The Society was made with very clear intentions and goals in mind. I had some private goals that meant a lot to me. My other forum, KWoT, was set up as a result of being tired of internet forum politics. It was a forum with only one rule “Don’t make hassle for the sake of making hassle”. It was totally unfocused and no topic was taboo. Many entertaining and interesting discussions went on. I will always be proud of what KWoT was and, in it’s active 4-year life no admin intervention was ever required. No bannings, no arguments, no deletions, no hostility. It was all that I’d wanted it to be. My personal goals with The Society was to have a similar attitude of respect and enjoyment. I fully intended never to ban users or lock topics. So, the recent events that occurred at The Society and the subsequent methods of controlling them resulted in my goals failing and my attitude towards the site changing drastically. That’s why I have nothing more to do with the site or with how it is run. I still think it’s overall aims and standards are intact and that it serves it’s purpose. I will always be proud to have been involved in it’s birth.
The goings on at The Society are by no means the only factor that made me reconsider my attitude to gaming forums. My wife helps me to summarise it best. She said “It’s a shame you’re not doing what you enjoy so much”. Which would be true – but in an extremely short space of time I stopped enjoying it and started hating it and the type of personalities I was associating myself with.
My free time is limited and I’m not going to spend it doing something I don’t enjoy anymore. It’s as simple as that.
Receiving comments saying “You can’t go – you’re a part of the place” or “You need to come back – we want you!” is totally missing the point. What other people may want is of no interest to me any more. Certainly when my generosity has been taken advantage of! I’m not going to have a sulk and demand respect or give orders but the sooner people realise that acting rude and selfishly towards other people isn’t really going to endear them to you or make you interested in what they want the better. I’m very fortunate that there are people that I’ve encountered that like me enough to say nice things about me in my absence. It means a lot. However, it can only serve as a lesson to others to not abuse something and then miss it when it’s gone. If you kick your pet every day it’s going to run away. On a more selfish note, my actions are about me – other people stating that I should do this or that because they’d prefer it that way are really only showing me how much they’re missing the point.
What I do know is that this is only a temporary thing. I’ve seen communities come and go and high-profile members come and go. It seems a big deal at the time but it isn’t anything major. I certainly don’t plan on returning to any communities in the foreseeable future – but they’ll march on happily enough. They always do.