Forum:SH:Hey, long time no see

This is C3PO the Dragon Slayer making his first edit in 16 months. I'm sure many of you remember me, though since it has been 16 months since my last edit, I expect there are a number of users reading this who are not familiar with my reign of terror benevolence.

I have recently received an email from SavageOpress1138, which politely inquired as to whether I planned on again becoming active on Star Wars Fanon, and if not, that I consent to having my administrative and bureaucratic privileges removed. I had received a similar email from our esteemed Brandon Rhea a while before that, but because I do not check my Gmail as regularly as I ought to (in no small part due to the fact that my university email is Gmail-based and I cannot be simultaneously logged on to my C3PO the Dragon Slayer account and my university account), I did not read these messages until now. I apologize to Brandon Rhea and SavageOppress1138 for appearing to ignore these well-worded and respectful inquiries over the past few weeks/months.

It is an unfortunate truth that I have not been active on Star Wars Fanon for a very long time. This is due to a number of factors. Between my university work, my independent programming projects, and other interests, I have drifted away from my once staunch commitment to Star Wars Fanon. My project, Star Wars: Avian Hunt, has evolved into a non-Star Wars strategy/tactical game with a greater focus on customization than story, and is being programmed in Java rather than Game Maker. I also keep busy creating iOS apps and modding Minecraft, as well as drafting a novel for fun. My creative inspiration has moved away from the confines of the Star Wars intellectual property, and I have become more interested in writing and creating things in my own worlds. But this doesn't excuse my lack of activity on this site. As an admin, it was my responsibility to be there for users who needed help on something, to clean up what needs to be cleaned up, and to contribute my perspective to the decision-making process of the community. I am as much of a Star Wars fan as I ever was, and I have nothing but the highest sentiments for the community that blossomed on this site. Because of this, I regret not checking in every so often and keeping up-to-date with the community here. Though focusing on Star Wars fanfiction would have distracted me from my other projects, I cannot in good conscience simply dismiss my involvement in the vibrant Star Wars Fanon community as a waste of time. Who can forget Ataru, Brandon, JM76, Goodwood, Trak Nar, and the rest of the community that helped shape me?

I joined Star Wars Fanon in its early months, back when the site was a joke and was fodder for vandals. Star Wars Fanon was for some as much of a roleplay site for "Vandal Wars" as it was a fanon wiki, though indeed, the idea of a fanon wiki was still in its infancy. So much has happened since then. We had a remarkable surge in community from the likes of Darth tader, then a reformation to increase the professionalism of the wiki from Squishy Vic and others, and we've had a rise in the novelistic form of narrative with fanfictions taking over the old encyclopedic style. I have contributed several projects to the wiki with varying degrees of quality, including a transcription of a roleplay my brother and I concocted with our Lego figures called the Second Clone War. It's amusing for me to look back at what I had written all that time ago, seeing both my weaknesses as a very young fledgeling writer and the influences of much more skilled writers who had inspired me at the time. As silly as my first real contribution, my namesake article, C-3PO the Dragon Slayer, was, it has great sentimental value and is still entertaining to read, despite my sense of humor becoming drier and more sarcastic than that story would have you believe. To think that was six years ago!

It's time, however, to move on. Many of the frequenters of this site with whom I became acquainted have since moved on, or else edit very sporadically. There are now admins with whom I have never had the pleasure of working or talking. A cursory look at the contributions of these new admins, TK-999 and SavageOpress1138 tells me that Star Wars Fanon is sill capable of attracting new people who can blossom into respected pillars of the community with a passion for fanon and a constructive philosophy. This fills me with the hope that the site that my old acquaintances and I built together will endure as a bastion of creative expression for Star Wars fan now and in the future. The Force will be with you, always.

Will I contribute to Star Wars Fanon again? Hard to say. I may drop in to offer my two cents if an issue comes up in the Consensus Track. If I become inspired to start something in the Star Wars universe again, I will most certainly use this wiki as an outlet for it. I might finish the Avian Hunt-related articles, because I still think it's a cool story despite the game it was to be based in going a different direction. But because I cannot maintain a commitment to this community to the degree I once did, it only makes sense for me to resign my adminship. I cannot be expected to patrol Recent changes and quickly revert malicious edits or offer my help to newcomers, as was once my pastime. My continued adminship will be of no further use to this website, and indeed, may pose more of a security risk since my browser still remembers my password and anyone who logs on to my computer might be able to abuse my powers. In the event that I do check in and offer my voice to the community, it would be better for that voice to come from among the normal users, rather than keep the misleading guise of admin, which would imply that I can still be relied on for administrative tasks. But I don't think you need me anymore. You have smart, reasonable people working hard to maintain this website and this community, and you no longer need the passionate convictions of my 13-year-old self pleading for cool heads to prevail. Whatever problems you face now and in the future, you can work things out. In the event that you forget this, consider this the advance voice of my 20-year-old self: Let cool heads prevail! Star Wars Fanon, like myself, has grown up. --C3PO the Dragon Slayer 6,000,000 forms of communication signing out.