@SpiritwindI think it's best if we baseline and I am going to ignore all of the things you've said to me and you can ignore all of the things I've said to you and we can start fresh. I feel the wounds from last year have closed and it's whatever, and I feel that my response to you in this thread was formal, mature, and gave you insight into the things we're working on. It was not meant as an insult to you to explain everything you had thoughts about, but instead you attacked me directly, and I'm willing to forgive you for that. And I'm willing to apologize for any insult I made against you in the last thread where we had discussions.
I joined here at one of the biggest heights of SG (not to say there weren't more to follow!), and it was a stellar experience, there was definitely low points for my own character and high points. I was driving home from work the other day and I was thinking about something- a few of my best friends are from this place, people I talk with almost daily despite having NEVER met them IRL (yet!!!). The funny thing I was laughing about was the mygot guys who used to hang out here and built their own meaningful relationships. Starbucks still checks in once and a while and has kids. It's crazy to think about. Anyway, it's funny the parallels to me with goodguys, who were not nearly as bad as mygot when I got here, but I see that they're building their own lifelong relationships, despite how toxic they can be, lol.
But I realized after joining, and although it was a slow start, that what makes the community is such, a community. I have had a wonderful time meeting new, fresh faces, old returning ones that I had not talked with in 8+ years, and spending hours on voice chat and TTT having a blast, talking about life, work, successes, and setbacks. I don't believe there is a community here, I know there is one because I exist within it, and interact even daily with those in it as well.
To me, the only failure that can exist here is when we fail to be warm and welcoming, and I have utterly failed you in that regard, and others as well, no doubt I can be abrasive to those I disagree with, and it's shameful to see now how I have treated you. I don't think I will answer most of your concerns, nor do I think I can, but I will say this:
I don't know if this place will ever grow from the placement in the universe it is at, if it dies tomorrow or dies in a year or dies in a decade I have no idea, and I think concerning myself with that is creating unnecessary anxiety that will simply cloud the experiences I can give to others. I'm proud of the work the fellow administrative team has done to help create experiences and build meaningful relationships with people inside and outside the community. Whether it's the wrong move or the right move is irrelevant, it is the experiences and relationships we build in this community that dictate it.
The important distinction I want to make about everything is there are communities bigger than us who have no forums, or only discord, or no discord, or no servers, or no whatever. The platform or tools used are largely irrelevant to me and only exist to solve problems on a community scale, but those problems must come from the community specifically. We could be a VRChat erotic roleplaying community starting tomorrow if every staff wanted to bang eachother virtually, and we could end up 50x bigger as a result. The medium is irrelevant, the experiences, interest, and captivation are what matters, but that exists on a staff and member level.
As such I recommend everyone join voice chat for party games this Friday at 530PM CST / 330PM PST / 430PM MDT / 630PM EST. It's not a community meeting by any means, but I'll gladly talk about anything else anyone's feeling.
https://discord.gg/steamgamers?event=1265556700627206186