Well, well.

This is quite a slap in the face, but not to my face. I’m getting sick and tired of this – progress isn’t being made, and I’m being outright insulted. Help is being refused and I’m out of contact with people I should be in contact with. The little help I have, on a webmaster-y scale, has gone kaput and can’t help me in the situation I’m in. I’d like to help ZU, and help it grow, but I can’t because these people refuse to let me work at a pace that gets progress done in the next few years. I’m speaking from the heart when I say I truly want to do good here; I want to improve this place, upgrade it with the latest software to help it run smoothly. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to do that.

Content has been slow. Nothing has been happening; the world is at an awkward still from Zelda’s point of view. If anything was ever going to happen, it’s too long of a wait from now. I’ve been sitting here, hoping that we’d hold out, try our best to keep the fans at bay until some real content came along. I’ve been wracking my brain trying to think of what to do. I’ve been getting advice from other people. Yet my stomach still hurt, and my eyes still ached to see the dying page in front of me. They didn’t ache because it was dying, but because I just couldn’t stand to load the same page one more time. It’s really worn itself out.

The people who I both knew and thought I knew are what I expected of them, which is not a good thing. This goes especially for Zak, who I am going to call out. Many of you have no clue who he is; he is our server admin, who is always on vacation, and always too busy to help ZU. He's managing all of Lee's sites plus ZU, and so never has ZU-specific time to just help out. For this reason, I was not able to get a test database to see if we could upgrade the forums. I was also not able, because of this, to get the warning hack installed. It was Zak’s promise that he would install it months ago, and he never did it. Every once and a while I bug him, but he either does not respond, is busy, or tells me to do it myself. There are times when he’s blatantly shown he doesn’t care; in instances he has signed off on me when I contact him. He is one of the only people with the knowledge on how to successfully complete upgrades for the forums, and I can’t get in touch with him. I think he just hates me, because seemingly he’ll do whatever Lee says.

Lee is never around. He knows it, and I’m not going to regurgitate it back to him. He’s tried to sell the site, which I think is smart if he can’t keep up with it. But his asking price is way too high, and though I’ve never said it to his face, I don’t particularly trust him. When Scott and I made the original bid, we retracted because we thought he was doing shady business. To tell the absolute truth, I expected nothing less. He’s a really good guy, though. I know he is, otherwise he wouldn’t talk to me and would be more like Zak. So just know, once you read this Lee – you may not have all of my trust, and you may not be the sharpest tack in the box, but you’ve got a good heart. I think. Now if only you were around more.

Those two people are the major intelligences I could look to for vBulletin help. They alone could get the forums upgraded safely and get hacks installed. But because one is never around and one seems to have some grudge against me and doesn’t want to listen as long as I’m not the guy paying him, I can’t do anything. For this, I apologize to the entire community. And I blame myself for not trying harder to get progress done sooner.

However, it seems when I rush progress, people get left behind and this leads to a giant revolt against me. Progress takes forever and a half to achieve. I’m not that patient, and if an idea gets so much as a “yes” I have the impulse to put it in action, but some of what I’ve seen just makes me numb. It’s hard to work when you have to wait a month or two to do anything about an awesome idea that seemed awesome at the start, but has now grown stale after so much discussion. And unfortunately, we have procrastinators and people who just plain don’t like me added into the mix to further waste time. I’m beginning to feel overloaded with all of the procrastination – the sense that these things need to get done, and in the MONTHS we’ve had, they haven’t. Instead of going for another pep rally, I’m saving myself the horror show.

Seeing people throw themselves against me only to contradict themselves – what do I work here for? I’ve lost my touch. My once energetic and full of work ethic-ed self had gone with the wind in light of the big stall in time. I feel like we’re dragging things on, like the site should have died a while ago and we’re on our last limbs trying to keep it alive amongst the raging fans demanding content that doesn’t exist. In fact, more than likely the site has been that way for the last year, and only now is it catching up with it. We were running from a falling cliff that was moving faster than we were, and now it’s caught up.

The community here is not what it once was. I’ve told one person why I really joined, and no one else – the person has promised it remain secret, but what was originally keeping me here almost two years ago has completely vanished. There was a certain magic that ZU reminded me of, that left me and, until a time, ZU continued to keep me in spirits. Now, with the new layout, and the position running the site, that’s all up in smoke. Nothing is fun anymore, and the magical force that surrounded ZU and locked me in seems to have disappeared. It’s a shame this barrier is gone, because it was a very opaque wall. It’s interesting to see what’s outside of that wall, now.

I feel stupid saying “I go to an internet forum.” Saying that to anyone offline makes me feel like a retard that has done nothing with his life. This job gets me very little but satisfaction and I’ve considered asking for a salary multiple times, though I doubt Lee would give that to me, and at this point I might not even take it. The place has gone stale.

Stale like the community. The community is, right now… I don’t want to hurt people’s feelings, so I’ll just say it’s “not as good as it used to be.” (It sucks, in short.) I may have “webmaster” as a title, but I have the most un-webmaster-y opinion about this community. I’m almost ashamed to be on it. It’s not worthwhile; it’s an embarrassment to walk around on these boards, much less to pretend to rule over them.

I spent a good portion of the morning reminiscing and thinking of what to do. Originally, I had sent a PM to Lee “threatening” to leave if he didn’t contact me and do something about getting progress done, and if things didn’t work out I would leave anyway. I feel sort of bad for doing it, but I’m afraid my decision as that this needed to be done sooner.

So, if your abilities of deduction are worse than I had estimated, here it is, plain and simple: I’m resigning.

Some of you are awesome, a lot of you are not. Why should I do a list? Like my first leaving post, I think that just shows that the people you liked either didn’t know who they were or you’re singling out people and making ones you also liked upset because you didn’t mention them. Everyone I knew and has a friendly relationship with should know who they are. I don’t care if it was one sentence between us – that’s better than a lot of people. And some of you, I’d like to thank from the bottom of my heart who affected a ton of the decisions I’ve made – and the ones who have been pure friends the whole way through.

Goodbye, ZU. I've been contemplating this whole ordeal for a while, perhaps a few months, and maybe now I can rest. I’ll probably cry a bit, but then I’ll rest. I’ll cry for everything that I’ve lost coming to this site, and everything that I’ve gained. I’ll definitely miss a good part of this site, and I’ll think about what will happen in its future, but most of the things that I would have dearly missed are gone with the rest of my good memories of this place. I wish I could have been better… but it wasn’t, and all I can say is that I wish for everyone to be safe, happy, and do what you really feel for this sites future. I’m leaving it in the hands of the users, the members who tried so hard to make this community amazing and failed. The members who didn’t make this community amazing but love it anyway, even if they aren’t perfect. The members who have no clue what’s going on.

It’s been quite a trip, but unlike what Lars told me, it wasn’t worth it in the end. It was worth it in the beginning and withered away with the ownership change. There was magic, and then there wasn’t, and for a split second when I thought about leaving today I cracked a smile and the magic came back.

Smart move. I'll be joining ya soon as well, probably.

Sad to see you go. Yeah, we talked for a bit about the past. But I'm afraid times are changing, and things must move on :/

See you around Jason. I'll keep you updated if you wish.

"See you space cowboy."

That was just sad...

Your leaving? Aww...

We'll miss having you as an Admin GC. Well, I guess I really can't argue with you on it. Even I've seen that the forums have been going down, and so many of the oldies are leaving. By GC, we'll miss you.

Oh.My.God.

I'm in a state of shock, but i can see why you're leaving .

See ya around.

You are leaving?I know that ZU is losing it's old pasion.. It's just too hard to take...

I'm going to miss you if you go. GC... It's been great knowing you... Even if it was for a short time... ... Good...bye...

GC, I know I never really knew you, and I've never spoken to you properly (plus, I have made my own crap over on ZU over the years). But I will say this (and I'm not wanting to make this into my own diatribe by the way): I'll agree there was a certain "magic" about ZU. Was it the dark blue scheme? Was it the fact that there were less n00bile posts back then? Or was it just that times weren't a-changing anytime soon. But I remember back then, and I joined around the same time as you did, that it was a little more fun, there was more camaraderie, not much spam and useless things going on, and scooby dooby doo. For me, you represent that time, when ZU had a little more hope about it. It's like selling off a childhood toy, a certain bit of a fun time in your life is gone.

I understand entirely why you left, and I'm not going to persuade you to stay, or shout about how crap ZU has gotten. So, take care of yourself and have a good life. Don't regret leaving. But there is always a place for you if you wish to come back. I'm sure a lot of your friends on here agree with me. Even non-friends. *One muffin for the road*

Wow, even though I may not have known you and you may not have known me, that was sad. I can see where you're going though, this place is drying up. Our community is growing but no one is doing anything to help it grow, it just... grows. ZU reminds me of The Roman Empire, they started as a small country with morals and ethics and eventually when leadership changed from Republic to Empire (Lars to Lee) things went downhill. Sure, they grew very large but became stagnant. Their technologies were backward and their sense of ethics was poor.

Our site is stagnant, and we dont have a true 'leader' around to guide us. I wish you farewell.

I've only talked to you a little through PM's and in threads back when I first joined. And only about graphics really, but even from those small conversations I could tell you were a nice guy.
I can see what you mean about this place deteriorating. Even since just 2004 when I decided to stop lurking and join this community that seemed great, the place has been going downhill. I often find myself tired of coming here, and I leave for a few months, only to come back and find it worse than when I left. I post so rarely nowadays, I've practically confined myself to my shop. This place provides a bit of an outlet for my creativity now and then, but otherwise... it has lost its charm.
I guess all I can really say is that I wish you luck in your future endeavors, as cheesy as that may sound. You're a good guy, GC.

Alas, it was going to happen sooner or later. You already know my thoughts, Jason, and everyone else wouldn't much care, so, ta-ta.

You ass. Give me your work ethic. I need it for college.

ZU is definitely going to lose something important with this latest development in the plot.. I'm not really even sure what to say to this, except that I agree with your point about ZU's magic in the past (and have made comments of my own on the subject).

See you on Google Talk, I guess.

All I can say is; good luck with life.

This place better not fall apart without you.

Originally Posted by Scott

Alas, it was going to happen sooner or later. You already know my thoughts, Jason, and everyone else wouldn't much care, so, ta-ta.

Um.. No offense to you scott, but that last part about the " And everyone else wouldn't much care" was a little mean.

And as for you GC. Even though I hardly knew you, I had a great time here, because of how well you've done in the past few years. I've watched this place change, and it is going down a bit, But I have faith in ZU, and if it doesn't get back on track, I'll kick it up a notch myself. I'm never going to let this place die, as long as I can help it. I wish you good luck on your new life, outside of ZU. May Link be with you in your mind.

-GG.

Bye GC. In the six months I've posted here, I haven't really been in much contact with you, but I appreciate all the work you've done on this site. Thanks for everything you've done.

I've noticed "the mood at the top" lately has been a little grim sometimes, so I'm not that surprised by the announcement. As one of the members of a newer wave of posters, that thought makes me a little nervous. However, since I was not around for this so called golden era, I cannot relate to them or make comparisons. I can only move forward, and I hope the community as a whole continues to do so.

Anyway, good luck with your future endeavors, GC. You will be missed around here.