The Thankless Nature of Leadership

Leadership is generally a task that requires a great amount of work for very little, if any thanks, and often very strong criticism. Such is the situation that Progressive Bloggers administrator Scott Tribe is facing. For those who don't have a clue about what happened, here is what Joanne, the administrator who resigned, said.

"Yesterday, I signed into the moderator forum (PhpBB boards) to cast my vote on the latest group of blogs being considered for membership with Progressive Bloggers. One of these blogs linked to an article that criticized the media for focusing on the Wolfowitz-and-Girlfriend scandal, while overlooking the more grave offenses of the World Bank: namely, the impoverishment and deaths of thousands of people as a result of unfettered neoliberal policies.

Apparently, one of the moderators works for the World Bank. She decided to forgo voting on the applicant.

In response to this, Scott Tribe (the 'chief') responded with the following (please noted I've amended the names of the applicant and the moderator to Y and X respectively):

Not to get off-topic here.. but as the rest of you might guess from reading Y's blog, X in her real-life persona form when she isn't blogging works for an organization whose president has come under a lot of fire lately. I just wanted to state publicly that having talked her about social issues and such, I really admire her personal dedication to trying to help stamp out the problems one sees in 3rd-world and developing countries. She's traveled a lot just in the past year to all sorts of places to try and help the host countries she visits with these issues. It's a shame she and others like her who do want to see things like poverty and hunger eliminated are getting painted with the whole controversy going on at the top of the organization.

I do not have my exact response available. After I refused to edit or remove my response, as directed by Scott through email, he took the mind-blowing action of deleting all threads in the moderator forum."

This is not the first time the administrative style of Scott has been brought into the spotlight. The expulsion of Robert McLelland for very controversial marks, including some actions which were considered to be anti-Semitic, also generated controversy. Both incidents demonstrate that there are many stripes of progressives and that this only makes the thankless job of administering a site like Progressive Bloggers all the more difficult.

In the time I have been associated with Progressive Bloggers as an author on three different blogs, I have always found Scott to be a strong and fair administrator who wants what is best for the site and all of its affiliates. As an administrator, he has always been very helpful and responsive and has handled a time consuming hobby with the enthusiasm and dedication necessary to help make Progressive Bloggers the successful, growing website that it has become (of course the affiliates are the major reason for this but without a strong administrative team, the community would not be what it is).

Based upon everything I have seen in the past, I can only believe that Scott was doing what he thought was in the best interests of Progressive Bloggers and its members. While some may certainly disagree with the position he took, it seems to me that he was genuinely concerned about a member of the community and wanted to ensure that the member was not unfairly brushed with labels that could be hurtful and undermine the good work that they do. To me, it seems that he felt that the right course of action was to exert his authority as chief administrator and demonstrate the leadership that is required of the job in times like this.

As a result of this and, indeed, the great work Scott has done for Progressive Bloggers, I think that it is rather unfortunate that he is being attacked as much as he is by some members. While you may or may not agree with the decision, the attacks on his integrity, his political beliefs, and the beliefs of those who have stood up for him because he has done such a good job as administrator seem to me to be excessive. I am not one to say that people should not criticize but I do think that if they do, they should stick to the administrative issues rather than turn this into the increasing divisive debate that has fallen along various dividing lines amongst progressives. To me, the issue seems to have expanded beyond a question of administrative style to what constitutes a "progressive" and who is a progressive and who is not. This really misses the point and I think it is unfortunate that someone who has served us so well is getting dragged through the mud as the debate expands far beyond the actual issue.

Scott, you have served us very well in the past and I hope that you will continue to do so in the future. Whether or not this latest decision was the right one, you have shown yourself to be a dedicated, strong, and enthusiastic administrator and I want to thank you for all of the hard work you have done.

-Michael