Thanking Fireball for many years of service, instead of roasting him for one month of disagreement, would go a long way.
I thanked Fireball for his many years of service upon his voluntary departure - voluntary as he had been offered a couple of options and felt leaving was the best option for him. His response afterward was a moderately demeaning comment on his personal twitter directed at me - or at least a previous iteration of me.
I'm going to be honest: I think that actually kind of encapsulates the core of where I'm at with things. I get involved, and next thing I know I'm wading hip deep in drama and am suddenly having former members and staff having meltdowns and questioning my sexual proclivities on social media. Frustration and malaise set in, and I have my own affairs to tend to, so I tend to suddenly disengage, which then causes the drama to start building up again.
I was hired to clear out a virus, back in 2010. That then morphed into doing technical support work for about a year, which then gradually led to, starting around 2012, an overall administrative role (starting with the CSS host search and continuing onward). If I didn't still care about this show; about this site, I wouldn't still be here. .
I neither am equipped nor want to be the chief umpire. At some point I've got an idea on how to push the site forward I want to look at implementing, and I want to be here to fix the technical stuff when it goes wrong. I considered just reducing my involvement without communicating it, but didn't want to make it look like I was suddenly disappearing.
For things like appeals, for spam bans, etc. of course I'll be here. And I really, really want to put some time in on my big project as I think it could be a magnificent thing. In the interim, you guys as users need to self-police. If something needs intervention, that needs to now be first and foremost the responsibility of the four Associate Producers. And everyone else needs to be clearheaded enough so that their intervention isn't needed frequently.
If I'm needed, if something's broken or you need to discuss a moderator, please, don't just PM me. If there's an issue with the CSS or FPG, contact the game host if possible, or otherwise one of the associate producers. Email me or track me down on social media. Both are linked here. I've reassigned myself my former title of Technical Director, because that's where I see my role at the present.
I'm a human being, and in order to be able to further engage down the road, I'm going to have to be selective in my engagement in the here and now. CU, Prizes, Steve, Alfonzo - I created the Associate Producer title because I believe in you guys to get things done, and I believe in the people of this board to be kind to each other. Time to make that happen.