Don’t ‘Keep An Eye’ on the Community

Imagine you had a button you have to push every few hours or something really bad might happen (Lost fans rejoice!).

You can still go home in the evenings, take weekends off, and go on vacation etc…however, every few hours you’re expected to push the button.

How much would you enjoy your time away? How much can you really relax, think deeply about your work, or enjoy your time with others if you need to prevent a calamity every few hours?

Checking a community every few hours for potential problems isn’t much different to pushing that button. It doesn’t help your community, it hurts your community by not giving you enough space from it.

In the decade I’ve been doing this work, I can’t think of a single truly urgent crisis that couldn’t wait 12 to 48 hours to resolve. Larger communities have paid moderation teams to handle most problems and smaller communities don’t tend to attract problems that turn into crises.

Try to think of an urgent crisis now that absolutely couldn’t wait until Monday. Now try to imagine a time when you checking the community in your downtime has prevented such a crisis.

Do you see the point?

The odds of a major crisis this weekend are tiny.

The odds of you burning out and not being able to provide the community the support it needs are a lot higher.

Or, if you need a simpler measure, if you’re not being paid to check the community in your time off – don’t do it.