarkable place, and I'd like to spend more time focusing on the positive.

[MilesColtrane]

2. "complaints, disruptive posts, people's personal squabbles"

Your gig sounds like running a courtroom, sans the robe.

Thanks for pulling back the curtain a bit, and here's hoping DU3 is a smashing success.