GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENT

[Yan_MCX]

Hi everyone.

I know. It's been a while since I posted on here. It's been ages since I replied to questions in the "Ask Mega" section. And it's been almost a year since any staff picks have been awarded in the gallery.

How did this happen? Let's just say that my focus until recently had been elsewhere. But now, here I am, and I’m making a commitment to this community.

What do I mean by "community"?

A few weeks ago, I did an informal survey to find out how people feel about the state of our fan community. I realized people understand that term to mean different things. Some thought it meant this forum and the fan gallery exclusively. But I meant it in the much broader sense of fans who interact with us and who gather in different places online – not just this website, but also Discord servers, subreddits, Facebook groups, YouTube channels, and social media accounts.

This community includes fans who have been with us since the very beginning, and it includes more recent fans who just discovered our products and felt strongly enough about them to connect with us. It’s a complex, diverse group of people of all ages, from all over the world, with different wants and needs, different frustrations and complaints, but one shared passion.

I’ve had several conversations recently with my boss and my boss’s boss and even my boss’s boss’s boss! They all agree that this community is important and that we must do more to support it.

So, with their blessing, I have cleared my plate of most of my other projects, so I can focus on this community. It is now my #1 priority.

What is that gonna change? For one thing, I’ll be more present. I’ll have more time to listen and more time to share news and information with you – here and elsewhere. In the longer term, there will probably be bigger changes coming. What those changes will be depends in part on the feedback I will get from you.

But for now, first order of business: the gallery. One thing that came through loud and clear in the informal survey I mentioned earlier is that you feel we have neglected the gallery. No staff picks. Less engagement. Poor moderation. We heard you.

This week, I started sifting through the most recent 340ish pages of submissions in the gallery, making a list of staff pick candidates. It’s gonna take a few more days, but I will soon be awarding staff picks all the way back to March last year when we stopped picking them.

At the same time, I am trying to wrap my head around some of the, um, drama that’s been going on there. I will have more to say about that next week. For now, I would like to just ask you for a small favour:

Please, don’t give up hope. I’ve seen several posts from users who are leaving in frustration and, to be perfectly honest, it breaks my heart. Give me a chance to make things right. I want to make sure that this amazing community we built together continues to thrive.

See you soon.

Yan

[Muto112]

I wish you luck and a lot of strength in all this work you have now my friend!

[mrjustin412]

I'm really glad you're doing this, Yan, it's a really appreciated step in the right direction!