Updator Absences

[ShadowDRGN]

Originally Posted by ShadowDRGN

Hey guys. This is gonna be a bit of a more literal absence notice than usual.

It's daylight again, and we managed to stay safe through the night. Morning assessment is mild damage to the roof and yard, but it was... terrifying, frankly. I couldn't stop thinking to myself how if anything happened, nobody I care about would know. I'm glad I have the opportunity to let you all know I'm okay.

The entire province of Nova Scotia is without power. I don't know when it's coming back, but it could take a significant amount of time. I'm burning data on my mom's phone to type this, and due to 2FA I can't log into Discord rn.

I will try to check back in tonight, but I will likely not be responding to any messages until I have power again. Wish me luck, and thank you for all the support last night.

Hey everyone. Quick update. Parents went into town to see how bad the damage was, and unfortunately things are looking pretty fucking rough atm.

Power lines are blocking roads, trees are smashed into said power lines. Getting to certain parts of town is difficult, if not impossible at present.

This means that power will not be coming back for a while. We're talking estimates of Thursday night to get everything back up and running. Whether we will be lucky enough to get power sooner, we'll have to see, but the sheer length of the outage means that once phone batteries are done, I won't be able to contact anyone through any means.

The storm is over. I'm okay, I just hope I get to talk to you guys sooner, rather than later.

Good night everyone. Stay safe.

[Prof.Enigma]

I suppose I should put this here as well as the thread.
I have been going through a bit of an effing rough patch of life, where I lost a family member I truly cared about here two days ago as of this posting, I ended up quitting the toxic job that wanted to punish me for taking care of my husband. Overall just alot of issues.
I have been helping BunBunluvz join since she is my friend IRL until she can see with her laptop to work on things, but as it stands as of right now I am really burnt on alot of things in life.

I cannot promise that I will be able to get all of my updatees taken care of within a timely manner but I will attempt to do so, and if it is deemed someone else can take up my updatees I will smoothly as possible hand them over so they can get updated at a better pace.

I have been using games as a way to escape from my emotions and turmoil right now, but Im attempting to not build a shell sobeit or abandon the community like last time when I lost my father. I will still help with Mod duties as best as possible and answer questions if Leo or Sniz are unavailable and I happen to be online. But I am in a weird space at the moment where... things hurt but I guess I am tired of hiding away like I did the last time.

I will attempt to work on things but this is my little warning label thats says I am trying but It may not be up to par.

FizzyBubbles is like a second family to me, it's where I met alot of the people I now deem a significant part of my life I abandoned you guys last time and I want to state that I won't do it a second time.

[OkikuMew]

Not an absence per say, but: Since my PC's graphics card died(?) and I do not dare to make it run anything that could break my motherboard's GPU like Photoshop, I will not be doing any art requests in the Boutique until I fix my graphics card or get a new PC (whichever is faster).

In the meantime, feel free to request your art from another artist, whenever one in the list in the Boutique's OP, or anyone else! Also remember there's the "Boutique Art Requests" channel over Discord.

[OkikuMew]

Good news: PC is fixed! (It was a big ordeal but tl;dr: driver update was bad.) So, I'm back in business for art with the Boutique! Thank you for your understanding

[Maskerade]

So it turns out Winter is pretty rough when you have 2 kids. They've been alternating being sick for over a month now and I haven't had the time or mindset to be online, much less write. Hopefully things will calm down next year :/

[Prof.Enigma]

I have been nonstop door-dashing to make ends meet on my days off. I will probably be doing this into the new year until I can either get caught up/full-time hours with my current or new job/Hubby gets a proper job that's actually paying on time and well.

I will be attempting to do updates and the like as I can with energy/time. I will still be available for Mod stuff and or other generic things but If I happen to forget something just give me a reminder, There has been alot on my plate

[Marion Ette]

So, this is a long time coming, but I figured I would make the official announcement today, in the spirit of "New Year, New ME" and all that.

I am officially retiring as an updater and adventurer. I've compiled a list of the people who I've been updating and provided it to the mods so that other updaters can pick these adventures up. I am also iceboxing all of my active adventures permanently.

I'm going to be a bit blunt, here, but I feel it's necessary in order to avoid undue speculation. The truth is, I've always been a Free RP girl. That's what I love; that's where I thrive. Updating, for me, has always had an "eat your vegetables before you enjoy dessert" kinda feel for me, where "dessert" is Free RP. No amount of special eggs, or custom items, or legendaries, or shiny sprays has ever really changed that feeling for me, personally. If anything, it only reinforces the "means to an end" mentality with updating that, admittedly, does nothing to motivate me at the end of the day. The truth is, even in the days when Free RP rewarded you a grand total of nothing - not even Pokedollars - I did it because I loved it. I did it because it was fun, and fulfilling, and it connected me with the community and made me interested in their characters, their stories, their hopes, dreams and difficulties. That's what I want to get back to. That's what I want to do more of. If MM's Base is anything to go by, I can write like an absolute demon with proper internal motivation. External motivation... well, you can see my horrible updating track record in 2023.

I want to be clear, here - this is about my own, personal preferences. This is not meant to be a critique of updating as it is structured in FB, or an attempt to force change in any way. While I do think there are ways that adventuring and updating could be improved, I would be dishonest if I were to say that any of those improvements would bring me back to it. It simply doesn't spark joy for me, and I think that's perfectly all right. I know there are people out there who probably feel the exact opposite about updating vs. Free RP. We should all be able to enjoy FB the way that makes the most sense to us, and this is what fulfills me.

All that said, while I've done a lot of talking about the things I want, Free RP is a community activity, first and foremost. To that end, I've also recognized that my characters can be... a lot. Minerva, in particular, has been developing her lore since 2003, and it gets no less complicated as the years - and her story - progresses. She is dear to my heart, but also extremely complicated and controversial, and almost certainly not everyone's cup of tea. In the interest of promoting free RP, I'm going to try to create some newer - less emotionally complicated - trainers and Pokemon in hopes of their more straightforward stories being easier to work with. Granted, Secret Bases always exist for those who enjoy my more controversial and complicated characters, and if you invite a particular character, I will happily bring them.

My hope, in 2024, is that I can start fresh and promote the writing that I truly enjoy, and encourage others to join me, if possible.

Best Wishes for the Happiest and Spookiest New Year,

<3 Marion Ette

[Prof.Enigma]

Right so
Even though I'm kinda here kinda not and will be explicitly like not already doing FB stuff on my birthday
I gotta throw it here.

For those who don't know, I am going to be starting a new job soon as a co-manager ( or Assistant manager if Ya want the official title ) at this store in the malls where I live. Supposed to get training and then transfer to the one closest to my home. I'll have a bit of a schedule crunch as we work out how we are going to get everyone to, and from work and get bills caught up. While I would love to write more and believe me I do have the motivation to do so, I am going to be experiencing a crunch on when and where I can write until the boat stabilizes.

Cue me being selfish here aaaaaaa My life is gonna be first, because with this job and my husband getting one literally at the same time, this is the perfect time for me to literally pull myself up out of the shitty situation I've been in and kinda floating in for the past... Year? Ish? I'll squeeze in where I can when I feasibly can but do not expect a lot until I can breathe.

I will make time for Moderator shiz, I will make time for Updating related questions and or overviewing, and I will still answer any other questions as I can. Just don't expect them to be speedy.

So without further adieu, I wisheth all of thee a good tiding as I get rolling.

[Raves]

Well, I may as well get this over with.

It's been no secret that over the past few months I've been dissatisfied with the leadership of the game, but have respectfully kept my mouth shut on said opinions through understanding that the team are still only human. I of course held some degree of trust in them, because that is to be expected, and there had been assurances that the team would do the right thing for the community at large.

Today, it has become crystal clear to me that said assurances were written in sand.

The mod team as a whole has all but shattered any trust I had in them through discussions, and recent events have only demonstrated that the corruption is not with one or two mods, but the entire gamut. I have been personally hurt by one of the mods - you can probably guess which one - and not once have they reached out to me with any sort of apology or anything of the sort. Even after the rest of the team discussed this and the promise of discipline was made, it's clear now that the mods have always been on the mod's side of things and their preaching of discipline holds absolutely no weight whatsoever.

The fourth mod election is not going to change a damn thing. The entire system needs to be ripped from the root.

The enforcer has done nothing but enforce the status quo. The adhesive is too much of a doormat to hold anything together. The eccentric would be better deemed the narcissistic. The empath is only going to get confused.

I cannot continue to play this game in good faith anymore.

I am hereby resigning from my non-position as Head Gym Leader, effective immediately. I refuse to serve under such a self-centred system.

Additionally, I am taking an indefinite break from Fizzy Bubbles, with the likelihood of said break being permanent. The team has made it clear that my sorts are not exactly welcome in their ideal world. I won't be giving any of my mons away.

To be frank, the team has done far too much damage to the community to be allowed to continue running it.

Sniz, you appeared to be the most level-headed of the three, but you've shown your true colours to me, and those colours are black.

Enigma, you need to look around you and reconsider your trust in your peers, to see who's honest and who's using you.

Lit, I expected better.

[Prof.Enigma]

I'm tired of keeping quiet. I'm tired of trying to be a bigger person and just letting things slide. This is not going to be me being a perfect adult but I need to say this. This needs to get out here and as soon as I write it out I'll resume my break aside from light rp and the occasional task as needed and I will continue as thus until I have the time and energy to really put in the work I need to get done within here.


I'm going to state my peace on this matter because this is beyond ridiculous. First thing I'm going to say is that, in regards to Shadow attempting to say I never wanted to listen? That only started after I was constantly ignored, brushed off after trying to offer a hand, ear or what have you. I in fact got outright told that I was seen as annoying because it wasn't who they wanted attention from and I decided to really stop pushing myself somewhere I wasn't wanted or apparently needed.

With the accusations that flew about me fudging and abusing the honor systems with the eggs, I know it's my word against everything else but I was too stupid to take a screenshot when I rolled the RNG. I thought I wouldn't have needed to cover my ass, I also wouldn't have thought that the joking and just using the other server as a means to vent and compose myself before I handle or help in situations that would be better handled if I was composed, would have been pulled as evidence that I'm shit talking behind people's backs.


I'm not going to go into what happened between Shadow and Lilt, other than what I am about to say. It's fucking ridiculous that you attempt to try and twist and force someone into trying to have a discussion after being asked to give space repeated times over, and then having the fucking audacity to claim I jumped down your throat and not letting you have time to process shit when all I'm simply doing is letting you know I'll be taking over your adventures is bullshit.

I'm not going to say that the discussions weren't needed and that things are super duper perfect within the community but I will say there are better fucking ways to handling shit than attempting to go nuclear at every possible opportunity. Causing not only Lilt but myself and several others to have straight up anxiety attacks or just making us feel terrified to participate in the place WE ALSO called a second home? That's ok? THATS ALLOWED?

HARASSING ME trying to FORCE me into an ultimatum about talking about shit I've already come clean on? Gaslighting me into twisting myself into questioning if I am actually doing the right thing?
Then the fucking icing on the tip of the cake. Taking one person who knows just about everything about me that I revered as a mother figure I wish I had in my life compared to my birthmother and sticking her on me like a fucking attack dog to hammer home everything?

Somehow convincing her she doesn't need to hear my side of the story before she jumps down my throat?? Having her hit me so fucking hard in the balls that I legit broke down and cried in anger and frustration and sorrow from loosing them and them hitting every open wound I ever had?

That is viewed as OK?? No? I'm just supposed to sit there and keep relatively quiet about someone throwing the biggest fucking temper tantrum for someone saying No, and needing time, like actual fucking time?


Ok here's a Ban for 1. ONE year. 12 months. Sure we couldn't enforce it but that's something else. Gives everyone time to calm down, review ourselves and come to a better - oh here we go soft evading the ban. Mhm doesn't look good but ok they've decided to stop.


Almost actually having time to calm down, settle ourselves and oh there we go outright breaking your ban that is your punishment for what you did, to post stuff and do things that could have waited until you returned??

So it's us being in the wrong for enforcing a permaban because clearly someone doesn't want to take responsibility for their actions, let alone even attempting to change??

Oh we're corrupt, we're the bad guys how fucking dare we try to keep a "status quo" instead of letting a toxic ass person who won't take no for an answer out of our community that we've been trying to work on building up into a healthier safer environment?

If I'm being a doormat, then this is me being fucking done. I have reviewed who's using me and who's being honest. They aren't in my life anymore.

Now that I said my peace, I'm going to bed and im going to continue to sort out and attempt to live my life better..

[Prof.Enigma]

Some of you may know and probably have heard/seen me venting about my situations as of late..
Well.. it just got to a peak.

My sister in law has shot down all attempts of peaceful family work togetherness and has declared we be out of the house by June.

I have to put in overtime on trying to gear up to move out.

We are looking to potentially buy a trailer but who knows how things will go. This may delay and or prolong any updates I may work on. I've seen this a while coming and... well I'm still not as prepared. But I've got to buckle down.

I do not know when things will lighten up therefore I cannot give a time frame for when I can truly be "active as I used to be"
I'll still be working with the other mods on smaller things such as faq questions, etc etc. Updates will get posted when I have excess time upon which I'm not... sleeping, working or moving when the time comes.

[Maskerade]

Things seem to be calming down as far as sick kids go. Hopefully I can get back in the swing of things now, but only in a player capacity; I don't see myself having time to update reliably and I don't wanna leave people hanging.