What can be done about the declining performance of WP?

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i found a community that i like and its website is dying?

I wouldn't say death, exactly. I expect it to rise from the ashes like a phoenix.

A buggy, temperamental phoenix for a few months, probably, but a phoenix nonetheless.

Not if the guy who feeds this phoenix is constantly being distracted by TV proposals and pretty actresses... (then again, who am I, from this limbo of a life I lead, to say that that's wrong to pursue if given the opportunity? It's just kind of wrong because this dying website is what gave him the publicity in the first place, though).

I don't blame him for taking interesting jobs and hanging out with famous people. I blame him for letting the site exist on autopilot.

I don't get why anyone would rely on a single person to do anything, though... surely he's not the only one with sufficient knowledge to maintain this site? Or is this a case of not letting anyone else chip in?

Good point. IDK, but I certainly have a history of that kind of behavior and I know that other Aspies do, as well.

To be possessive, you mean? But he doesn't care about the site anymore! (Besides for welcoming people, though not sure if that's automated...)

Alex has, in the past, recruited other admins to do a lot of the fixes and such. However, having people in that position means they are asked to do a lot more than merely take care of the site and fix issues (establishing them as site admins in a position above the moderators means that they're asked to handle a lot of "escalation" type issues). All of them have eventually grown tired of the demands, and left to do other things. I'm guessing that now the people that Alex would trust with such a position aren't really interested in it.

sliqua-jcooter, he is not even active currently, though... how could he trust anyone? It's getting ridiculous, though... lack of trust is leading to the site's implosion? I re-iterate, this site could learn a lot from how Wikipedia functions: certainly the 'founder' doesn't need to trust anyone anymore as the site grows, and it's practically impossible, so elections are established... so the community could decide if someone is trustworthy (if indeed trust is the issue here... I suppose knowledge is also a factor, in which case something like Bugzilla should be established...)

I think the problem here is that Alex is not willing to pay anyone for site maintenance. Even Wikipedia has significant expenses, including paying developers. It's obvious based on his proposed layouts and logos that he has been trying to do them himself, and not getting results that are even in the same ballgame as what a professional would have delivered. I don't know what ad revenue is like for a site like this, but it appears that Alex is relying on the critical mass of forum users to keep revenue coming in without spending on anything but the necessities (hosting, etc). That can change, not easily or frequently but it can, and when it does, it will happen quickly. Right now Alex is gambling against the possibility that he might end up with a semi-defunct site at some point.

Sliqua, I don't know about you, but if I do work for someone for free, I am generally forfeiting $100 an hour I could be billing a paying client. I've said this before, and you weren't receptive, but I would like to again offer you my opinion that you should move on from this s**t show.

What's he using the money on then, besides hosting? (I'm assuming there's more than is needed there, although not sure.)

None of us have any idea what Alex's income and expenses are for this site. Well, maybe Sliqua knows enough to impute what it is.

I don't work for free, and Alex isn't paying me for anything other than the service my company provides.

The time I spend on this forum is as a regular user, and it's spent on threads that I want to have input on.

Aren't you concerned that future clients will see that your company (you are the owner?) does work on this site, and check the site out, and then choose not to do business with you due to the state of the site? I would be more than concerned enough about that to cease doing business with the site owner.

You're clutching at straws. Dear JCooter (I ommited the company name) spends time on this site for reasons that have nothing to do with the company that happens to be hosting the site.

In short, nope. As I've already explained to you many, many times - my company doesn't do dev work, nor do we do design work. We do hosting - we maintain the servers - and, given that the site is up and responsive - our job is done.

None of our prospective customers care at all about this site, it's far from the largest or most high-profile site we host.

I've said all I care to say to you on the subject.