# Administration of the SDMB
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/administration-of-the-sdmb/700177
**Category:** About This Message Board
**Created:** [October 2, 2014, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/administration-of-the-sdmb/700177 "2014-10-02T12:26:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2014, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/administration-of-the-sdmb/700177/21 "2014-10-02T15:15:15Z")
> [@Procrustus](#):
>
> I’m the boss at my office. We have a website. I couldn’t change a word on it if my life depended on it. We have a tech guy named Jerry who takes care of everything.
Are you trying to tell us that all tech guys are named Jerry by default? 😃
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### Author:  [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2014, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/administration-of-the-sdmb/700177/22 "2014-10-02T15:21:36Z")
> [@Ravenman](#):
>
> But the really weird thing is that there’s a guy who works for Jerry who actually does all the work. His name is Jerry, too.
IT’s JERRY’S ALL THE WAY DOWN!!!
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### Author:  [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2014, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/administration-of-the-sdmb/700177/23 "2014-10-02T15:57:08Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#):
>
> I have no contact at all with the folks who own and operate the SDMB, but I rather doubt that they get a lot of enjoyment out of people here telling them how to do their jobs and run their business.
If my dog opened a restaurant, I doubt he’d get a lot of enjoyment out of me telling him to stop pooping everywhere. So what?
Seriously, I couldn’t be more sympathetic to the mods: I know you’re in a shitty situation, having to moderate a board with epsilon-\>0 admin support. But not only have the owners papered this board with ads, they’re charging an annual membership fee. For a board they put less time into than almost any free board on the web. People have a right to be annoyed by that situation, it’s a pretty big slap in the face to the people who have supported this place for years and years.
It’s like you’re a waiter in a restaurant where you’re not allowed to push tables together or do separate checks. Obviously it’s not your fault so it sucks that people gripe at you. But people aren’t going to stop griping, because it’s a strange and pointless setup.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2014, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/administration-of-the-sdmb/700177/24 "2014-10-02T16:01:42Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> He should at least have the courtesy to change his username to **Boyo Jerry.**
**Mongo Jerry** just pawn in game of life.
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### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2014, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/administration-of-the-sdmb/700177/25 "2014-10-02T16:06:12Z")
> [@Giraffe](#):
>
> If my dog opened a restaurant, I doubt he’d get a lot of enjoyment out of me telling him to stop pooping everywhere. So what?
>
> Seriously, I couldn’t be more sympathetic to the mods: I know you’re in a shitty situation, having to moderate a board with epsilon-\>0 admin support. But not only have the owners papered this board with ads, they’re charging an annual membership fee. For a board they put less time into than almost any free board on the web. People have a right to be annoyed by that situation, it’s a pretty big slap in the face to the people who have supported this place for years and years.
>
> It’s like you’re a waiter in a restaurant where you’re not allowed to push tables together or do separate checks. Obviously it’s not your fault so it sucks that people gripe at you. But people aren’t going to stop griping, because it’s a strange and pointless setup.
Yep.
It’s a lazy, fucked up way to run a business. That’s what this board is and anyone involved on that level should feel like a huge dope.
And by dope, I mean ass.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2014, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/administration-of-the-sdmb/700177/26 "2014-10-02T16:06:45Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#):
>
> I’m not trying to say we aren’t being told the truth, just trying to fully understand the situation. Your post compared to the post from **engineer\_comp\_geek** does beg a question though?
I think the rest of that paragraph addresses this:
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#):
>
> We have administrators here other than Jerry. It’s true that they aren’t labeled as admins in the board software, but some folks make more out of that than they probably should. Since the admins don’t have as much access to the board as they used to, they do have to jump through a few extra hoops behind the scenes to get things done, but things still get done.
He’s referring to me, **Ed Zotti** , **Tuba Diva** , **C K Dexter Haven** , **xash** , etc. - the people who were officially admins before all of this started. We can ask Jerry to do stuff, but as he says in that post, we don’t actually have admin powers. We used to be able to do some things on our own, like merge accounts and ban IP addresses, and now we can’t do that and have to ask Jerry to do them. I do ask Jerry to merge accounts and do some IP bans when needed, but there is some minor stuff I haven’t bothered asking him to do.
> [@Giraffe](#):
>
> It’s like you’re a waiter in a restaurant where you’re not allowed to push tables together or do separate checks. Obviously it’s not your fault so it sucks that people gripe at you. But people aren’t going to stop griping, because it’s a strange and pointless setup.
They can gripe at the waiters forever and it won’t change a thing.
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### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2014, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/administration-of-the-sdmb/700177/27 "2014-10-02T16:10:25Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> They can gripe at the waiters forever and it won’t change a thing.
That’s because either the management is asleep at the wheel, or the waiters are afraid to approach.
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### Author:  [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2014, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/administration-of-the-sdmb/700177/28 "2014-10-02T16:13:21Z")
I have no quarrel with any of the SDMB staff and I have no reason to disbelieve what you say. What concerns me is that these comments:
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#):
>
> I have no contact at all with the folks who own and operate the SDMB, but I rather doubt that they get a lot of enjoyment out of people here telling them how to do their jobs and run their business.
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> Nobody here can answer that either.
because they, along with several other responses in recent threads, strongly imply that the owners of the SDMB don’t really give a damn about it, the effect of which is to prevent positive changes to the way members (and guests) experience the board.
Personally, I think that within the next 10 years we will see the current owners ditch the SDMB entirely, at which point I would hope there might be some way for the members themselves to put in an offer for it and run it privately. However, I doubt we could afford the IP rights to continue using the Straight Dope “brand”, so that might have to go, and we may not even be able to get hold of the database.
On preview: yeah, what **Giraffe** said.
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### Author:  [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2014, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/administration-of-the-sdmb/700177/29 "2014-10-02T16:35:41Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> we don’t actually have admin powers.
Then you’re not actually admins.
> [@Dead\_Cat](#):
>
> Personally, I think that within the next 10 years we will see the current owners ditch the SDMB entirely,
The owners don’t give a shit about this place. The only reason it is still around is it makes them some profit and as long as it does they’ll keep it around.
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### Author:  [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2014, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/administration-of-the-sdmb/700177/30 "2014-10-02T16:45:22Z")
> [@Giraffe](#):
>
> If my dog opened a restaurant, I doubt he’d get a lot of enjoyment out of me telling him to stop pooping everywhere. So what?
>
> Seriously, I couldn’t be more sympathetic to the mods: I know you’re in a shitty situation, having to moderate a board with epsilon-\>0 admin support. But not only have the owners papered this board with ads, they’re charging an annual membership fee. For a board they put less time into than almost any free board on the web. People have a right to be annoyed by that situation, it’s a pretty big slap in the face to the people who have supported this place for years and years.
>
> It’s like you’re a waiter in a restaurant where you’re not allowed to push tables together or do separate checks. Obviously it’s not your fault so it sucks that people gripe at you. But people aren’t going to stop griping, because it’s a strange and pointless setup.
One restaurant analogy per post, please. /jrmod
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### Author:  [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2014, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/administration-of-the-sdmb/700177/31 "2014-10-02T16:45:30Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#):
>
> This isn’t entirely accurate. Changes to the board’s settings would be retained during any upgrade. And additions to the board’s underlying code using vBulletin “hacks” or “mods” may or may not require re-installation after an upgrade.
>
> But if there are admins other than Jerry, the question becomes, why do the mods feel the need to lie about this fact? Especially when a more reasonable lie (yes there are admins, no they can’t do anything without Ed’s permission) would be easier to swallow. And if you want to get nice and technical, “what Ed says goes” isn’t even a lie.
Not a lie but some nomenclature confusion.
This is a little long and may be boring. You might want to pack a lunch.
Until the security problem we ran into this year some of us on the moderation staff were called “administrators.” We had a higher level of vBulletin system access than the moderators, who have a limited toolset.
With administrative access we could handle most of the day to day housekeeping tasks needed on our own. Anything higher up – like anything requiring server access – that was the responsibility of Jerry (the Tech Guy).
Overall site management comes from Ed Zotti, our big boss here at the Dope.
Jerry was originally head of IT for the Chicago Reader, alternative newspaper. The Reader was a self-contained business entity and the Straight Dope was an asset of the Reader. Reader upper management was focused more on the print side of the house and in large part left us alone, they were not overly involved in the day to day operation of TSD site.
We worked like this for years. As administrators we could try different things in terms of site management because we had access to the basic vBulletin settings, so we could be responsive to situations without having to ask permission from Ed or Jerry. They were good with what we were doing and as long as we kept them informed and checked in with them on larger issues the Straight Dope administrators had a lot of autonomy.
Then the Reader got sold – this has happened a couple times now – and today the Chicago Reader is owned by Wrapports/Sun-Times Media. And so is The Straight Dope, but the Straight Dope website was decoupled from the Reader and considered a separate asset.
STM provides overall IT management and so the Reader IT department got folded into STM corporate IT. Jerry was assigned another whole full-time job unrelated to TSD. His work for TSD is a legacy assignment and is in addition to his other job.
Life went on as before. We still didn’t need Jerry for much of anything day to day anyway and all was well. Administrators handled everyday vB duties and Jerry handled server issues.
Then we had a security breach here on the Straight Dope site.
In the wake of this incident it was the decision of STM management to severely restrict who had administrative access to the Straight Dope site. We didn’t do anything bad or wrong, STM just wanted less opportunity for security hackage/exploitation.
STM removed administrative access to vBulletin for everyone except Jerry. Now we all have moderator privileges, including Ed.
That’s the level of security STM feels comfortable with and we have been told this is not going to change.
We’re being looked after. The site continues to function. We have an admin – that’s Jerry. The Straight Dope is not his only duty. It never has been.
IT resources and time are budgeted with an eye towards maintaining what is already in place. Anything that might be extra – as improvement or upgrade – is also part of those budget considerations and is evaluated in terms of return on investment. So Jerry does not have a lot of extra anything to give the site at the present time.
We’re all doing the best we can with what we have. This includes Jerry.
I realize this is a long and tedious story and it’s maybe not at all what you might want to hear. But that’s what it is.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2014, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/administration-of-the-sdmb/700177/32 "2014-10-02T16:47:15Z")
Thank you, **TubaDiva**. Now- are the breadsticks gluten-free?
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### Author:  [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2014, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/administration-of-the-sdmb/700177/33 "2014-10-02T16:51:58Z")
Marley, no soup for you! 🙂
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### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2014, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/administration-of-the-sdmb/700177/34 "2014-10-02T17:21:51Z")
So, in short, the bottleneck is Jerry. While Jerry has many important IT duties, the SDMB is close to, if not entirely, lowest priority, and therefore gets the minimum amount of attention if not neglect.
Awesome way to run a business asset (and not necessarily a relatively complicated one, at that) Sun-Times Media.
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2014, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/administration-of-the-sdmb/700177/35 "2014-10-02T17:36:46Z")
> [@bucketybuck](#):
>
> Rarely if ever has this been a good answer to a question.
True enough but that was only part of the answer. Mild curiosity about how things are behind the scenes seems normal. Anything deeper into the weeds seems weird to me. I genuinely don’t understand why anyone would care.
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2014, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/administration-of-the-sdmb/700177/36 "2014-10-02T17:37:48Z")
> [@cmyk](#):
>
> So, in short, the bottleneck is Jerry. While Jerry has many important IT duties, the SDMB is close to, if not entirely, lowest priority, and therefore gets the minimum amount of attention if not neglect.
>
> Awesome way to run a business asset (and not necessarily a relatively complicated one, at that) Sun-Times Media.
Bottleneck for what? Did I miss something important?
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### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2014, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/administration-of-the-sdmb/700177/37 "2014-10-02T17:40:00Z")
> [@Loach](#):
>
> Bottleneck for what? Did I miss something important?
Board maintenance, upgrades, or anything else the mods need to go to a true Admin to do.
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### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2014, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/administration-of-the-sdmb/700177/38 "2014-10-02T17:42:21Z")
> [@Loach](#):
>
> True enough but that was only part of the answer. Mild curiosity about how things are behind the scenes seems normal. Anything deeper into the weeds seems weird to me. I genuinely don’t understand why anyone would care.
But then again, you’re not a paying customer, are you?
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### Author:  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2014, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/administration-of-the-sdmb/700177/39 "2014-10-02T17:43:08Z")
> [@cmyk](#):
>
> The other key has been given to an undisclosed person somwhere on the South American continent, whose whereabouts are contained in a sealed envelope in a shoebox in the janitorial closet at Creative Loafing.
Creative Loafing doesn’t own the SDMB anymore. Sun-Times Media, LLC., owns the SDMB.
And it’s not in a sealed envelope in a shoebox in the janitorial closet. It’s in an old mayonnaise jar on somebody’s back porch someplace in Cicero, IL. If you want to know where, just ask Al.
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### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [October 2, 2014, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/administration-of-the-sdmb/700177/40 "2014-10-02T17:48:30Z")
> [@Duckster](#):
>
> Creative Loafing doesn’t own the SDMB anymore. Sun-Times Media, LLC., owns the SDMB…
And therein lies the the problem!
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