Spoiler Every moderator joins the staff team to make a difference. Some apply to be community builders, others to be rule enforcers. At some point, these moderators all run up against the SGM apparatus - an invisible wall of indifference and uneven distribution of power that prevents much-needed progress. There are two paths from here - accepting this and implicitly becoming part of the problem, or walking away. Today, I am choosing the latter option. There are three big reasons why communities fail: 1. Inactive leadership that prevents necessary changes from taking place. This causes many dedicated people to leave out of frustration. If there are several groups that splinter off from a community, that’s usually a symptom of a stagnating/dying community. 2. Inefficient distribution of power that smothers the people who genuinely care and want to make a difference. This ties into 1, but a guaranteed way to kill a community is to have too much power consolidated in one inactive person. 3. The failure - whether through lack of courage or ineffective rules - of an administrative team to curtail the toxic elements of the community, which then pushes out the non-toxic elements. Fundamentally, I am an institutionalist. I believe in contributing to causes that are more important than me. But I can no longer justify investing hundreds of hours of effort into this community if 1. Server crashes are going to keep ruining repops. 2. Hacking 2nd isn't going to be a permanent ban because of "our database being too slow". 3. Toxic players who regularly spew some of the most vile garbage are going to stay unbanned because some people want to stay popular by being known as lenient staff. The best leaders are the ones that aren't afraid to do something unpopular if it's the right thing to do. 4. New content isn't going to get added because our developer either doesn't have access to the code he needs, or submits code that isn't added in time for an event (e.g. Valentine's Day) (I could go on for paragraphs, but I don't want to dominate my farewell message with criticism and complaints.) I never expected to stick around this long. When I became a moderator, I thought I would resign sometime in February. But I stayed around for what I suspect most people stay around for - the people. I've made some good friends here, both on the staff team and not, and sticking around for them was absolutely worth it. Over the ~600 hours I’ve spent staffing, I have met many great people. If you’re on the following list, I’ve enjoyed playing with you at some point over the months. This is not meant to be comprehensive, and I’m sure I’ve missed several names. j3kawesome - Wouldn't have accepted my application if he actually read it. Based. Thank you for taking me on as a moderator. I will always cherish the time we spent staffing and hanging out in VC. RyanHighman - If you didn't vouch for me, j3k might've actually read my application. Based. Wubby - One of the only staff members who liked SARS-CoVfefe-2, I'll miss you <3 Squidgy - One of the S-tier mods, I wish we got to play more over these past few months. Titan - The East Council has two factions - the staff and the players. I declare you my successor as the leader of the staff faction. Logan - Trained me more than my actual admin, smh. I hope our paths cross again soon Ahalan - #politics won't be ready for us now. Great guy and one of the mods who trained me the most during my trial period. Gimc - Much like Ahalan, trained me a lot. I miss those early morning vanilla staffing sessions. Orion - A fellow Andorra enthusiast. Orion becoming a prop killer/telefragger has been my favorite 2021 character arc. kevinsantiagocastadenamora Pokeben10 - One of the original members of the East Council. I'll miss hanging out together in lounge and RDMing you . Voca - BASED, never backed down from a prop fight challenge. You can now reclaim the title of best prop killer on the staff team. danstorm - Geoguessr expert and patient zero for the Geoguessr epidemic that has plagued our Discord for the past two weeks. ori with a gun - MOD MOD HE'S RDMING Aquast - PLOGI. Fellow Ghost skin user and aimbotter. Reda - Perhaps the only good baguette. One of the best and most dedicated mods on the team. Makoto - One of my favorite toxic ex-staff members. Banning you for mass RDM was very sad, but I am now ready to join your ranks. Floof - See you next tuesday te haha gerafe - Legendary forums shitposter and RDM expert. Serves as the Minister of RDM research on the East Council. Desert - Occasionally a dishonorable barrel gun user, but overall a good guy. Serves as the Minister of Props on the East Council. Eternal - Try not to get another mass RDM ban <3 Waffle - Helped me farm 0 karma right before I got trial mod. You're a genuinely good kid, one of my favorite regulars for sure. marg - We don't deserve marg. One of the most genuine, down-to-earth people I've met in Garry's Mod. You're beloved by the community even though you always speak up if you think an injustice is happening, which is an incredibly rare quality. Salem - beep beep ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). The CIA wants you to think she won't apply for mod, but she will. One day. Electric Taco - Where did you go, Eccentric Taco? But staying a moderator without connecting to a server for a month takes skill, so you're unironically based for that. izzy - Yo I heard someone SHIT. Perhaps the most based staff member, politically speaking. FrogDoggo - Hey Froggo NICE cock cathal321 - A fellow vent monkey. It's a shame we never got to staff together. Grumble - CIA Andorra PsyOp target. If someone told me in January that I'd be sad about you getting a discord ban, I'd laugh in their face. You're a cool dude, just remember that the n word isn't *that* funny. Nitro - This entity has produced some of the unholiest emissions known to man. Pacifist - RIP the Pacifist and Pierogi power hours. At least I won't constantly have to be on the opposite side of you in debates anymore PwnageKO - I, Pierogi, recognize and acknowledge PwnageKO as both Lead Administrator and SGM Community Manager. Peter Wham - You wanna talk about it? PEPSIMAAAAAAAN vel - My favorite content creator, except I had a really good banana prop kill on commodity pool that didn't make it to SGM March 2021 which I'm sad about. Indy - One day, you will realize how little you know, because you'll realize how little we *all* know. Remember that by understanding how little you know, you're automatically smarter than most people. Senator Gary Peters - At first one of the best novelty accounts I've ever seen, but I'm starting to think you're *actually* Senator Gary Peters. Panda With a Gun - Seduced me onto the forums with a VIP+ giveaway, which I won by pondering why AOC did not go to prom with me. Elvis - I hope you've been doing well. You were one of the most dedicated staff members, and probably the one I learned the most from. Sanchez - I'm really happy that you were able to overcome people's doubts about you - including mine. Expect props to still fly in your direction if you step foot in East. Spiteful - I will miss the defecation notifications. Dime - I don't envy the technical Hindenburg you're inheriting. I wish you the best, though - your success is the entire community's success. SavannahBanana - RDMs more than I do, somehow. Pomegranate - has joined the spectator deathmatch, type !dm to join! Lightning - Whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa (dw I forgive) Shadow - This man will build some insane sneaker marketplace and become dis-cust-ing-ly rich off of it, I guarantee you. andrewpanton - Based #politics combatant, but surrenders to temptation too often. Dolphy - This will probably be the most surprising part of this post. To say we haven't always seen eye to eye would be an understatement, but you're alright. You strike me as the kind of person who works super hard to be the very best at something - remember to stay humble and focus on the things that actually matter. Your frags per round in TTT do not matter. Jabba - Probably the most dedicated person to TTT. Remember that one person can only take the servers so far - you need a team, one that feels empowered to make a difference in the community. Many of the issues I've mentioned above pertain to Highwon, but there are ways you can empower moderators a little more to keep them happier. JynxtheMynx - Falsely accused me of hate crimes and now the FBI is after me. Smh. Lordy - RIP the House of Commons dream. You can now reclaim your title as #1 RDMer on the staff team Pixie - I recall you being one of the first people to welcome me into staff VCs. Thank you for welcoming me in when I was but a humble peasant. Nuno - The speaker of the house of #politics Rico - You're the best LoviSa - Bye Jacinda :c (don't worry, now it's your turn to ban me for micspam) Chinaski - Witnessed me do some very bad things on commodity pool as a regular, but only slayed me for killing someone with a banana. I'll take it. Klutch - I sniped this man with a bowling ball when I was a regular and he didn't slay me. Based. Part of the late night staff crew (along with LoviSa, Chinaski, wubby, and Squidgy) that made me want to apply for staff. I've asked my admin to keep me around until tomorrow so that I can process some remaining evidence and repop East one last time. So, assuming the server's up, I'd love to have everyone join me for one last East repop sometime tomorrow evening (~5 PM EDT). After that, I'll still be around, but not as much. For now, I've witnessed enough RDM. If anyone on the staff team wants constructive feedback from me, or clarification on anything I've said, please reach out. You know where to find me. ~Pierogi This got denied, sorry to disappoint. My head's still spinning from everything that's happened over the past <24 hours, so if you're one of the people that's DMed me, I'll get back to you ASAP.
For the record: Despite the unfortunate choice of date, my intent to resign was communicated to my admin before today.
Damn dude. I never thought I would see this. Honestly thought I would see you as an admin before you resigned. You were always a great friend and a knowledge seeker. You nearly always stumped all of the admins, including myself, with questions that we had never been asked before. It was awesome to see someone with so much enthusiasm and eagerness to learn and to be the best. You drove me to be a better version of myself. I fully understand that there are differences amongst a lot of the staff team. You would have admins saying one thing while having the leads say another. I think you did well with what was going on within the staff team. I hope youre okay and that you continue to stick around even after this.
The food by the name "pierogi" might suck, but you were alright even if I was hard on you at times Also you can have #geoguessr
Alright now I'm sad, you're one of the mods I've strived to be. You could masterfully toe the line between having a bit of fun with the community and being toxic and ruining fun. One of the people I genuinely enjoyed playing with and seeing on and if I don't see you across the vent from me at least semi regularly I'm gonna be pissed. Really sad to see you go and I can only hope that you still rdm me as much as you do now
Yo fam say april fools, But for real though you had a major presence that is going to be missed, I wish you the best in the future mate.
Fuck man, I thought you were messing with us today, like Kanye setting a release date, now you got us all emotional and shit- Jokes aside, dude, you were kind as hell, I hope you still see you around on the servers* and shit *flower emoji here* Spoiler: * *Just not on Dolls, keep forgetting about you and the vents
Everything you said in your post is absolutely fucking true, and I wont hear any arguments against it. There are real fundamental issues with these servers and this community. Yet, I gotta see it to the end, and I care about the people so much that I can't leave so easily. Maybe we'll see each other on the staff team again soon, but shit, Pacifist Pierogi power hour must commense someday.
The East Council will remember you greatly. and also the other people who don't play east you disgusting people
love ya man. sorry for cursing you with my unholy and frankly twisted mind. thank you for forgiving me when I forgot to do the dishes as well. you were a pretty fun mod but ya always got shit done my friend and thats what I love to see. when we doing geoguesser again doe? we still gotta get rhode island
We havent always seen eye to eye indeed but as I started to play less I was able to be stand playing with you and overtime it became somewhat enjoyable. See ya lad. go be a vent monkey somewhere else
Dang, sucks to see you go. ever since I stepped foot in SGM for the first time you've been there. You taught me how to propkill on Minecraft city, taught me how to evade karma bans (which I 100% don't do by the way ) its been a long way. Hope you do well in the future.
Hey bro, I love you so god damn much. You are so enjoyable to play with. I see you on lots of time. You put so much effort into this community. You are my little dumpling in a good way. You are so god damn cute as well. <3 But I need to say that I hope you the wish of well. We had so much fun with each other. You always made me happy and kept on going. you kept everyone going. You always kept everyone happy. Although I am pretty emotional typing this, I do get emotional easily. But like, no matter what.. you were just the most amazing and most caring person out there. I honestly hope you stay around and stick with me until the end or you don't have to if you don't want to, then that's fine. Just to let you know you are going to be the part of the SGM community down to the heart and to the end of it. In the future when I tell my children about a man who served up the community and tried their best to make it as best as possible. Probably will not have kids but THAT is not the point. Man we need to like, go somewhere sometime together and get some food and have a nice time together. It would be fun. I will be down to pay. We can probably go placed like a trampoline place.. it sounds like fun. Anyways I am getting off topic because I am just thinking about the future that most likely wont happen because I imagine things. ANYWAYS, I do really really hope you the best of well in your future. I love you so much and everyone here does as well. You will always be in a part of my heart that I will never forget. You cannot have all of it because if you did, I would of probably been dead. You can only have a part. But I will really miss my little dumpling and I want you to come play with me sometime anytime. I will always be waiting for you. Unless i have busy things to do in real life because that is possible. But I am pretty sure you will understand that. -Much love to your dearest Peter Wham friend. PS: I did cry while messaging this. I am a man.
