What is A DAY IN THE LIFE of a Fluther employee?

It begins a few hours before dawn when we pack up our tent and gear from our mountain base camp to begin the long trek up the treacherous snow-drift blanketed rock. By the time the sun crests the horizon and the photons bombard us through the gusts strong enough to stop a man in his tracks we’ve reached our secret alpine launchpad, affectionately called “the sombrero” for its round concrete skirt.

After a couple dozen checks are performed we clamber in our ridiculous space suits into the launch vehicle. Once the doors are latched, oxygen rushes to fill the cabin. Moments later the fully pressurized interior trips auto-sequence start and five computers voting 250 times a second seize control, orchestrating what I would argue is the most beautiful symphony of coordination. At T-minus 6.6 seconds the computers throttle up each of the engines one-by-one, 120 milliseconds apart. All five computers nod in agreement when it’s confirmed: engines and systems look good. Moments later launch arms are retracted as we accelerate away from the ground.

As we race up and downrange 60 seconds later we’ve reached max-Q, the point in time where the stress on the vehicle is at it’s highest during the whole launch. The engines throttle down and then back up. Minutes later we gracefully edge up to the docking collar of the orbiting Fluther HQ: our home away from Earth. The view is breathtaking. Below us are all the fluthers of jellies running about their daily business. It’s the inspiration we need to work hard all day (with a break here and there for a quick game of zero-gravity darts—which let me tell you is probably harder than trying to beat Lance Armstrong in the Tour de France).

The rest of the day is pretty boring, we just type lots of code and occasionally make bad jokes. Ben taps his foot loudly, I forget to cover the tea (which goes everywhere in zero-gravity) and Andrew doesn’t respond to his name when he’s in the middle of anything (you might as well try to wake a guy in a coma).

Does that answer your question?

They aren’t employees, but you can read about a day in the life of several of the moderators (shrubbery or petethepothead or me). You can also read a day in the life of several other Jellies. Perhaps this will encourage the Life of a Jelly folks to get one of the Fluther-Gods to do a LoaJ post.

Hint, hint. Fluther employees. Life of a Jelly people. Get to it. Inquiring minds want to know.

Link, @EmpressPixie?

@Jeruba Her links go to the posts for their respective users. here is a link to the blog itself.

@timtrueman Is the Fluther HQ still upstairs from the marijuana dispensary? Sure seems that way….

I’m actually planning on doing mini-interviews with all the mods and employees for the Fluther blog, soon. Heads up, guys… I’m comin’ for you!

My Fluther day is widely varied, and usually begins in the middle of the night. I log on and check a few things right away. My PMs, the emails people send to the “contact” button, and the moderation emails, looking for any issues or problems that need my immediate attention. There is usually at least one, and often several. Depending on the nature of those issues, it could take me anywhere from 5 minutes to several hours to get them resolved. After that I read all of the moderation emails (flags, things that have been moderated, etc) so I can get an idea of what’s happened in my absence, or needs to happen now that I’m on. Next is a thorough reading of the Meta Section to see if my help is needed. Next up, I check my activity to see if anything needs a mod response. After that, I function as any mod does… scanning each section to make sure guidelines are being followed, receiving flags by members and checking on them/acting on them if appropriate.

If I have a newsletter or blog entry or a detailed mod PM or MODMAIL email to write, I do that. Mix in some mod training, lots of mod discussions via IM and/or email, ‘meetings’ with Andrew, bugging Tim, and occasionally asking or answering questions, and you get a pretty good idea of what I do. That, and drink my ass off. ~