Lisa Vollrath

Why Good Projects Go Bad

I thought I’d write a little bit about my frustration of the week: the Message in a Bottle project.

Now, MIB was not the first mail art project I’ve organized. I’ve been playing cruise director for all sorts of mail art whimsies for going on ten years now. Most projects have their ups and downs, but very few make me throw my hands up in disgust, or make me wish I hadn’t started them in the first place.

This one is sort of heading in the hands up, wishing I was elsewhere direction. I’ve fielded more stupid, whiny, and generally inappropriate messages about this project than I have for anything I’ve done in quite a long while. My favorite is the person who signed up, and whose sign-up message has clearly been read by me, and had the personal information recorded and removed before being posted to the site. She has subsequently signed up again twice, saying she doesn’t see her sign-up, even though it’s right there, above the form she’s using to sign up again, and she hasn’t received a bottle yet, so please add her address to the list again. Then she sent me a birthday card with the same request, and a little note saying she hoped she’d be getting her bottle soon.

(That sound you just heard was my head, exploding.)

These are the things that drive project hosts right over the edge, back into their studios, never to play with others again. I’ve given a lot of thought this week to why good projects go bad. Here’s what I’ve come up with:

Exhibit #1: People Don’t Read
I’ve known this to be true for quite a long time: people don’t read. If I write out instructions, no matter how short, long, specific, general, they will be ignored by 50% of the people who express interest in whatever I’ve posted. This manifests itself in all sorts of ways:

• People leave comments on posts asking questions that are answered at length in the post. This has become so common that I actually reply to them with my own comment, telling them I caught them not reading before posting. While this makes me feel a little better, it does nothing to stem the tide of comments asking things that are already answered. They often reply in a way that says they think it’s funny that they didn’t read before posting.

• People sign up for projects doing things I specifically ask them not to. Conversely, if I ask for a specific piece of information in the sign-up process, they will not provide it. Now, maybe it’s just me, but if I signed up for a project, and the very first thing the hostess sees about me is that I cannot read and follow directions, I’d expect that she’d kick my application right back to me, and tell me to hit the road. I mean, does any self-respecting project organizer go looking for people who can’t follow directions?

Exhibit #2: People Think Instructions Don’t Apply to Them
If I say to post here and nowhere else to sign up, 10% of the people who come by will post everywhere BUT here. When I call them on it with my usual “I caught you not reading the instructions”, they will invariably give some excuse that begins “I know you said that, but…”.

My favorite example of this was the person who signed up for MIB, scrolling past 86 other sign-up comments that clearly showed the folks had left their personal information for me, and that I had captured that information and removed it from public view BEFORE sending it through to the live site. Did she read the instructions, see what others had done successfully, and follow? Nope. She started by submitting two test comments without her personal information, and then sent one that said that she just wanted to be sure that I really wasn’t going to display it. Seriously? I said in the instructions that your personal information will not appear on the site, and removed it for 86 people before you, but you still need to test it? Twice?

Runners up are the people from Sweden and Puerto Rico and wherever else in the world who continue to submit their addresses, despite the fact that I’ve stated in the instructions that the project is open to folks in the US only, saying “I know you said only the United States, but…”. Unless Sweden and Puerto Rico and all those other places have become states overnight, there’s no successful way to end that sentence.

Exhibit #3: People Don’t Think Before They Act
I have a little calendar hanging beside my computer, so that whenever I see a project I’d like to do, I can check it first, and see if I really have time. I can only do two or three per month, so if I’ve reached my limit, I have to pass, no matter how interesting it sounds. Obviously, I’m some sort of over-organized freak, because I’ve had way too many people sign up, and then come back three days later, AFTER I’ve already included their address in a bottle, and say they’ve changed their minds, so please remove them from the list. Which is impossible, because once the mail goes out, there’s no way to stop it.

I really just hope none of these folks take up skydiving…

Exhibit #4: People Think Everything is All About Them
Me, me, me. Where’s MY bottle? Why did SHE get one before ME? I don’t see MY name on the sent list, so here’s my address again. Three more times. Because seriously, this project is all about ME.

My mother used to call this the Viva Yo syndrome. Hooray for me, and to heck with all the rest of you. That just doesn’t work in collaborative projects. Trust me. I know this all too well, because the first 10 years of my professional life were spent in a completely collaborative art. Good projects go bust because one person decides she’s the center of the universe, and all must revolve around her.

In my world, any project is about the project, and not about any one individual. When I come up with a project idea, I try very hard to be specific about how it works when everyone does her part. Sometimes, I’m so specific it makes my teeth hurt.

In the case of MIB, I wrote very clearly that upon receiving an address, I’d either send a bottle, or include that address in an outgoing bottle. If you read the instructions on sending and receiving bottles, you’ll see that for every bottle that goes out, four addresses are used—one on the outside of the bottle, and three more inside. So, the odds are 1 in 4 you’ll get a bottle from me a week after you submit your address. It’s not some big conspiracy. It’s simple math that’s adequately explained in the project documentation.

Oh, wait—that would mean actually reading the project documentation. See Exhibit #1…