I want to talk about some stuff that I think all of you need to hear. There is a very specific reason why Hret left and it is a constant issue in many different communities. I will get to that point a bit later in this announcement, but for now I want to say some thoughts of mine about the community as a whole.
As a community, we are based around Minecraft, a game that is very fun and many things are possible. All the community members come together to have fun and hang out with each other. We enjoy this game and people help each other. This game was meant to have fun on, and that's just what the entire staff want to provide to you players. One of our jobs is to bring an experience that each and every one of our players will enjoy. We can't guarantee that they will stay with these experiences that we bring, but we do try to make them enjoyable. Each and every person that comes here has the satisfaction of playing on a server whose features were written not by third-party bukkit plugins, but by our very own Innectis Development Team. This allows us to present an endless opportunity of features that the community requests. We choose what goes into our plugin, not some third-party developers.
One concept on everyone's mind that no one wants to talk about or even deal with is drama. It exists in so many forms and we try to keep it away from our community in general. Problem is that it always ends up creeping up on us when we least expect it. Everyone has disagreements with each other, yet that should not turn into endless drama. This is a game, there shouldn't be anything wrong with playing it, but when people have differing opinions it's hard to come to a point where people agree with each other and then their issues slowly turn into monsters that can eventually devour the whole community.
Hret was a fabulous leader that I looked up to very much. I learned a lot from him during my long experience as an admin/developer and I enjoyed many moments chatting with him in regards to Innectis affairs. Everyone loved him and they enjoyed all the fun that he provided. He was by far the best owner of a community I had ever met, and will never forget how he carried Innectis through the long 2+ years that Innectis has existed in his tenure. We will all miss him.
Hret left because this concept just kept getting larger and larger and he couldn't take it anymore. Too many bans and too many arguments, both in the general staff, and in the development team, were pretty awful at times. He finally decided to hang up the towel after our squabble earlier this month. He wanted to hand Innectis over to Lynxy but she was too busy with work so I was the next best person in line for the job so he gave it to me.
Shortly after he left, there was a problem in the development team, mainly because something was going to be added but I disagreed heavily on it. It got to the point I couldn't deal with a specific developer because this problem has been recurring, and finally got to the point I couldn't handle it anymore. Then this person left, and it seems like we were settling down and there was not going to be anymore problems for awhile. Boy was I wrong.
Much after that we ended up getting problems from certain members of the community. Griefing here, griefing there, bad behavior, you know. However, it seems as if the problems were much worse than before. We've had at least 2 permabans (one of them indefinite as of this writing), a long ban, and then some other things happening. Are people really showing their true colors or are they really upset that Hret left? Old members left saying we were dying, something I wasn't really prepared to hear... So much has happened you'd think I'd want to hang up the towel myself and call it a good bye forever to Innectis.
It's as if since I've become owner there has been a lot of dissent among the community. It's as if they miss Hret so much and yet are not willing to accept me as the new owner. People think things are going to change for the worse, and that we may end up being radically different than when we were when Hret was owner... I want everyone to know that that is not true in the least. I don't want to make rash decisions that I feel will drive the community down even further.
We have our mod elections currently nearing an end, and there has been an issue in regard to one of the candidates. None of the staff seem to be having the same opinions and there isn't much I can really do about that. I'm not going to comment on what has actually happened, but all these dissenting opinions show us that it's like we are really no different than the players holding mod elections. We're so wrapped up in our own opinions that it seems nothing good ever really gets done.
How are we supposed to move forward when all of this drama comes from out of nowhere? I'm trying to clean up the mess that was left with Hret's leaving, and we are inching our way forward but it seems like we're falling back even more than we are going forward. It also doesn't help that people think our community is dying with Hret leaving. Did OtakuCraft die when it was apparent it might? No, people moved on to Innectis and continued the legacy.
Now it seems we have arrived at a similar situation, and it's up to the staff, and community, to decide what goes on from here. It is my will that we press on and continue to be such a great community that we've already been. It will be hard to do this without your support. From this point onward, let us try to clean up the mess that was left behind. Start showing appreciation for each other and pave a way for a bright future.
I cannot say happy mining as that is not appropriate...
