Sneezy

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As many of you are probably confused about what has been going on, an explanation is in order.

SneezyMUD was originally created and owned by Russ Russell. He was able to improve it, enhance it, and keep it running largely on his own.

As time went on, and Sneezy grew, more people started contributing and taking a role in both the short- and long-term maintenance and implementation of Sneezy. Russ delegated some of his authority, either explicitly or by simply not being there when things had to be done.

At a point in the past, those of us that were actually running and enhancing the mud met with Russ to acknowledge what was essentially fact. The mud had grown beyond one man. A realignment of the power hierarchy was undertaken to move ownership and governing of the mud to the group that was actually doing it on a daily basis. Implicit in this decision was the fact that none of the individuals could make unilateral decisions as regards the fate of the mud.

We operated under this setup with some degree of success and failure. Leadership by committee failed for the most part, but those folks that contributed to the mud felt they now had a stake in the future because they shared the ownership.

Approximately a week ago, Russ performed what can only be described as a temper tantrum and closed down the mud without consulting with anyone else. Obviously, the rest of us were quite disturbed by this, both because it was destructive to the Sneezy community as a whole, and because it violated the pact that we had all agreed to.

Much high-level discussion followed, with the result being that Russ held firm to his opinion that he did still have the right to do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, without reason. Compromise was sought, but did not seem to be attainable.

Shortly thereafter, the motion was forced when I (Batopr) effectively cut Russ out, terminating his access and making other moves to prevent retribution.

At this point, ownership and governance is back in the hands of those that have a stake in the future of the former SneezyMUD. The upheaval has given us the opportunity to rethink a lot of long held beliefs and policies and to redirect some bad habits toward new, more positive goals. In general terms, this means delegating more power and authority to a wider group, and to refocus on serving the player base better.

Clearly, this is still a time of turmoil and things have not completely settled out at this point, but I am more optimistic about the future and feel that the momentum has shifted to drive the mud toward what it ought to be. I'm hoping you'll give it a chance, and will see the effects.

-Batopr, for the Grimhaven Development Team