User blog:Shinneth/Time to get Serious.

So I haven't shown up here for a while.

To be honest, the last few times I frequented Total Drama Wiki, I was not having a good time.

First, I'm being threatened of losing my b-crat status because I'm inactive. Yeah, that's great incentive to have me back. Yes, I have been much less active as the years go by. But as I recall, I was made a b-crat because I had made enormous contributions to TDW back when it was much less... polished, so to speak. My edit count may be low by today's standards, but I always emphasize quality over quantity.

It wasn't just images (most of which got replaced thanks to the Total Drama blog and more available resources to take better screencaps) that I contributed to this wiki. I wrote the bulk of several articles; characters, character relations, episodes, Cartoon Network edits, and even the small stuff like the Gilded Chris. I was involved in a number of discussions and debates on how to improve the wiki. I was the one who suggested navigation bars for the major articles of TDW. I was the one who suggested a succession chart for TD winners and runner-ups. I created the first true Total Drama Wiki logo. I was involved in alterations to the character profiles. I was involved in quality control for spelling and grammar, as well as trivia.

I provided screencaps of Total Drama Action episodes back when the only way to see the episodes was through downloading torrents of the recorded Canadian broadcasting several months before the US aired the episodes. At least, I did so before the halfway point of TDA where there was a several-month drought for premieres. That was the point that I stopped being so active.

The point I'm trying to make is... even though I'm not an active member these days, I don't believe it's right to demote me from a hard-earned rank simply due to inactivity. I see that as equal to disregarding everything I've ever done for TDW. Even though I'm inactive, that bears no effect on my experience nor my abilities. If I'm truly needed for something, it isn't hard to just contact me.

Let's even be generous and cut out the full-time job I've had for two years that has been wearing me down for several months (I'm currently on vacation - my first full vacation since I started the job over 2 years ago), as well as the fact that my work computer blocks all Wikia sites, so I can only access TDW from home. Let's also cut out the several personal projects that have gone neglected due to my job that I've had going on since before I joined TDW.

Earlier this year, when I received the notice of the request for me to step down at b-crat, I attempted to stick around and do what I could for TDW. However, as I said, the times have changed and I'm no longer as useful as I once was, so standing out and making a meaningful edit was out. I mostly stuck to improving a few pictures and editing articles (for spelling, grammar, or just adding extra information), quality controlling trivia (which was a miserable job that I'll get into in a minute), and I even voted in some proposals and made one of my own.

The proposal I made was largely ignored. Only a 2 people voiced their thoughts, and one completely misunderstood the proposal.

Some proposals that went through, I objected to strongly, but there was nothing I could do about it. I mean, why was there such urgency to delete the Cody/Noah article while articles with even less material such as Lindsay and Izzy continued to exist with no one saying a word? I would argue that someone just hated the popularity of Cody/Noah to the point of wanting their article deleted. And I always thought that was wrong.

So despite my attempts to get back into the swing of editing the TDW, my voice often went unheard.

The true nightmare was the trivia. For ages I thought most characters' trivia pages were needlessly long, filled with extremely uninteresting and pointless factoids. Every time I tried to clean up, my edits were undone. This process was done over and over and over. Even now, I see the character pages ungodly long and the trivia contributing to the unkempt appearance of many pages.

Some may say I'm overreacting, but whenever I suggested improvements to TDW in the past, it was often when I was inspired by going through other wikis. Some accused me of just wanting to copy other wikis to a tee, but that was never true. Had my suggestions been shut down back in the day because I was inspired by a style from Bulbapedia, that would have eliminated the navigation bars. I know from experience, visiting several other wikis, that wikis without navbars are a pain to traverse through.

For character pages, if I thought my voice would be heard, I would suggest styling the character pages the way the One Piece Wiki does. Can you imagine how nice and orderly character pages would be if they were like this?

But though I've been told by many users that I'm considered a legend, I certainly do not feel like one anymore. My attempts to spruce up TDW have been thrown back in my face. My efforts from years back are treated like they're meaningless now.

I don't want to give off the impression that I single-handledly built the frame of TDW, because I know that isn't true. But I did have a considerable role in the foundation to eventually make it what it is today. I still remember the hours I labored, printscreening the TDI character models from Teletoon's site and piecing them together, vectoring the edges to make the picture clean, and using them for the stock art profile pictures, replacing those old desktop images of them. That's around 26-27 characters that I had to do this with, mind you. It was grueling work, but rewarding in the end. Even when the wiki messed with some of them and required me to resize some of the pictures.

It's a selfish desire, but I do feel bad that the "Featured User" was not implemented until after I stopped being active. So I've never been featured, and probably never will, because I'm old news.

I don't feel as loved as I once was here. It makes all my efforts now feel futile. For the people who do still like me, know that I appreciate it well beyond what words could describe. You guys are the best.

For those who think I should be demoted regardless of the hard work I've put into this place, know that I have no intention of stepping down from my bureaucrat status. Even if I'm inactive now, that shouldn't erase the past achievements and work I did to earn that rank in the first place.

And that's my piece. Take it or leave it. For everyone who's stuck by my side no matter what happens, much love to you all. ♥