Have your say

[Muessig]

Currently here are our ambassadors:

1. hopmedic
2. rdubmu
3. Curtieson
4. unstoppablekem
5. pmhgeneral
6. BIGPADDY
7. metalchick719
8. xandros9
9. WanderingTraveler
10. Himanshu Chowdhary
11. Guytronic
13. Me

At the moment I'm keeping my eyes on Curtieson, pmgheneral and WanderingTraveler, who just aren't pulling their weight gernally. Mase was removed because he clearly wasn't doing anything on the boards at all and I replaced him with xandros9, who is a poster that's widely active across the board. I can see the next one to go would be WanderingTraveler simply because his circumstances at the moment mean he has to borrow his family's laptop or phone to be able to post anything - but I'll be glad to have him back when he can contribute.

Overall I've not been told we need any certain numbers or anything. I think we're at a good place right now and we have a group of people that are active and communicating and contribute across the whole board on a daily basis and at all times of day. If we do remove WanderingTraveler I'll want to replace him with someone active, maybe a developer like sinime, but I don't see the point of adding ambassadors for the sake of it.

Previously there was little to no communication at all and no goals for any ambassador to strive for, I'm trying to put that into place. I think the next step will be to find out which parts of the board each ambassador really likes and naturally goes there, then maybe make that area their responsibility to report and reply in those areas but I think that's a ways off.

Have any of you guys noticed anything the ambassadors should be doing better, or are currently doing wrong? Say it here and we can discuss it further - I think its important all the mods have input and work with the ambassadors closely.

 

[snowmutt]

Color me with rockstarzzz (I would stand with anyone with a Star Wars themed avatar anyways, but that is beside the point). How many Ambassadors do we need, and how "active" does someone need to be to be considered?

Heck... it has been 2 days. Do you still need someone Muessig?

 

[rockstarzzz]

Personally I feel the ambassador team should be manageable and even if you have 5 people who are there all the time, happy to help and don't disappear every 2 days - you are in business! Considering the "surge" has gone and we are nearly on the normal business, we don't get so many visible new threads, I am sure our numbers are increasing all the time. But will it be useful to have 15-20 ambassadors who won't all keep in touch with you and you will have a team that you will spend time tying together instead of actually driving them to work efficiently and have output? Just wondering. I am sure you have a better handle on this than me!

One issue I guess is people don't stay regular on online groups or communities and real life generally takes over. It is a vicious circle.

 

[Muessig]

How many Ambassadors do we need, and how "active" does someone need to be to be considered? Heck... it has been 2 days. Do you still need someone Muessig?

I don't know if I miscommunicated or what happened, but the point I was trying to make was that now mase has been replaced with xandros9 I think we're in a pretty good place. 90% of our ambassadors are really very active a lot of the time and they're communicating well.

Personally I feel the ambassador team should be manageable and even if you have 5 people who are there all the time, happy to help and don't disappear every 2 days - you are in business! Considering the "surge" has gone and we are nearly on the normal business, we don't get so many visible new threads, I am sure our numbers are increasing all the time. But will it be useful to have 15-20 ambassadors who won't all keep in touch with you and you will have a team that you will spend time tying together instead of actually driving them to work efficiently and have output? Just wondering. I am sure you have a better handle on this than me!

One issue I guess is people don't stay regular on online groups or communities and real life generally takes over. It is a vicious circle.

I think the ambassadors could be a little more active consistently, but you'll get inconsistencies no matter what given that it's a voluntary position. With the ambassadors we have at the moment I think we're in a good place and the only additions I think we'll need to make are more replacing current ambassadors that just haven't got the passion anymore. I don't see the point of just increasing the numbers for no reason - the team at the moment is small enough to keep a personal vibe, with each ambassador feeling needed.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I don't know if I miscommunicated or what happened, but the point I was trying to make was that now mase has been replaced with xandros9 I think we're in a pretty good place. 90% of our ambassadors are really very active a lot of the time and they're communicating well.



I think the ambassadors could be a little more active consistently, but you'll get inconsistencies no matter what given that it's a voluntary position. With the ambassadors we have at the moment I think we're in a good place and the only additions I think we'll need to make are more replacing current ambassadors that just haven't got the passion anymore. I don't see the point of just increasing the numbers for no reason - the team at the moment is small enough to keep a personal vibe, with each ambassador feeling needed.

If I remember correctly, mase had ambitions to become a mod. That obviously would never happen, given his controversial threads involving politics and religion. He seemed to lose interest in being an ambassador once it became clear to him that neither Dave not I would invite him to become a mod.

I also seem to remember he wanted a paid job as an Amazon mod, and he only intended to use WPCentral as a reference to get an Amazon job.