(10-16-2025, 10:00 AM)The_Godslayer Wrote: How, if at all, do you consider your frankly legendary status in the community?
There have been plenty of notorious bad guys over the years, alongside notorious sanctions, and the long running meme of "to be an admin, you have to have been previously permabanned". Being well known for negative aspects is not exactly uncommon here, but in contrast, you're lauded widely as the mythical hero of adding content, and your name was thrown around in a state of relative reverence and/or banner of resistance during times when staff approval was very low, especially for the teams that took to mass culling of systems or the infamous system crunching where assets from two systems would be slammed together with little regard. Even I did it, making fun of what I saw as a conflict between severely overzealous moderation and censorship, and the trolls that such control obsession inevitably spawns.
(05-05-2021, 04:01 AM)The_Godslayer Wrote: If we can kill the meme thread, the pob attack dec thread, and the kudos thread all at once, rumor has it that Igiss himself will return to pull the plug once and for all
So, does the recognition of your status as "an almighty saint among the crowd of sinners" ever cross your mind? How does it feel to be an infallible good guy in the eyes of quite a few? There's really only a few names in this community that are widely known for positive reasons, and you sit at the very apex of that list.
When I was active as an admin, there were lots of accusations against me also, but I didn't have that much time administering after my ~2nd year and got more into modding itself.
Well, perhaps there were not many accusations against me personally, but against the sides I presumably took in various admin conflicts.
It seems to me now that, for volunteered tasks that come with sorting out justice and abuse, conflicts are inevitable. I'm not sure how other gaming communities get over this. Perhaps there are communities that are extremely close and friendly to avoid this altogether, and Discovery wasn't that, probably became too large for that. Perhaps there are some where there are some designated leaders who can just ban and get rid of anyone who stirs up conflict, whether they did right or wrong, which is also not what Discovery is (it seems so, at least; maybe it did happen to some extent, but I don't know). Maybe there are some other options. In any way, there are parts of the community that would still be angered or resentful at some decisions, even if admins act in all fairness.
It's a bit more straightforward with the mod itself, where it could be useful to have someone like a Game Director or Lead Producer that ordinary game dev studios have. Could be me, could be someone else. But, again, for a mod it might be better to have a larger and more widespread community of modders. Despite some issues, it allows the project to live longer, other than depend on interests of one particular person.
I don't think I've logged on this account in about 10 years, and haven't played Disco in closer to 14 or 15 I think.
Man Igiss, how the hell you doing? I don't have any words that can jog your memory of who I was to you way back when, but I started playing Disco when I was 13, and you can probably do the maths if you care but that's a long time ago in my life.
I don't have any questions for you other than asking how you are. But I do want to tell you of the impact you had in my direction in life, of how the world you created gave a little boy a chance at life, and of the man I am today who wants to thank you for dreaming.
Disco got me through a time in my life when I didn't really have friends, where I used to hide in corridors at school to avoid eyes, awaiting the chance to run home and log onto the computer and enter a world set against the rich tapestry of a space opera, where I could be whoever and whatever I wanted to be. It was a form of escapism, and in true 13-16 year old form I tried to be incredibly edgy (seriously, look at this username!). I was a bit of a dick, but I met a lot of people and was exposed to a world where I learnt some social norms that I avoided in daily life.
I was good at one thing, PvP, and it gave me the arrogance of being 'better' than other people that set me on the path my path in life. I expanded that arrogance into egotism, and then when I finally found my place in the real world, tempered it into quiet confidence. Because I thought I could PvP, I decided at 17 I needed to do a sport. I started boxing, and within a few weeks of getting punched in the face I realised that arrogance is the trait of someone good at something, who has not yet met their limit. I have since spent a lot of time in life finding my limits, and breaking them now.
Space has always enraptured me, from stargazing with my father right through to taking on one of many guises in the world you helped make. I went on to study the stars, kinda - physics was my university degree. I spent a lot of my career after university meandering from one thing to another, but I've finally settled into software engineering (because computer is friend!), Now I'm at the forefront of another distantly adjacent frontier to the space world you built for me, that being AI.
One final reflection. I read some of your comments in this thread about how you tried to be the voice of reason for all sides, but if you were to do it again you would probably try to resolve conflict without making everyone equally happy. I was once one of those people appealing to you! I can't even remember what had happened (nor did it matter), but I remember not getting a decision I wanted from some admin or mod developer of a sort, and appealing to you. You did your best to allay me, but you wouldn't go against your team, and shouldn't have in any regards. You are 40 now, I am 31. Back then, I would have been maybe 15 and you 23/24. I now realise how absurd such a situation truly was, a child appealing to someone barely an adult. None of us really have anything figured out at those ages.
From what you've written here, things seem like they haven't been easy for you. In my view, you have always been a champion for the betterment of others, the only difference today is that you are using your voice as much as your actions. Keep using that voice.
Thank you for giving me the playground I needed as a child. Because of the sandbox you built, I explored who I was, and the man I am today is proud of that person.
