Quote:Exactly as the title says it. I quit. I'm stepping down as staff.

This place... I don't know what to say really. I loved this place. I spent two and a half years of my life here. It was the best forum I've ever had the pleasure of being a member of. Probably never going to find another forum like this one again. I was happy when I was given staff. Which proper user wouldn't be? Finally a chance to actually properly help out this place. To help moderate it and keep it at a high quality. Now I realise that the staff position is just a gimmick.

The grass is probably greener on the other side. You all want staff. I no longer do. Once you get staff, you stop becoming a member. You're no longer a part of the community. All of your posts are taken not as your opinion or your content or whatever, but as a general representation of the entire forum, as if Oni and I are the same person. So, you start posting less.

I thought fuck that. I'm still a part of this place. I'm still going to post and be active and all of whatever goes with that. The thing is, being an actual member means having opinions, and as a staff member, that, I can't have. I'm not allowed to have discussions with @mothered on why he can't literally stop electrons and break physics with a group policy, or why @Fire's posts and threads are cancerous and not good for this place. Opinions are generally taken by the community as one of the staff members flaming or whatever.

I mean, as a staff member, my sole job was to clean up bots and spammers. And there's a fuck tonne of them. This job I think I did pretty well. But if that's the only reason for having a staff member, then there's literally no point. You could have one dude sitting there being able to do this. Oni could literally sit there himself and do this.

And even for that one, simple job that I was doing, there were people complaining about the fact that I was being rude to bots and spammers in the ban reasons. I don't understand you people.

In order for the staff team to actually be effective, they need to have opinions. They need to take sides and actually take part in arguments and discussions while doing their job. They can't just be neutral people who balance the good and the stupid users. That is, of course, unless you want this place to turn into HF. And trust me, this place will be HF soon if it carries on. You can't ban people for swearing or typing without proper grammar. HQ is defined by only content. Nothing else. The side that I took was Sinisterly's side. I took the side against the shitty cancer. I stayed up until light the other day in Skype with Oni trying to save this place.

I'm never getting those hours back. This place is dying. And @Oni, I tried. I really fucking did. Good luck mate. I have no hard feelings for you, and I get where you're coming from about this place tbh. I get it. I understand. If you still want to keep in touch for advice or whatever, feel free mate. I'll be on Skype.

And now we're losing the few HQ members we had. I personally know of at least a dozen active, HQ members that are getting ready to leave. I don't have a part to play in it, but that's just the way that it is. On top of that, there are members like @Dyme and @BlueScreen getting banned left right and centre. I'm not the biggest fan of some of the members that are being banned, but I can say that all of them cared about this place. People like @dotcppfile(); were banned for speaking their mind about the shit that is happening in this place and arguing with "HQ" retards.

Look around guys. No one posts anything HQ any more. No one cares. Go into one of the HQ sections like C/C++. Pick a HQ thread at random. There's not much chance that it'll have a HQ reply. So, people stop posting HQ stuff, if the only thing that they're going to get in return is "nice tut thanks ill try that later". And now the few users that actually did contribute HQ things, albeit scarcely, are banned.

And I don't envy you @Oni, I really don't. Your job sucks mate. But whatever strategy you've been employing for the past year hasn't been working. And it's still not working, and users want to leave. To be honest, I don't even think you have the motivation to carry on, do you?

And so, I want to leave. I've been here for years and yet I'm being told by newfegs how to do things. I'm being taught what to ban and how to ban. I'm being told to enforce the rules when we all know that rules are not what make a community. Not our rules as they stand at least. This is a hacking and technology and coding forum. The members and activity here should somewhat be related to those topics. Instead, we're 99% lounge and anime and random discussions. And I have tried, god damn it. I have fucking tried. But I know now that nothing I do from this point on will affect anything. Especially not as a staff member. The users of this forum define it. Not its staff.

And so, this will be my last post as a staff member. I'm stepping out. And that's not because a few members asked for my demotion or that some of you fucks hate me for some reason. I'm stepping out because it's the right thing to do. I'll probably stick around for a while. I just won't be spending my time clearing up after bots. Nothing that I did or do as a staff member has a positive impact on this community, and so the clearing of spam is not even worth it to me. All I am is a fucking robot. I don't know what else to say to you guys.

@lux - You're a legend. If there's anyone that I'd recommend deserved my position, it'd be you. That's if you want it. I've known you for all the time I've been here, and I regret none of it.
@Cressi - You haven't been active recently, so I don't even know if you'll see this or if this thread will be removed or whatever, but you're a fucking legend too. Stay in touch.

I haven't really got time to write stuff for everyone, but all the people that I missed know who they are. I'll maybe stay around. This might not be a goodbye. I fucking love all of you. I love this place. All I can think to say now is that it was a nice run lads. While it lasted. Thanks for that @Oni.