Hello Damage.
I honestly hope you come back so you get to read this, because I'm going to be straight honest with you.
First of all, I'll start by saying that you were one of the best staff members I've ever had the pleasure of working with since 2006. During the short period of time that you were a Game Master, you have shown an extreme dedication, loyalty, perseverance, and integrity. You were flawless and you were a true roll model.
However, I have to be honest, your words weren't fair to anyone you've called out. I understand your frustration, I've felt the same at some points, but things are not as simple as they seem, and there is always more than meets the eye, along with reasons that are not always shown at plain sight for everyone to see. Some situations with some people were even solved internally, without the necessity of informing the community or spreading the matter publicly.
I'm not going to single out anyone you've named, but the people you've mentioned have done one or more of the following:
- caused problems in the community, having been redeemed, and kept populating our community instead of leaving;
- warned everyone that they would become inactive as staff members for an undefined period of time due to real life requiring more attention;
- worked in the background without anyone noticing their work, like solving forum issues, updating the forums, fixing forum bugs, etc...
It's true that some community members didn't help us, and I don't mean to offend anyone by saying this - because, in reality, the community doesn't have the obligation to help us.
If you want to blame anyone, Damage, blame me. Because that's the truth. In part, DR declined because of me, not by my actions, but because of my absence.
I was the one who was supposed to lead. I was the one supposed to motivate the staff teams. I was the one who was supposed to keep the team and community united.
Yet I wasn't here when most people needed me. And I'm not saying this for the first time.
I broke, I went through a rough period of grief because of a personal matter back in 2014, but that's part of life. What I never thought that could happen, became a sad reality, I lost interest and motivation to be here on DR, along with participating in several other things in life.
But well, pardon my language, but the truth is that: shit happens, shit will always happen, that's part of life, what matters is the way we deal with such events.
I'm not taking all the blame because I would be unfair towards myself, other people have indeed made mistakes - but all that matters is that we're all still here!
And we'll keep being here. That's what really matters in the end, my friend.
Everyone makes mistakes in life, that's part of being human, what really matters is what we do after we commit those mistakes.
Some community members have made mistakes, some staff members have made mistakes, I've made mistakes, and you've also made a mistake here.
I'm not going to give you an infraction, warning, and much less I will ban you.
The only thing I ask of you, is for you to please apologize for your words, they were highly unfair to some people due to the reasons I have stated above.
If you want to contact me personally, I'll be more than happy to tell you what some people have been doing, or what happened for some people for them to become inactive.
Now, to conclude this, I want to thank you. Your rage burst has actually awakened some of us and brought up other matters that needed to be solved.
We've went through a deep introspection and evaluation of our paths, followed by several debates, which have lead us to a complete restructure of the staff teams - which wasn't caused caused by myself, I don't take credit for this - this was started by some staff members who still believe in DR - leading us ultimately to decide that we're going to start making things happen again.
In a way, your intervention was enlightening, because some of us, such as myself, have lost their focus and motivation, and needed a wake up call; and also, because your words, have lead into the discussion of other issues.
So, thank you once more. And if you ever get to read this, which I hope you do, then please do the right thing, because your words were really unfair to some people.
I hope you're okay; regards,
Neo.