Well here goes...
I do not believe that the problem is just here alone. If you go out gandering at the other team boards the one recurring theme you keep seeing is that of team membership. People leave for many reasons, but one that I've heard repeated to me by people that have left is that they resent being pushed into projects that they really either don't want to crunch, or just purely aren't interested in. I guess it just boils down to like in real life where people have their own agendas for one reason or another. And rather than get into a pi$$ing contest with others, it is just easier for them to keep their mouth shut and leave. That is one of *the* major points with Free-DC, people being able to crunch what they wanted, whether it was with FDC or another team, or any project. And every now and then, you will see posted in their threads on projects where some members have become a little too exuberant in their enthusiasm for a certain project and the *recommendations* of crunching it to mentioned members, that a team member jumps right in and reminds everyone that the members are free to crunch what they want and aren't to be pressured. And it's a fine line, cause everyone is different in this world, and what is meant as good natured fun to one person can easily be interpreted as being hassled to another person. And not to say that FDC is problem free, cause also in their forums you see comments in threads popping up regarding they need new members. So dwindling membership is definitely not a unique thing to this team, cause it's happening all over really.
I have noticed though that some of the larger teams are centered around something that provides avenues for stuff besides just crunching. XtremeSystems, BroadbandReports, and ARS for instance have pretty stong boards that deal with some hard core hardware support and associated items, and also have some support from a commercial end of things in one way or another. Then there are teams like Team Norway, DPC, some Russian, German, UK and Aussie ones that have some national pride basis wrapped into their membership and team spirit thing. The point being here that all those mentioned teams have something besides just crunching to maintain the team members interests. Crunching stuff along doesn't give much food for thought so to speak after a while cause things tend to be talking about the same old thing over and over. Go take a peek at XtremeSystems for instance, take a look at the whole spectrum of their board forums/threads. You will notice that the volume of message/posting traffic is much higher in their non-DC teams stuff than in just their crunching threads. In fact their crunching threads are fairly sparse and boring.
I am currently going through another one of those unenthusiastic about crunching periods that I think we all get into from time to time. It's an expensive hobby, but it's also a hobby that needs some other stuff to keep the activity interest going team wise, to help maintain interest in communicating and posting with others. The social aspect of DC teams can't be forgotten, because without it, the teams whither and die in a hurry.
Another thing to notice with the large teams is that they aren't "owned" by anyone. They are highly organized with a specific set of rules and behaviors that are strictly enforced to keep the recurring problematic issues from surfacing or resurfacing and causing dissension among members.
Just some thoughts that have floated through the brain while sitting here typing away.
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Originally Posted by Brucifer
... Don't Post too much but I do monitor the Forum Board quite often to at least keep up with any new things going on with the Team.
