Story time with Hatler.

When I was running r/KotakuInAction, I put way too much of myself into it. I thought that was my purpose, and sure enough, my life revolved around my position as a moderator. It ended up almost fucking me, in the end. I came close to failing out of college. I was taking time out of my vacation in order to solve problems for the subreddit. Lost sleep, etc. It was an unhealthy addiction to feeling valuable to the community. It was something I desperately needed. It really was like a drug. But I nonetheless figured out that it was unhealthy for me, and walked away before I could do any lasting damage to myself.

In walking away, I felt like I had wasted a year of my life. It was painful, especially considering I felt like I was the one who fucked things up in the end. But really, I learned something valuable: It's not a waste of time if you enjoyed doing it, and if others got something good out of it. Even if it's just one person, at least someone thought that the effort you spent was worthwhile. I put eight years into r/TumblrInAction, and seeing it come crashing down in a day was sad. Depressing, even. And more depressing to see people celebrating its demise. But I still saw so many people mourning the loss, saying what TiA meant to them, giving thanks for the time that we did have, and it definitely softened the blow. It made the time spent feel worthwhile. And the fact is, if it really didn't have the impact that it did, none of us would be here, on an alternative platform, saying the things we're saying now. And that's not my achievement—that's all of yours. You guys made TiA what it was.

Without that community of almost 500,000 people, we wouldn't have even made it to a ban (for better or worse, lol). Yes, it's sad that it's gone, and that those achievements have been wiped away in a single stroke, but they weren't all for nothing. They brought us here, back together. That's something.