Open Letter to the Community

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I am sure it wasn’t intended to have change framed as a unilateral decision made for the interest of a single individual, but the fact that a single overt questioning about the health of the forum was enough to almost end it is surely an indication that the first thing that needs to happen long-term for this place to keep going is to reduce the blame and burden (and responsibility) borne by any one person, rather than knowingly making sure that every future decision and policy choice can and will be tethered to a single individual. If anything else goes wrong otherwise, animosity will only become even more personally-targeted towards you and guarantee a messy & stressful end to this site.

If the fate of this place comes down to a single plan, then there must be participation and buy-in from the community in giving it a chance, without coercion in one form of another. Collaboration does not happen if it is positioned like an ultimatum and tethered to personal well-being. One of the changes needed to stop the entire site hinging on a single individual is to ensure anyone interested in helping doesn’t feel like they’ll be ignored yet blamed for decisions they didn’t have a say in.

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Grot’s wife here. Been awhile (3 years iirc) since ive been around in thr community. Theres reasons for that, which, sadly, grot has already talked about in this.

Figure its time to finally come out and tell a bit of my perspective on things here too.

2021 was the beginning of the exit for me really. That years jam and the hatefulness i saw from users over a theme, that actually got many entries and people said they enjoyed the challenge of, most of it directed at my husband, was the first time i got so upset at the community that i spoke out in the discord telling them to calm down. It was awful to see people being so entitled over something they werent even participating in.

After that it was just small instances of some users starting fights that would get way too heated, and every jam being more and more stressful to run as the community (probably really only a few loud voices, but it FELT like the community as a whole) was vitriolic over every. single. jam., in some way or another.

It was too much for me so i stopped interacting at all. The only thing i did to really even still be in the know, was i helped grot talk out things when he wanted an outside perspective, but even then, the amount of drama and people starting to be aggressive at the drop of a hat, got too much. He was constantly stressed and moderation starting taking up time we would spend together, even eith krod (krod is amazing) working nonstop to help deal with these issues as they arose. I will admit i am the one who has been telling him to shut it down, for years now. I cant stand seeing my husband going through all of this and trying his best to hold in his emotions and just be professional. The community yelled at him for being unprofessional years ago, and then when he tries to be professional they yell at him for being too aloof. Can u understand how frustrating this is?

I guess im really rambling here but, i just want to put my perspective on how the community has become a sour husk of what it used to be. Or atleast it feels like it. Every time grot talks about anything happening on the forums, sadly i just get anxious for him, as i assume the worst of people here anymore. Nobody really cares about the people who have been making this site stay up, and it shows, i mean some users really are just selfish.

I am glad there are some users that truly do seem to care about this place and the people running it, but i just want to see people treating people like humans again, and not some words on a screen they can scream at over ANYTHING.

I dont mean to start any fights, so please dont respond to me as i dont think ill be checking back here. I just wanted to get this off my chest and this seemed the best opportunity. Its been eating away at me, and im very bitter over things ive witnessed in this community, but i know there are still kind folk out there that really enjoy making games and discussing how to make the games, and thats atleast a little hopeful.

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I just want to say, thank you for keeping this site going and saving it countless times! I’ve been logging in pretty much daily since 2019, it’s an amazing place and I’ve made some amazing friends here. I just hope you’ll take care of yourself, and know that you’ve done an amazing job!

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I have really enjoyed weightgaming the forum/website under your leadership grok. I think a lot of people are happy. It’s just that unhappy people love to post complaints. Happy people don’t have anything to say because they’re happy.

It can make things seem worse than they are I guess? Maybe people who are happy should try to post more positive posts?

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This. @namad has hit the nail on the head.

There’s a well-known stat somewhere (which I’m too lazy to look up) about how if someone is unhappy, they’ll almost certainly complain. If they’re happy, they don’t say anything. So on that basis, the vast majority of us are pretty happy with the site. And for that, you should be very proud, @grotlover2, along with all the other people who work hard to run this site.

I know I’ll greatly miss this place if it goes. If it wasn’t for weightgaming, I’d probably never have thought to start work on a game, and once I had started, I’d probably have quickly given up on it without all the positive comments, support and well wishes from the community here.

I’m sure many others are in the same boat. There aren’t exactly many places like this! That said, nothing is worth sacrificing your health/wellbeing for. I obviously hope it doesn’t come to closing the site, but if it does, then as I said earlier, everyone involved in running the site should be very proud of what they’ve achieved, and you’ll all have my respect and thanks for your hard work no matter what happens.

To touch briefly on AI; ethically wrong or not, it really doesn’t matter what anyone thinks about it, it’s here to stay. Sure, it’s largely rubbish at the moment, unreliable at best, and the much discussed tech investment bubble WILL almost certainly burst at some point soon, once the firms who’ve spent billions suddenly realise they’re getting almost nothing back on their huge investment; but it will undoubtedly improve, and it probably won’t be too long before AI produced content and dev produced stuff will be completely indistinguishable. Hmmmm, I’d better start looking for another job! :stuck_out_tongue:

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Honestly Grot, I think your priorities need to be on yourself for a little bit. This whole thing has been draining you a lot, and you don’t deserve that. Please, put this place on the backburner a bit, and focus on your own mental health.

@KiraKitten96 Continue to look out for him, yeah? If we can’t manage even just a few months without him, then it’s a community that doesn’t deserve to exist. Personally, I think we will… we just need to learn to stop being hateful.

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