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I volunteered to help with a non-profits website and now I have no idea what is going on. (lemmy.world)
submitted 6 hours ago by to c/goodoffmychest@lemmy.world
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I got asked if I would be interested in taking over some duties with updating information on a small website from time to time, creating new pages for events, etc. as the last volunteer hasn't done anything since July. It's a word press site and it's somewhat of a mess. There were broken links all over the place either from someone moving files or just outdated. The design is also a hot mess. So I got login details from someone else's account to start with which is a huge red flag and I spent some time fixing broken links and recovering missing PDF files from Internet archive. I fixed some things with contact emails and dates being incorrect, etc. Then the next day I noticed that the original guy is in there making edits and new pages, which have broken links and look horrible like he never checked his work. I also realized that the account I have has no access to create new elements on a page I can only edit things like text, links, and images within existing elements. So now I'm in an awkward situation where it looks like the last guy caught wind of someone new helping out and decided to now get involved again. If I'm going to have my name on this thing I don't want it to look like shit the way it does now, but I already committed. I haven't talked to anybody about it yet, so hopefully it becomes a graceful handover or they take responsibility back so I don't have anything to do with it.

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[–] 27 points 4 hours ago

Stop. Right now. Tell the org what's going on that you've seen, and that you will not be contributing further until that's all been sorted.

You should not be cleaning up after someone else's currently active mistakes when you're paid. Definitely don't volunteer to do it.

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    [–] 14 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

    Why does the old person still have access? First of all, change the credentials. ‘cause it sounds like the nonprofit has no concept of cyber security.

    It sounds like the old person fell off the map, they let him go, and now he’s trying to keep his position, all the while still failing to communicate with anyone properly.

    You need to be the communication they lack and ask them to make a choice. If they say something like “well, he still wanted to work and we couldn’t say no.” just walk away.

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    [–] 9 points 6 hours ago

    Politely say there is no room in the kitchen for two chefs, and if you both do it that’s fine but you need significantly better communication. Also, if he’s coming back why not just come back entirely and you can leave?

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    [–] 4 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

    Do you have any way of contacting this person? I'd start pointing out all the fuckups they've made, politely of course. Hopefully they'll either give up, or start doing things properly.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 6 hours ago (1 child)

    I'm not sure they even know I'm involved at this point. I don't know if they're going to be "fired" or not from the position or if things have changed. I was under the impression they weren't involved anymore. There's also a ton of stuff that just needs to be redone with some sense of design. I'm going to wait until my contact with the non-profit reaches out to me and I'll see what's up.

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    • [–] 2 points 3 hours ago (1 child)

    They are probably vulnerable to the php exploit that was discovered recently. Tell them they need to hire someone to fix it before it starts serving malware to their constituency

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 3 hours ago

    I was going to bring this up as well. I can't see which version of WordPress they're running from the account I have access to. I also can't see which plugins are installed. I can guess there's too many installed though. I also need to find out who the admin actually is so that I can get my own account and they need to have a talk about account sharing. At least someone at some point knew what permissions are, which is good I guess. I also have no idea where or how the site is being hosted. Someone has access to the host because some of the links on the site are from different directories than the standard wp-content folder you use in word press. In fact this could also be a nightmare depending on how they are storing files and using permissions. This is really a can of worms, oh bother.

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