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Antifa Lockhart

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Hi.

So, here's the thing: I know that a lot of people are unhappy here. I wanna talk about it without causing any real damage, but I also don't really see that happening. Nor do I see some things coming into perspective/context without putting parties to task. Including myself. I imagine that when this is said and done that I'll have pissed off some people from every group or clique or circle in the community, but, I hope that at least we'll walk away with a better understanding of perspectives. It's really all that we can hope for at this point.

I think the first thing you have to understand about the KHI Site Staff is that they're twenty-somethings who are veterans of the series since the earliest early days and are all queer, or people of color, or both. We weren't made in a lab to be a Super Leftist Action Team, this is just how it happened. The core members also spent the better part of the decade in a long-con, subserviently wrestling the forums away from the control of some unfortunate people who had no real interest for the very series this community's based around. None of the team have ANY desire to see the forums come to that again. So, if people of color say your view on something is rooted in some sort of internalized racism, it probably is. If queer people are telling you that your views are rooted in homophobia or transphobia, they probably are. We are the best people in the world to have that perspective.

We are (despite no longer being a staff member, my brain is still using "are" and "we", I'm not an active staff member and haven't been for a while, but my brain is still there) uptight, over-worked, and reactionary. We don't all get along and we bicker incessantly. If you think we plot together to take down users, you're mistaken, as we seldom have the same opinions on such issues. Or any issues. When KHI's accused of being an echo-chamber for KH III positivity, all I can do is cackle because the staff actually, for the most part, doesn't love the game. If they like it at all, they think it's deeply, deeply flawed. And it is, and it's okay to talk about that.

Working this site is a truly thankless job. The usual strains that go into running a community notwithstanding, dealing with this series and its community is *hard.* The staff continues to spend working and sleeping hours translating asides in magazines that are quickly stolen by influencers in the community so they can make shitty videos and profit off of the hard work of all of us, but mostly Goldpanner who's been the main conduit of information about Kingdom Hearts to the west for over a decade. She currently has a Kofi and sometimes has trouble making her finances work, and she does a job for ALL of you for free that people generally make 80k a year for professionally in California where Square handles its operations stateside. Meanwhile, we're all undergoing medical issues, serious mental illnesses, job troubles, and the deaths of our families. Every. Single. One of us is drowning, and it's not an excuse, but it is the truth.

And honestly, it's not just dealing with site-upkeep and content curation. We have to occasionally deal with really batshit red tape and/or batshit people. What do I mean by that? Well, here are some true examples that won't sever any working relationships we have because they happened to me and I don't work here anymore!

Remember the infamous Kingdom Hearts cartoon? Remember when I interviewed Seth Kearsley? Yeah, well, buckle up fuckers because what you don't know is that we were asked, mafia style, not to do that interview. Yeah. So that it couldn't be traced through official communications, we were given correspondence by a notable Japanese KH fan from the Kingdom Headquarters himself warning us that Mr. Kearsley never had permission to do a KH cartoon and was only looking to further his own career. And, here's the gag, we know it was legit because our research indicated that Nomura was actually given little to no head's up that Disney in the early 2000's attempted at least FOUR TIMES to get a KH cartoon off the ground and into development without Square. Ultimately the KH series seems to have been pulled not because of tests, not because of budget, not because of content but because they didn't want to strain working relationships with Square as they entered into the development of Kingdom Hearts II. Proof's in the pudding, this is also when Disney did the KH Mobile game without Square. I always thought there was something endearing about the way they tried to warn us, but after we showed some of what we'd discovered, they didn't respond and for that matter, the notable fan stopped interacting with KHI. Also worth noting that while we never had any issues with Seth, I believe shortly after our interview with him that he was shot down by Disney to do another attempt at the show. Last I heard he was trying again. We'll see what happens, I guess.

Working with some of the most secretive companies in the world comes with professional hurdles, but this isn't uncommon at all nor is that aspect of it very annoying. There are agreements that are signed and expectations and such we agree to in order to be able to to do things, but that's not an issue. Here's an issue, though, sometimes we're given opportunities that are almost totally blown by influencers who are more about marketing themselves and capitalizing on their relationships with the games than the actual games and fans. (Yes, not all youtubers are like that, but those youtubers aren't who I'm talking about.) Let's talk about the Toy Story Demo Premiere Event. We were approached by Square early last year to attend and agreed not to say a word about it until the embargo lifted. Months later, the youtubers were invited (some got to go twice?) and immediately began to tease it. Which was a little annoying, but didn't matter since we're all going for the same thing anyway. Square informs us of when the Embargo will lift, and tells us, explicitly, that we are cleared to announce when it's lifting so that you guys can know when to expect impressions to go up. We do this. The youtubers, in their private discord, immediately lose their minds, insult us, and are mad at us for "breaking the embargo", which we weren't-- and they clearly had no issues themselves with doing it. They went out of their way to gaslight us about the whole situation and even reached out to Square in an effort to penalize us. Which is funny, because as one of those KH Influencers (who was banned by Nomura from all KH events for life after foolishly live streaming the concert trailer and then was allowed back into such events almost immediately) will tell you, such penalizations don't tend to really stick. Square was very gracious with our questions, and we were really pleased with them allowing the three of us to come at all. We even removed some of our coverage at their request, despite them admitting that they hadn't put such limitations in the embargo.

So if things are so difficult, why bother doing it? Why are we here? If we all dislike each other so much, if we always come to fighting if we don't like the thing that brought us together, then why are we all still here?

Beats the hell out of me.

Despite myself, I have things I truly love about the series. The series has enough going on that it actually demands a higher quality of discussion than what we see across the entire community, here and elsewhere. You have a crossover franchise that strings together, somewhat faithfully, two major canons. Disney and Square. We could have people discussing Japanese culture in relation to the narrative, the epic conventions of the storytelling in humanities-related studies, you've got SO MUCH ART DESIGN and literary references for the Disney worlds alone. Take Olympus, which has appeared in every game except for DDD, you can do an epic hour-long video discussing world designs, the history of the movie, the art style translating across FIVE platforms, not to mention the original MYTHOLOGY FROM GREECE

What do we have instead? Occasionally, some guy on youtube will mispronounce a couple of names while stealing posts that my colleges and I had made months ago over some irrelevant clips from the games that have nothing to do with the topic because they don't care about the quality. Meanwhile, we argue about fucking Xehanort's vessels for five years, and then get sidetracked by sexism and racism, and homophobia and etc etc etc etc etc. We don't enter into the arguments really considering the other person's existence as a human on the other side, and yet we don't separate the person from the post and seem to take the friction personally. We miss nuances, cultural differences, tone and intent because it's a computer. And I own it. I got so tired of all the bullshit in this community that I truly lost all tact and patience. I don't *like* feeling that way. I don't like knowing that the users are always going to be on the defensive, especially because it seems everyone's having the same existential crises and the realization that cartoons and video games are no longer being made for us.

Is this really where we want to be? I came here because I wanted to discuss all the cool things KH was and could be. I don't want to be mad about something I like every time I think about it. I don't want to assume everyone here is a big shit. I don't want to be attacked for liking something harmless by the same people who are mad about a *fish.*

The future isn't ours anymore. We gotta grow up right now.
 

Grizzly

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I think this a very much appropriate way to have this discussion, not that I'm some gatekeeper of sorts, nor do I deserve to be. I just returned to reading and posting on KHI recently (hi, I will happily laud my adoration of KH3, even among its flaws, but I'll save that for later), as my excitement for it refused to be quenched by the likes of Reddit and such.

But I originally left because it had gotten so toxic, and I won't outright blame anyone, and I certainly do not put that on the mods. As someone who is a full time student, runs several publications, and has an obscene amount of other jobs, I feel like I understand the natural reactionary disposition of some of the staff more than most, and I feel it is often appropriate. Their jobs are hard, the criticism is often unfair, and rarely is it constructive.

But I think that's host to a larger issue, and it is a lack of willingness to be understanding. The fact of the matter is, most of us don't know what others deal with, as we don't know each other in real life, and berating individuals for their excitement about something, or simply bashing that particular medium, doesn't lead to creative discussion. Telling someone something can't be racist or can't be sexist because you don't think it is isn't necessarily a valid form of analyzation. The people in those communities understand those communities' struggles more than the rest of us on the outside, and it is imperative that we just don't brush off conflicting opinions as "different." We need to make an effort to understand, to learn, and to listen. It's good for people to find more representation, and nothing on these forums is worth pointing fingers, singling out, or fighting over.

But as somewhat of an outsider (it has been a fair amount of time since I've been active here), that understanding has been thrown out the window, and instead threads on countless topics result to screaming matches because some here (and I'll fully admit I am not wholly innocent) refuse to be understanding. It isn't whatever disgusting label you want to throw on it, whether than be SJW, snowflake, etc. etc. It's simply a plea to be civil, whether in agreements or disagreements. The forums can, and sometimes have been, a powerful tool for conversation and discussion, and is strongest when it revolves around artistic values of this franchise and others. That responsibility certainly falls on some of us members, at least in part, to introduce such discussions, but it undoubtedly falls on the rest of us to treat conversations with understand and care.

Dandelion's point about perspective is essential. In order to be understanding, we have to consider where others are speaking from. I'll openly tout myself as being pro-moderator here, and maybe that's simply because of my own perspective, but it's not fair to berate them and call for their heads ever, and especially not when it doesn't come from a place of understanding.

I've met several real-world, incredible friends here, but a lot of us have moved on and hung out elsewhere, as we saw it as a better use of our time to talk on our own than fighting the discourse here. And granted, maybe that is part of the problem, that some of us so desperate for civility left, but I refuse to point fingers and say that some still here don't desire that. This site can be such a valuable tool for socializing and for conversation, but it's been halted numerous times by unnecessary discourse.

I think the mods have given us plenty of opportunity for free speech and for discussing things, as long as it has remained civil and understanding. But most of the time, it hasn't. Hatred should have no place here in any form, for any reason, and in just my few days back active, I've seen it almost exclusively. I'm not sure how we can expect our community to grow, or our opinions to be heard, when so many of us are busy ignoring perspectives. Nobody should feel unsafe by speaking about their excitement and joy for something, and it's been happening too often. It's been discouraging to have returned only to see greater toxicity than when leaving, and I hope that these past few days are seen as an opportunity for personal growth.

It's gut-wrenching to see the Kingdom Hearts community being torn apart over such hatred in any form, and change needs to begin somewhere.
 

Soldier

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The future isn't ours anymore. We gotta grow up right now.
Words to live by, nobody can be peter pan. KHI isn't Neverland people.
While I admit I haven't been around for much of KHI's eventful history aside from World War Pooh, I can definitely glean from what others have said that this site used to be more toxic than Chernobyl with people not caring for the franchise I love so much. These fights over the race of a mythological fish woman border between a heated argument and a racially charged argument waiting to happen. The reason why I don't involve myself with these kinds of things is that
A: I don't want to get wrapped up in the crossfire
And B: even if I were to contribute something to the argument, more often than not nobody wins.
Maybe I'm NOT the person who should be saying these things, All I am to you people is a Caucasian from the East Coast who makes pointless threads sometimes and has a dangerously low understanding of the internet/how to run a site. But for the short amount of time that I've been on the internet, I know that what the people of KHI do is something to respect, the aforementioned Seth Kearsley interview honestly has my eyes open to how difficult it is for fans to learn more about history behind their favorite pieces of media. It isn't just a matter of phoning ahead and getting the interview underway. For all I know, it probably takes years upon years to get inside these tightly locked companies for a bit of information. That is worthy of my respect, (at least from someone who probably wouldn't succeed if he tried).
It's the midpoint of 2019 people, internets been around for quite a while now and is growing in more ways than one. Are these next few decades going to be good or bad? heck if I know.
 

Pandymint

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I appreciate the frankness of the post, honestly. Sometimes it's best to just not sugarcoat things and just tell it how it is.


I'm another person who just drifted away from the forum and only just made posts again. It happened naturally over time, and anytime I looked back it just.. wasn't very inviting. It baffles me how by and large people seem to be pushing so hard for people to come together and be accepting and whatever else you want to add, but then you look on the smaller scales like fandoms and its just, frankly, a cesspit that festers. There are bright spots, but for every light there's a shadow filled with people arguing over something that doesn't even make sense.


Maybe it's me getting older, but can't we all just get along and talk about the things we enjoy, or present our own personal opinions without getting our heads bitten off? Life seems too damn short to hold all this anger and hate.
 

BufferAqua

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I completely agree with everyone who posted before me on this thread. I doubt anything I say will be as properly articulated as how Dandelion stated it, but I've pretty much lost most of my desire to come here anymore.

I've joined the forums where I was frankly extremely young. Younger me was at complete vulnerability and took things more personally than most. Now I'm not specifically that child anymore, and now I've realized that my gut feelings weren't inherently wrong. There is an etching amount of negativity here that made me drive away and participate here anymore.

Mod drama, drama against mods, repeated direct attacks, and ZERO regards to nonintegrated opinions was a common issue on this website. I honestly feel significantly bad for the moderators who has been suffering for an actual decade dealing with this constant bullshit and incomprehensibility, especially when they have so much going on in their lives.

Emapthy is an easy concept to grasp, but unfortunately a character trait not a lot of people seem to be mindful of.

Seriously, I'm 16 now, and even I'm aware that corrupting threads into uninvited cesspools full of bigotry and hate isn't anything productive. If you don't like how the mods handle things, then why even be here? Everything shouldn't be catered solely to you and nothing can be seen 100% eye-to-eye.

And this disappoints me. It disappoints me how some people prioritize their goddamn pride over being a generally understanding human being. It doesn't take long to drop a toxic discussion instead of forcing your baseless point, it doesn't require much effort to commit introspection, and it's especially not hard to stop when someone tells you, let alone a moderator?
 

Antifa Lockhart

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Well! This is going better than expected.

But for the short amount of time that I've been on the internet, I know that what the people of KHI do is something to respect, the aforementioned Seth Kearsley interview honestly has my eyes open to how difficult it is for fans to learn more about history behind their favorite pieces of media. It isn't just a matter of phoning ahead and getting the interview underway. For all I know, it probably takes years upon years to get inside these tightly locked companies for a bit of information.

You're correct. We've had interviews with the translator of the series and the voice of Kairi paused at the last minute years ago because of contractual agreements
 

SuperSaiyanSora

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I agree with this, and this explains so much as to why even the staff seemed to have felt so burned out come early-mid February. When you go through a lot of BS from some KHInfluencers as well as Square pulling some shiesty shit now and again, I feel like it would've spoiled the KH3 experience for me undoubtedly, and I LOVE KH3. You go through so much in the lead up to the most anticipated game the board's ever seen, and if it's not a 10/10, you find yourself asking, "why did I even have to go through all this, none of this was worth it."

And even if that isn't wholly the case, because KH3 isn't a perfect game by any means (but I enjoy it all the same), it's never fun when a community gets so hostile over their own opinions being directed to others as facts. You lose the amount of dialogue you could have, and instead, you're fighting over things that really have only negative rewards at the end of it all.

I've been here for quite some time. Even before some of the staff. I joined at 16. So I've had the pleasure of seeing a lot of not only the KHInsider forum's growth, but the entire franchise in itself. One thing I've always loved is how creative people can be, how passionate people are, and the amount of connections that are shared. But there's also a side to everything that can ruin a lot of the fun, and it's when people get too out of hand and think that it's cool to act like a clown and be disrespectful to others. Everyone's got a battle to fight in one way or another, so it's important to be kind. But even the most patient individuals have limits.

I think there's some topics that are better off just leaving alone, due to the maturity levels of people and the seriousness of the discussion, because you're almost asking for trouble at this point. And it's unfortunate, because you want nuanced opinions and discussions in order for you to walk away from that thinking, "damn, I actually learned something new!" Instead, you have people tilted over a mufuckin' fish. That's a loaded gun waiting to shoot somebody.

I think it's the fanbase as a whole that right now is in a very emotional place, and hopefully a year or so from now when we're in a drought and there's no KH games on the horizon besides KHUX updates, that's when we have a lot of people calmed down. Because I thought it was going to be settled down by now, it's fucking July and there's still stupid shit going on. But it is what it is, the next entry will come sooner or later and it'll all be a thing of the past... And if we didn't learn from this, expect this to happen again when the next big title releases, even moreso with Kingdom Hearts IV.
 

DarkosOverlord

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First of all, thank you Dandelion for making this. Takes a big person to step up and speak clearly in these cases.
Probably not going to like many other things I'm going to write, but perhaps it can be of some comfort that the intentions of this post are something that unifies us.

There were actually things I was going to say when I read the other thread, but I didn't mainly because:

a) I knew it was going to be closed very soon
b) if there is one thing I think I know about Fudgemint is that starting things under her thread was the last thing she wanted.

Should I add a third option, it probably would've been that anything I said would've probably passed as "the cry of the entitled white arsehole".
Because see, as beautiful, and important, as reaching across the aisle is, I'm well aware problems and differencies don't magically disappear like that. And the most cynical and jaded part of me knows that some will come here and say "myes, myes, this is important, our eyes are opened" and yet that's not really going to happen.
I mean, I read what's here and I KNOW this is already not happening. For some people, this is still "specific guys with specific and wrong ideas ruined our place with their wrongness."

Yesterday there were people looking for enemies. ACTIVELY looking for enemies. Words got decontextualized, and misinterpretations got repeated so much in order to self-convince people that was what was being said there.
I'll just do the only sensible thing that should've been done yesterday and not go back into that topic. Not because I admit whatever wrongdoing was associated on my persona: I remove myself everytime I read about "people angry over a fish and wanting to attack the different skin color" because that's totally not me. I wasn't upset at any of that, I don't care how much people want to think I was.

I'll say it: call me self-entitled, an unaware racist, or whatever. We live in a though world where there are a bazillion telling signs someone might be a racist, but no real solution to demonstrate you're NOT a racist. The entire act of trying to prove you're not a racist is usually considered a telltale sign of you probably being a racist.
This happened, mind you, because white people were, and still are, at large horrible. I have no problem being aware that this is a hole people of my ethnic group dug and that minorities would've happily not had any of this.
I'm a big boy now, at the very least a bigger boy than who I was when I made some SERIOUS blunders, due to young age and emotions being all over the place.

I do therapy now. Been doing for 2 years. It has helped me in a way I can't even begin to explain. It was empowering too, considering it deals specifically with my complex of feeling unwanted and *wrong* inside, because I think different than others, because since kindergarten I've experienced the hive mind yelling at me that I was stupid and no one would like me, and because every time I found out that I didn't always agree with what people at large thought it was the correct course of action, I was the FIRST person to say to myself, "Am I actually a bad person, and I just don't realize it?". All fun stuff that led me to, apologies for the strong imagery, attempt suicide more than once.
According to my therapist, there's decisive evidence that I'm not any of that. I'm kind, naturally inclined to goodness and caring about others, and I'm more loved than what my depression wants me to believe. Essentially, it was a work aimed at making me realize that I matter and have a right to matter, and I shouldn't put myself or be put under restraints or be ashamed of things that didn't directly had anything to do with me.
I also started developing a true fascination for psychology and what makes emotions do their thing and people emote, I'm lowkey studying on that.
I don't want a medal or anything, this isn't me patting myself on the back and it's something common to anyone who has gone through it.
That's my point, actually: it can happen to anyone. And most of the times you just don't know.

Though I regret what came down and just talking in the first place for a number of reasons, I don't really care about what was thrown my way. As I said, I am walking my own path of self-discovery, and I'm confident in the answers I found. Somebody calls me racist or hints at me being racist, I'll just call them a liar, or a person who severely misunderstood. No big deal. Not anymore.
The problem came when I saw another person, a person who never did anything wrong as I can recall, and was liked by the majority, a person who basically came out and admitted their vulnerability over some things. And hearing people telling this person, "Yeah it sucks but resize your suffering. What you said was racist."
Yeah, let's give the person who suffers from anxiety confirmation that what they're feeling is rooted within the quintessence of evil.
See, there are a lot of arguments that can be made here and I know: answers were still trying to be though but polite, racism and similar things ARE desperately important topics and deserved to pointed at, calling out is bad and unnecessary most of the times.
It's all true.

The problem that *I* had with it was that it felt like no one was looking at the person, at who they were. All the answers were about the general concepts, none felt like who wrote it kept in mind who the receiver was, what might've been their story and more importantly, what WAS their story in here up to that point. And all of this was exactly what I've felt yesterday.
People were more interested in getting the message across rather than helping a person with their feelings, and while I can't say that's objectively wrong, because I can easily understand why some people think it's a small price to pay, that's not okay in my book. I've come to know all too well how sacred emotions are and how deeply rooted the misfortune of having some emotional traumas might be. Anyone who uses Youtube and was familiar with a famous Internet personality linked with reaction videos should know that.
I refuse to believe that progress needs to be done at the expenses of even a single person whom I consider innocent. Call me corny and childish, but if I don't have this, I might lose what makes ME carry on.
See, if that didn't happen I would've probably stuck around. I'd do what I did in the past, stay quiet on a lot of topics, give people time to wash away the aftertaste of my unpleasantries, and after a while regain at least a modicum of trust to go back and discussing Kingdom Hearts. Because yesterday night I played through Atlantica, and of course I also felt hella bad thinking about all the discomfort we all went through.
But what I saw was that in spite of trying to be people hanging around and forming bonds due to common interests, some are ready to pull their switchknives out and istantaneously erasing even years of amicable interactions and exchanges and jumping at each other's throats. Valuing message and concepts over a person and their feelings.
Oh by the way, my sincerest apologies for the person in question for throwing them in here and talking about them in such a personal manner. It sucks. But I couldn't have done it without talking about it. I hope they can forgive me.

I'm not saying everybody is like that and I'm convinced basically no one did it with the intention of wanting to do damage.
That's also my point, this not being a fictional story means that there hardly are just bad guys who are just bad. We're all people.
Mental illnesses don't look at gender. Depression doesn't care about ethnicity. Historically, societally and, uhm, ethnically speaking, there are several differences and gaps between sufferings, but emotions don't even care about that.
Which isn't to say that emotions ALWAYS take priority over the other themes, I actually don't think there are correct guidelines applicable to every case. I think it needs to be decided from instance to instance: is it truly better here to give priority to the message and not the person? Over what happened today some people believed it to be so, and I simply don't.

I agree that we should all do better, no high horses involved.
I appreciate a lot that this thread was made to air some things out, instead of trying to ignore the situation and making people boiling in their own steam.
I don't believe in undeservingly hating people and I deeply regret what these couple of days led to.
In these things, I hope we can feel unified. On other things we disagree, and that prompts me to leave. It's not just because of yesterday, it's something I've been mulling over for a while.
I often thought about making a post or just quietly disappear, and I guess this decided it.
I mean, this only feels organic regarding my experience with the KH franchise, too. I was starting to feel out of place, and with my distancing from the saga it wouldn't have been long before I'd probably say something that had little reason to be on a KH forum.

So, whoever's reading, you've read Darkos' last post on the forums.
If you could never stand me, today's your day! I'm sorry it didn't work out. Sometimes it just happens.
If you liked me, I appreciate it. I probably liked you too.
Whoever I interacted with in civil discourse, I remember it. It's the gift and curse of not having many friends/social interactions.
Whoever took the time and effort to reach out and say something nice to me... thanks, really. It means a lot. It always does.
Whatever your stance on this whole deal is, or in regards to this post of mine, stay safe.
Yesterday was not okay.
 

Ðari

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No offense Dandelion, and you by all margins as well as any member of this forum's staff can correct me if I'm wrong here.

You and many, are essentially working for free. Site staff, administration, moderators, literally all of you can get pretty damn good paying jobs in video game journalism, content-writing, some of you probably code and could work for charitable organizations even.

I don't know specifically what is being referenced by anything in the community, or this "yesterday" because i'm typically not on here like that anymore.

Listen. Don't kill yourselves for this community. None of you do it, I'm fucking serious here. I'm not just talking to specifically you, I'm addressing all of you busting your asses for a lot of thankless individuals, cliques, content creators who don't credit you, and the same video-game journalists you could be doing this news hounding, translations, and article writing for and ACTUALLY BEING COMPENSATED FOR DOING IT. This is exactly the reason why there aren't any graphic designers left on this forum that are active when you realize you're giving up hours of your time to create something that's going to replaced in a member's signature by a .gif within a week, that you did for free. Capitalism my friend. That shit might not seem super important when you're 13 to maybe early 20s, but mid twenties onward, it starts to matter a hell of a lot.

Addressing things like depression, mental illness, high stress, medical problems, deaths in the family, etc. That is enough of an indicator for me, a red flag even, to take a step back. Let me tell you something, that was the exact reason that I retired myself in 2013. When you lose both of your grandparents and one of your professors passes away that you had multiple semesters with in college, all at the same time while you were going through financial hardships, a failed relationship, and to add unexpected morbid things to the pile? Nah fam, much as I love the community, much as I love to do things that I would hope are appreciated by the headcount, it ain't worth my sanity, it ain't worth none of your sanity as well. You guys have invested A LOT in to this site to which I understand, because this is a responsibility no matter how you feel about it personally, but that can show in droves with your interactions with people on here. Lastly, I don't wanna hear about any one of you beautiful bastards overdosing or doing some crazy shit off the rip because you gotta manage your life and keep an internet forum "under control" basically dealing with completely different forms of stress and trying to live a decent life at the same exact time.

If no one here will acknowledge that before they talk about actual forum issues, seriously, fuck all of you. Fuck all of you for not thinking about what these men and women have to do and where their responsibilities lie. They fact that they have done more for this community than even some of it's most notable members, the fact that output from the community outside a bunch of whiney and entitled brats that are of the mindset of getting their opinion across, unchanging, fake listening, and forcing it on everyone else on here, yeah no. Idfk how some of yall were raised, but this right here? This ain't it chief.

Admins. Site Staff. Mods.
You have my undying respect. You have my undying love. You have my charity and kindness. You guys do a lot, so please do me a favor and take care of yourselves, or at the very least bring someone up in the community to do what you do, because yall seriously need a goddamn break, especially those of you who've been invested for well over a decade now. It's not right, and I don't want to see any of you beautiful bastards miss out on job opportunities, studying abroad, traveling, relationships, or doing cool shit just to say you didn't because your time wasn't eaten up doing thankless work that made you miserable and divided you amongst your peers, offline and online.

So please. Rest. At least, think about what I said here.

One love.
-Darien
 

BufferAqua

Bronze Member
Joined
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Messages
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13
No offense Dandelion, and you by all margins as well as any member of this forum's staff can correct me if I'm wrong here.

You and many, are essentially working for free. Site staff, administration, moderators, literally all of you can get pretty damn good paying jobs in video game journalism, content-writing, some of you probably code and could work for charitable organizations even.

I don't know specifically what is being referenced by anything in the community, or this "yesterday" because i'm typically not on here like that anymore.

Listen. Don't kill yourselves for this community. None of you do it, I'm fucking serious here. I'm not just talking to specifically you, I'm addressing all of you busting your asses for a lot of thankless individuals, cliques, content creators who don't credit you, and the same video-game journalists you could be doing this news hounding, translations, and article writing for and ACTUALLY BEING COMPENSATED FOR DOING IT. This is exactly the reason why there aren't any graphic designers left on this forum that are active when you realize you're giving up hours of your time to create something that's going to replaced in a member's signature by a .gif within a week, that you did for free. Capitalism my friend. That shit might not seem super important when you're 13 to maybe early 20s, but mid twenties onward, it starts to matter a hell of a lot.

Addressing things like depression, mental illness, high stress, medical problems, deaths in the family, etc. That is enough of an indicator for me, a red flag even, to take a step back. Let me tell you something, that was the exact reason that I retired myself in 2013. When you lose both of your grandparents and one of your professors passes away that you had multiple semesters with in college, all at the same time while you were going through financial hardships, a failed relationship, and to add unexpected morbid things to the pile? Nah fam, much as I love the community, much as I love to do things that I would hope are appreciated by the headcount, it ain't worth my sanity, it ain't worth none of your sanity as well. You guys have invested A LOT in to this site to which I understand, because this is a responsibility no matter how you feel about it personally, but that can show in droves with your interactions with people on here. Lastly, I don't wanna hear about any one of you beautiful bastards overdosing or doing some crazy shit off the rip because you gotta manage your life and keep an internet forum "under control" basically dealing with completely different forms of stress and trying to live a decent life at the same exact time.

If no one here will acknowledge that before they talk about actual forum issues, seriously, fuck all of you. Fuck all of you for not thinking about what these men and women have to do and where their responsibilities lie. They fact that they have done more for this community than even some of it's most notable members, the fact that output from the community outside a bunch of whiney and entitled brats that are of the mindset of getting their opinion across, unchanging, fake listening, and forcing it on everyone else on here, yeah no. Idfk how some of yall were raised, but this right here? This ain't it chief.

Admins. Site Staff. Mods.
You have my undying respect. You have my undying love. You have my charity and kindness. You guys do a lot, so please do me a favor and take care of yourselves, or at the very least bring someone up in the community to do what you do, because yall seriously need a goddamn break, especially those of you who've been invested for well over a decade now. It's not right, and I don't want to see any of you beautiful bastards miss out on job opportunities, studying abroad, traveling, relationships, or doing cool shit just to say you didn't because your time wasn't eaten up doing thankless work that made you miserable and divided you amongst your peers, offline and online.

So please. Rest. At least, think about what I said here.

One love.
-Darien

tenor.gif
 

Noir

Bronze Member
Joined
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Messages
2,417
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11
Age
30
I'm just impressed by how patient the staff have been.
I'd have yee'd my last haw at this point.

Kudos.
 

Chuuya

scared of any fandom I'm part of
Joined
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Messages
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Awards
68
I would like to admit that I really ever come here now is for my fan clubs. I'm literally scared af to join a discussion and have there be drama that springs out. It's sad to think it can appear in any thread now. And to Fudge, I'm so sorry for your experiences stated in your thread, I'm open if you ever want to chat. But this also is why I'm not as "active", because from having gone through drama myself I have done anything and everything in social media and real life to keep myself away from it.
With this going on here and the staff going through this, it brings me to tears. I wish you guys and gals shouldn't be going through this, putting in so much. It isn't deserved by what you do for the website and for us. I can't word what I'm trying to say right, all I know is the whole situation is sad and you have my respect staff.
 
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Launchpad

i remember the OLD khinsider
Joined
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Dandelion, I've given you grief in the past over disagreements and the at times less than satisfactory way that this community has been managed (and I'm a huge brat) but honestly, I admire and respect the entire staff for even attempting to deal with the shit storm this place has continually been for the past two years or so.

The negativity leading up to and following KH3's release has been just sickening. Having negative thoughts is healthy, and constructive views should be expressed (I'm almost always waiting for an opportunity to diss BBS,) but the endless soliloquies depicting every way that KH3 was bad, and hoisting this simply ridiculous disaster narrative onto the game is unhealthy for the entire community; it isn't constructive, it's repetitive and nasty.

In essence: fuck these hoes
 

Face My Fears

She's not an "it"!
Joined
Apr 9, 2007
Messages
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Awards
19
Wow so I missed the drama again. Ugh.

I say that because I haven't seen it since I started revisiting this site. I mean I've been in some KH3 discussions that may not have been "pretty" but nothing ever got to the level where the discussion transitioned to degradation.

There have been other posts on here that brought up the state of the KH community and it does sadden me to see fans just turned off completely because KH3 wasn't what they wanted. It wasn't even what I wanted either, but I still really like it. I really have no idea how the most hyped up game in the series could cause so much bitterness amongst the "fans" of said series. I feel like it's a sense of entitlement those people had of "I waited 13 years for this!" It was more like 5 and if you can't find one thing in KH3 that you liked, then maybe you weren't actually a KH fan to begin with.

Anyway, I will just say thank you to the people that work here. You all have obviously seen stuff and dragged into stuff that you didn't deserve to be, all for the sake of maintaining this site. I only come here for KH related news and discussions because I found YouTube videos to be mostly people that aren't fans who just jumped on the hype bandwagon for views (pre-KH3 release) and/or bitter fans who make videos to drag the series.
 

maryadavies

She Shoots for the Stars
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I am proly going to echo what most other people have said but I know how it can be in the trenches. (from being a member mod on RPGamer + knowing staffers over there. I think any site has this kinda bovine fecal material going on behind the scenes.) So mad props to the mods and people here. Seriously. Yar, more could be done, but it's a dirty + tough job, seriously.

And yar, I try to stay away from youtube videos myself on KH for the most part. Most of 'em are..why did THAT person make that to crap all over this series b/c you got disappointed in the latest one? Sheesh.

And yes, I know I tend to be quiet (I'm not a huge poster anyway) and stayed out of the latest drama, but I'm with you guys all the way.
 

redcrown

Well-known member
Joined
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Wasn't the drama over the live action Little Mermaid remake? I haven't seen much drama over the subject of KH3 and it's disappointments. In fact I'd say the fandom is dealing with their grievances over the game pretty civilly with most of it being expressed through balanced constructive criticism, from most of what I've seen at least.
 

Oracle Spockanort

written in the stars
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Wasn't the drama over the live action Little Mermaid remake? I haven't seen much drama over the subject of KH3 and it's disappointments. In fact I'd say the fandom is dealing with their grievances over the game pretty civilly with most of it being expressed through balanced constructive criticism, from most of what I've seen at least.

Yes, but I think Dandelion wanted to paint a more broad picture about what staff have been dealing with on their end overall and why toxic behaviors are festering among the fandom. Negative feelings will often leak over into other things and I think TLM thread wasn’t an isolated thing but a culmination of past interactions with users in other topics. With certain view points added on top of that...well, of course that thread exploded into what it did.
 
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