According to Discourse, today is my 631st day in a row visiting the Forum, though I know I started a bit earlier than that, when I didn’t have an account.
I’ve been fairly active on the Forum ever since, including in my 16.5 months as a moderator.
When I first became a moderator, I referred to a well-organized and cogent statement from @Gryphonknight, which included this gem:
While I’ve continued to find it rewarding to contribute to the community, as I noted in my interview with @JonahTheBard, I’m feeling the burden of that grief tax more so lately.
Whether just from long exposure, or an increased mix of player frustrations and complaints in response to recent game design decisions, I feel more aware of the negativity which is sometimes carelessly lobbed at content creators, guide creators, and moderators.
I speak here not just of myself, but things I’ve seen said to other people who work hard to contribute to the community, some of whom have recently left the Forum and game.
I frankly need a break from that.
Our community is much of what makes this game successful.
And as I step back a bit, I reflect on past evolutions, like @cap stepping up to take over @Mariamne’s work when she retired from the game, the evolution from @Mai’s farming guide to @hotdamnmess’s to @BarryWuzHere’s, and the growth of calendars being something mostly just @Jamir and @Novo posted to having a full cohort of half a dozen contributors making calendars in a variety of formats and languages.
Whenever someone in the community has stepped back, someone else had stepped forward to fill in.
I think when that stops happening, we’ll know the game is on its way to ending.
To that point:
@Guvnor has offered to take over some of the normal thread creation I do for events and new Heroes. He’d already taken over the Class Trials and Raid Tournaments for me, after I maintained those for a year or so, and I appreciate his help greatly, and caution him to be careful it doesn’t become too much work.
@DaveCozy last week took over the Hero portion of Beta Beat, as some of you may know. That helps me spend less time, and allows me to focus on the portions of Beta I find more interesting, like new events and functionality.
I don’t intend to fully leave the Forum now, and I will still be maintaining the main Beta Beat, as well as information on non-Hero Beta updates.
However, I will be taking a break in these additional ways:
I won’t be monitoring notifications (for now).
I get tagged dozens of times each day, with a mix of questions, requests for moderation, complaints, and (occasionally) something fun.
I’m going to take a break from following up on those, so please forgive me if I don’t respond to you.
For the sake of the other moderators, I’ll point out this suggestion from a while ago, and hope some Forum members choose to follow it:
I won’t be moderating vitriolic threads (for now).
To reduce my exposure to complaining and negativity for a while, I’ll be avoiding wading into threads that are in need of moderator intervention due to inappropriate posts.
The other moderators will still provide support as usual, at their discretion, and Small Giant has also started ramping up part of their Support organization to provide additional moderation coverage.
And I’ll still help with other parts of moderation at times.
I won’t be reading and categorizing every new thread (for now).
Since becoming a moderator, I’ve made a point of looking at every new thread on the Forum.
I reply when I can help, and also often move threads to a different category, clarify their titles, or merge them to an existing discussion when appropriate.
Forum Regulars, who’ve earned the right to recategorize and retitle threads, can help tremendously with this — and I really appreciate when I see that someone has done so.
And everyone can help by flagging posts that need some organizational help, using the “Something Else” option to explain. If a thread needs to be merged, including a link to the destination thread in your flag message is like an ice cream sundae for moderators.
Much like my reduction in gameplay, this is an evolving process, not a fixed plan.
So I’ll see how I feel in the coming weeks, and adjust as needed.
This is not a goodbye, just a “see you less nonstop.”