Lowtax said:
Over the past few weeks / months / years, I have been investing an increasing amount of time and energy in the forums, which has caused an equal amount of frustration and annoyance. I feel these negative emotions have not only affected my ability to moderate the forums, but also my capability to write, resulting in a steady decrease of front page creative content.
Simply put, I don't have the energy to continue moderating these forums, and I'd much rather be writing, filming, and spending time with my wife and kids (#2 on the way in late April!). I do not feel arguing with people for days about trivial, inconsequential issues such as passwords characters or color gradients is an optimal use of my time, and I definitely do not enjoy it.
Looking back, I remember the two reasons I founded Something Awful back in 1999:
1) To write.
2) To have fun.
Currently I'm doing neither. I feel as if my constant moderation work on the forums has grown into a ball and chain bound to my ankle, weighing me down in everything I do or attempt to do. I'm certain both the forums and myself will benefit by discarding my current forum duties, instead concentrating on the aforementioned two areas.
So how will this affect you? Well, it won't. I'll be passing the torch on to Kevin "Fragmaster" Bowen, a full time employee who works in the same office / basement / cat nap room as I. The rest of the mod and admin team will stay the same, and no further changes will be made. The only difference is that I will now be free to concentrate on the things which originally appealed to me: writing, and creating front page content. My already limited role on the forums seems to revolve around growing upset with a vocal minority of people, a job better left unattended.
Regardless, I'm very excited about this change, and I look forward to having both the time and energy required to write once again. My heart was always in the creative process, not the administrative, so this should be a more beneficial fit for both myself and the forums in general.
Thanks everybody! Have fun, expect to win!