Burnt Out...Sorta Options

[Coomer]

Every few months I seem to come around the site and do some work on it for a few days...then I disappear for months at a time with no explanation. It's a pattern that, despite my self-imposed goals to keep-up-with and improve the site, always seems to hold true.

It's not fair to you guys, especially when I promise big features and nothing comes of it. Nothing except disappointment from you guys, the loyal members, management, everyone who's made this site what it is today. You guys deserve a great site run by an admin who cares, and I'm truly sorry that time-after-time I fail to keep up with the site.

A lot of it stems from my job as a web developer for WhitePages.com. I frequently work 10+ hour days, and when I get home, the last thing I want to do is work on code, or admin the forums, a responsibility that's not appealing when I've been busting my ass dealing with work-related responsibilities since sunrise. I love my job, but I hate what it's done for my websites.

Ever hear that the hardest part of doing something is the first five minutes? That is so unbelievably true in my case. I love to build websites, especially 6GC, and once I'm five minutes into coding a new feature, I'm engaged, happy, and can go on working on the site for hours at a time. It's really a great joy for me to work on 6GC - I get to build stuff for me and for you guys, not for a tech lead, product manager, executives, a board, and tens-of-millions of single-task-focused visitors like at work. The freedom to build what I want, my way, is great, and once I'm immersed in my own code I love it.

But all too often, it's too hard to even start. I want to get better at that. I really do.

I'm not saying that I'm back and will be updating the site frequently from now on...I've said that before and I don't want to lead you guys on again. But I'm going to try. Anyone have good advice for situations like this? I'm very open to suggestions.

I want to thank you all for staying here and keeping the site alive, even though I neglect it at times...like 98% of the time. A huge thanks is owed to the moderators especially - without them I have no doubt that this site would be dead. So thank you everyone! I hope this place gets even better over time.