Let's pay our respects to six and a half years, as well as the ride of my life

[Superbus]

I've made a lot of tough announcements here. Here goes the toughest one.

I started the Moment of Clarity thread about a month ago, laying out where we stood, what had to get done, and why it had to get done. I mentioned lowered posting numbers, lowered interest, and a decidedly lowered interest in the Fire Emblem games in general as reasons why FESS wasn't to 2005 levels of activity. The thread ended up turning into another State of the Union thread, and went like the last few we've had over the years: a lot of finger pointing, a lot of arguing, a few good ideas... and a near insubstantial amount of actual progress.

It's been the worst kept secret in the community that I've been looking for someone to take over the community for some time. I initially retired in 2006 to much fanfare, and I was hoping to do something similar this time around. But since I retired in July of 2006 to now, a lot happened; Dale took over as our root administrator, and did an outstanding job considering the cards he was dealt, but internal politics, mainly thanks to Leaf, Jet Enduro and Eaichu shitting on 90% of anything he said behind his back, did his adminship in, and when he finally decided to put his foot down, Jet and Zephyr decided to ruin the community, leaving a hole that still hasn't been completely closed due to the fact that Invisionfree still hasn't restored FESS2. At that point, I took over as root again, just long enough to turn it over to Sword Saint. No one really took Sword Saint seriously, because I was the man paying the bills, and least of those were Sword Saint himself, who said on numerous occasions that he saw himself more as a maintainer than an advocate (we needed an advocate at the time). In the meantime, I slowly started taking over more and more of the major administrative duties, while trying to find someone to take over the main part - the main website - that needed work. I picked Blacky Wacky, who pissed off so many regular members that I eventually had to fire him. I picked Judas, who boasted skills and time, then proceeded to use neither while sitting on his hands. I picked Crystal Shards, who was simply too overwhelmed with college and life, and had too little time to make a truly noticeable impact. In that sense, the #1 thing we needed to advance our community to the next stage failed.

While that was happening, we lost our momentum as the #1 community to talk about and find out about Fire Emblem; even FESS1 had Mamkute at 20,000 Fathoms and Sigurd's Pants. Serenes Forest had the best website, and therefore all of the reference links from mainstream sites such as Wikipedia and 1UP. Planet had the most art, which attracted Gamespy. We had forums, which were good for people who hated the GameFAQs forums, and not much else. All attempts to rectify this were met with - again - finger pointing, name-calling, boastful promises to do something, then... silence. Some people wanted us to do things in a more conciliatory way, others didn't because that would bring "retards" in, others pointed that out as our main flaw, others stated that it made us have a vetting process... much like the United States Congress, lots of speeches, lots of time on the pulpit, and a poor voting record. The loss of the velthomer.net domain also hurt us, and I'd argue that was irreparable, as links to that domain just showed that grinning bitch and links to Velthomer, AK.

(It should be noted that I finally, after almost a year, got a response back about my wanting of the domain back. I had to go through a third party for that. I said that since the domain was going to expire in 3 weeks (a week from now), I should be able to buy it for $50, a 500% increase over the cost it takes to buy a domain, being $10. I got a response back that my figure was not in the ballpark, from the intermediary. I sent back a curt response, saying to let me know what the figure was, and that I didn't have time, I quote, "to play a Price is Right game". The response? "The company that owns this domain has listed a minimum price of £17,000". In Real Money, that's about $30K. For a domain name. That right there tells us everything we need to know: that a poacher took our name after it expired, and is going to hold onto it no matter what. It's lost forever unless I pony up $30K. Now you all see why this is one area I want regulation, because this is extortion. This is also why you will have to take Grandbell.net from my cold, dead hands)

The visible changes in this effect were a reduction in staff, and a consolidation of the forums. I told someone that there were other plans in the works, and a lot of those were not as easy to see. I sent out Musashi and Starwolf to be front and centre in the FE boards, and ruffle the leaves there to get activity up. That was fair success. I ordered Popo out to drum up activity in the art and fiction forums. That was mostly a success, though infighting between her and another prominent artist dragged things down in that regard. I had Mage Knight 404 become what I called at the time my new "Sprite Bitch", and take an interest in helping newcomers get better with it, something the Dragons were good at doing, if a bit exacting in their standards; mission accomplished there. And finally, I had Sword Saint become the main liason for the members (owing to his rapport in FESSChat), and, unbeknownst to them at the time, started grooming Lord Glenn to take my position as root, and Starwolf to eventually take over as administrator.

With all of that ordered, I decided I needed a week off. The stress of the community and everything that was going on at the time was taking a toll on my physical health as it was costing me sleep as well as energy, so I took a suspension enforced vacation.

Two days later, Crystal needed her own week off to tend to personal issues, and we had people asking what to do in the website forum. Vacation over.

Also in that time, the posting surge we had during the Moment of Clarity thread virtually died. We were back down to double digits in daily posts again - September levels - and as it was correctly pointed out by Eltoshen, nothing of note had gotten done. We lost the peak that we had quicker than even I thought we would, as all the people that came in and told us why we sucked didn't even bother sticking around to see that out.

Finally, I offered Lord Glenn root when I stepped down. He all but outright declined. His idea was that we weren't going to really see a posting revival no matter what, due to decreased Fire Emblem interest worldwide, a shifting of our demographic (with the majority of us getting older, and the new members being mostly younger), and the fact that too many people were talking a big game but not backing it up.

We have two unavoidable problems that are not fixing themselves: leadership and funding. Leadership, I've discussed, but funding is another major bugbear. I've discussed someone funding the site after this coming year when I'm gone, and Fox has mentioned that he could take it himself. That causes a problem of one person once again being looked to be the pocketbook; we can't be a community if one person is doing the heavy lifting. Furthermore, as I've had it be DEMANDED to me that if he pays for the site, he gets root, that brings us right back to The Blacky Wacky Issue. One other person brought it up to me that they could help (A Terrible Person), and while I sincerely appreciate his input, it's not enough to sustain a site that gets FESS's traffic.

All of these things - no set new leader, combined with financial questions - have converged and shown me that I don't think the community is ever going to get back to the point that I want to bring it to, and there's really not much I can do about that fact. Furthermore, no one seems to want that responsibility; I'm the only one stupid enough to do that.

Therefore, effective next Friday the 21st right around Friday (heading into Saturday EST), FESS will cease being an active community. We're closing down, and there's not going to be a FESS6. This is it, and this is final.

I believe that FESS deserves better than to slowly rot away into oblivion the way FEFF and to a lesser extent FEP are. Virtually no FE based discussion takes place on FEFF - it's the fandom equivalent of a sausage fest - and FEP is relevant because it looks pretty and has a good RP. I don't believe FESS should go that route. That's why I'm doing this, and one of the reasons I'm timing things like this is to solidify the fandom. I am going to direct all of the people that come here and want to discuss Fire Emblem to Serenes Forest. I think at this point of the fandom getting smaller, one site being the big boy is the best thing, so I'm going to do what I can to have our members become active and contributing members of their community. Vincent, NTG and Jyosua have a very good thing going over there. I've made staff recommendations to them, but I've put some higher than others, so unless something happens, you can bet that some tiny little bit of FESS will make it over there.

I will not be going over as anything more than a member. I think it's time I hung up the hammer for good in the fandom. I'll be 29 years old in half a year, and the member age is getting younger and younger... I couldn't really understand how a 15 year old ticked when I was 25, now that I'm 29 I stand no chance of it. Furthermore, I feel that the force of my personality and just who I am would interfere too much with the environment that Jyosua has created over there. He's done very, very well, and to steal a metaphor from Yahtzee, I would be the proverbial shot of Bailey's that overpowers everything. I will not be a part of the administration, and will turn down any requests to be one, nor will I be a "shadow" administrator for any reason other than when someone asks my advice.

I've heard some people complain that SF's membership is a lot of things; the words I hear are "young", "immature", and of course, "retarded" (And people wonder why we're considered "elitist"!). Don't judge them like that, because a good lot of you were just like them when you started. Integrate with them. Talk about the games. Show some patience. It will be beneficial to the fandom as a whole.

In addition, one of the main complaints with FESS - one that I had - was that it was too secular; that too many people didn't care about Fire Emblem, and were here only for the punch, and those people were basically a clique among themselves. Some of our members convinced me to branch that out, just in case this happened, and will be creating a site called The Ashtray within the next week. That's basically FESS without the Fire Emblem; I'm not sure of all the intimate little details, but it's basically going to be a weblog/hangout for some of our members where the focus is not on Fire Emblem, but on other issues with the gaming industry. Picture my Unbranding the Sheep column from Diehard GameFAN, as told by others. The project is being spearheaded by Blacky Wacky and Mad_Fredin, and they had to do a bit of convincing to me to give them the go-ahead, in case FESS went down. Blacky Wacky or Fredin can give better details on that. I will eventually join them over there, but to be frank, I need some time to myself, and likely will have no administrative duties over there; I need to not be a leader for some time.

And to be honest, this kills me. Despite what some people have already said to me (my FL has known this was coming since Wednesday), I still feel like a failure. I set out to save the community, and make it self-sustaining, and I failed. It's something I've aimed for since 2006 - to get the site off of my breast - and I failed at it; all that matters is the final score, and my efforts were not enough. Yes, I tried. Yes, I still did not succeed, and the battle took a LOT out of me. I've been an emotional carcass for a good week, week and a half as I've debated this in my head, and now that the decision's been made, I feel even worse. I feel like I let everyone reading this thread down, despite the protests to the contrary.

--------

But with that said, I want to give this good 'ol ship a right sendoff. I've made invitations already via my FL to all of the old FESSers that have come and since left the site to come back for one last hurrah, and I will also be making a thread in the FESSers community on Livejournal about this. Everyone else around is asked or invited to get the old timers they know back here to celebrate FESS for the last week that it's around. I will keep this site up, as well tempfess (FESS4). I will also renew the Grandbell.net domain, and keep it unless someone comes to me with a legitimate, Fire Emblem-based reason for taking it, and it's someone I can trust. I will not let happen to Grandbell.net what happened to Velthomer.

I'll make personal dedications later.

So let's enjoy our last week as a community, guys. Let's do it right.

[i am a raging faggot who loves big dicks]

Eh. I don't have much to say on the closing of FESS right off the bat. If anything, I'll save it for later.

The Ashtray is an idea kicking around in my head for a while, with a lot of prodding to actually do it from Julio. Put simply: the forus are NotFESS. Specifically, not Fire Emblem, not Sanctuary, not Strategy. If I had to equate it to something, it'd be like a half-assed SomethingAwful, minus the posting fees. The "point" is no specific game or movie or interest or whatever-the-fuck-else, it's a hangout for the sake of hanging out, because--hey, some of you lot are pretty cool people and probably think the same of Serene's Forest as me. (Sorry, Jyosua, but dealing with more fucking thirteen-year-olds is not in the fucking cards for a lot of us.) The blog frontend will come along later. It'll be an open riff spot of sorts. Game talk? Sure. Movies? Sure. Random-ass rants? If I chuckle, it can go up. I'm not particular.

The site's not open for signups yet. It'll go up in a couple of days; I have to set up SMF the way I like it, mostly by stealing bloodily my setup rig for FESS. As for administration--well, some of you won't much like it, but I doubt it'd be as big a deal as y'all are likely to suggest. To give you an idea of my intention: our primary Rules Of The Forum document is two words long. "Don't suck." I know some of y'all don't like me and probably never will, but I'm just gonna tell you to give it a shot. This is a place for adults and those who can pretend to actually be adults to kick back and do their thing. I will be the administrator/primary mod, and my mods (assuming they don't turn it down, because I haven't...actually...asked them yet) are Fox and Kein/Cainen/whatever-the-hell-else-he-calls-himself. And that's it. (I'm not going to spoil the surprise, but you will understand immediately after seeing the board why I don't take our moderating jobs seriously. You will laugh. Promise.)

Anyway, if you have questions about The Ashtray or anything else, PM or reply here, whatever.

[Sword Saint]

I'm not much for long posts of this sort, so I'll say what I have to say plainly.  I was glad to be a staffer for this board, glad to work with who I did, glad to contribute as I did, and I hope that others' experiences at this site were made a bit better by me being around.  I may or may not be signing up at SF myself, but in any case, FESSchat will be remaining open on serenia so long as there are still people in there.  I'll also be at The Ashtray when it goes up, so you can catch me there, too. 

In the end, I can't honestly name any of you that I dislike.  I enjoyed my time here with all of you, through good, bad, and boring.  Cheers.

[Derpicane]

Damn... hit me harder this time.

My interest in FE is all but dead, so if I go to SF, it'll be solely because FESSers are there- I could seriously not give less of a shit about joining an FE forum for FE anymore, and I've stayed here for 4 years solely because of all of you guys.

Oh well. Let's make this a week to remember.

[♂♀]

I honestly feel that my thoughts are reflected very well in Aitherion's, post, and I really don't have too much to add. : / I do miss and  and though

[i am a raging faggot who loves big dicks]

In the end, I can't honestly name any of you that I dislike.  I enjoyed my time here with all of you, through good, bad, and boring.  Cheers.

My interest in FE is all but dead, so if I go to SF, it'll be solely because FESSers are there- I could seriously not give less of a shit about joining an FE forum for FE anymore, and I've stayed here for 4 years solely because of all of you guys.

That would be why we're doing what we're doing to awesome the fuck out on the new board.

[Lord Fuckboy]

Well, I've been around nearly three years, haven't I...  time actually flies pretty fast.  I think I was 13 when I signed up, and I'm 16 on Monday so..

At any rate, FESS was definitely an interesting place to visit.  I've been lurking pretty much a lot lately, because I've just had nothing to say anymore, but I have read quite a bit of interesting stuff.  I guess I'll be somewhat unaffected by its leaving, but I've had fun for the couple years I was active.  And I definitely did learn quite a bit since I've joined; Superbus' rants were always interesting.
In fact I'm probably encouraged to question more things I've been told as a result of some stuff here; like, not because of knowledge, but just as a lesson of confidence.  If it seems questionable, question it and etc.

Thanks to most people here for making FESS enjoyable, I guess I can't say much more than that.  I'll be around #FESSChat though, sometimes as a lurker, sometimes not and I may end up joining SF.  So yeah.
The closing down does make me sad, because it was one of the forums on my forum rotation.  And I met pretty cool people here that I don't really want to lose touch with...  but we've got AIM for that.

Bus, congrats on a job well done.  You've kept a community alive for about five years and kept it going with a powerful attitude, on top of many of the other staff members.  See you guys on the Ash Tray or SF, and I really want to keep in touch with certain people here.

[Superbus]

I should also note that a member - etellerannet7 - came up with a brilliant idea: character battles.

By then, I'd more or less decided that this site was about done, so I told him to bring it to SF. So that's a great thing to go over to SF for.

EDIT: Ed, we'll discuss The Ashtray at another time in another thread. Not here. Please.

[Ta-kun]

Huh. This kinda blows, but it's been a good ride. I'm pretty happy that I came back when I did, then~.

[Foxy-Woxy The Sandwich Scout]

I've pretty much spilled my guts elsewhere already, but just to restate some things. FESS has been a really, really fun romp, and I've met some truly wonderful people here. I will once again say how this is absolutely no fault of yours, Bus, so don't let it drag you down.

I'm not looking at this as a good-bye. We'll have the Ashtray, as well as Serenes, so it's not like everybody's up-and disappearing. That said, I hope every single one of you heads for the Ashtray.

[Yarias]

Sorry to see FESS go. Always enjoyed lurking through the interesting discussion threads.

And just for the sake of repetition, all of the staff here has done a wonderful job of running the site. You haven't let anyone down, there are plenty of worse scenarios for FESS than this.

[Crystalline Eliot]

I'm sorry to see it go after I just came back, and got my rights back as a normal member. I have some fond memories of the place though, albeit old ones, and some of my best friends on the internet, and really in all of reality combined, I met here. This place will always stand as a testament to where the English fandom REALLY got it's start.

[WyvernSageLord]

So, this community is finally coming down, huh? A truly great shame.

FESS was the second forum I've ever joined; when I first saw FESS it was probably back in 2005, maybe even sooner. What mainly got my attention was the custom sprites that were made in this board, as well as the ones that were on FEP. I joined this community shortly after I joined FEFF. You all remember when I first introduced myself right? The first time I ever came into FESSChat before I even joined this forum.

And the last few years have been interesting. I've been GEOSed twice, (excluding the one that Bus gave) and I've made it out twice. And I got to know a whole lot of fun people while I was here. It's truly a sad and pitiful thing for me to see this end.

To MageInTraining: I won't say that it's been a pleasure knowing you, we've argued and bitched, and whatnot. But still, it's like Togie said, both me and you made FESS all the more interesting to him.

To Togieduo if he ever gets to read this: Hey, it's been a big pleasure knowing you, man. You're a good fellow, and it's been fun, especially the times we got to chat.

To Tirinity and Wyvern_Sage: I hope we meet again someday on another board.

And... to all else, it's been a pleasure to be part of this community. I've been in trouble, got into fights, but also had nice cheerful and funny times with you guys. It was one hell of a time, fellow, and I thank all of you for it!

With that, I bid fare thee well to FESS, and to the awesome people I've met on this board, I hope I get to meet you again, be it in SF or elsewhere. As it has said in the title topic for Bus, I also had the ride of my life.

*Mounts wyvern and takes off, sending a show of magic fireworks in the air*

[Eltoshen]

The first Fire Emblem site I ever joined being closed down is quite saddening.  Ah, well.  It's about time I hung up on Fire Emblem as well.  I didn't even bother to finish Shadow Dragon because it got really boring.  >_>

[Lord Glenn]

Just to get it out of the way, I would like to say that I'm sorry that I was part of the reason that this outcome has come around. From my perspective, though, even if I had taken on the mantle of being the Root Administrator of FESS, a small change like that would not have reversed the ever increasing downward trend in posting and member registration. Sure, Bus could have supported the community for a little while, and I could have attempted to implement a few things to spark activity, but it would have only been prolonging the already inevitable, if you can forgive my pessimism on the situation. The quick return to pre-Moment of Clarity posting levels did not help that pessimism, either.

As for the funding aspect, Chris, I think the main reason for the issue is that the core memberbase of FESS are people that are mainly in middle school, high school, or college. As such, not many of us have the requisite funds to support a site like FESS. Furthermore, while I think that it would show devotion to the site, I could not, in the power of my heart, accept donations from the members. I would feel too guilty, especially with an uncertain future of the site in question.

----------------

(I'll save personal dedications and such for a post tomorrow afternoon, since I have class in 8 hours, so I'd like to get some sleep. )

Having joined close to halfway through FESS2's lifespan, I haven't been around as long as some members that are still here, but, in total, it's been about 3 and a half years since I first joined. But, I can say that it's certainly been an interesting ride, from first joining FESSChat after Yuri suggested it to me, to joining Vincent's Miracle of the Sky Dagger and, subsequently, MageKnight404's Worlds Collide RPs, to reaching Veteran on FESS4 with a group of the people that I had become "close" to, and finally to eventually becoming a staff member and working alongside members that I had looked up to since I first joined FESS. I can earnestly say that it has been a true honor to be a part of this community for so long. Even though this is the internet we're talking about, FESS felt almost like a second or third home to me, seeing as I was around a large bastion of people who had a general interest in some of the same things that I did. And, it is even more of an honor to have served the site and worked to improve it for just over two years.

Having been through both grand times and poor times, I doubt I'd have as many of the traits that I do now had I not joined FESS when I did back in May of 2005. Things have changed alot since I first joined, and, while it is sad that this has to happen, it was only a matter of time. As someone had already said, things don't last forever, and the same can only be said of FESS. It's frankly amazing that we, as a community, could have gone through 5 different incarnations of message board software systems and lasted as long as we have. It's an attribution to the devotion of all of our members for making this place what it has been since its inception, even members that are no longer looked upon in a positive manner or light in recent times, and for that, I think we should all (figuratively) raise a glass and give a grand toast to FESS's farewell.

That being said, for those that intend to branch out and find a new home within the community, I'll be joining Vincent and Jyosua over at SF as an Administrator to hopefully keep things going smoothly over there. And, with that, maybe a little piece of FESS will stay alive too, if our community keeps this place in their memories. I'll also stick around Serenia's FESSChat until Sword Saint decides to give it the axe, if that ever happens. I'll possibly be joining up at The Ashtray, once I see more about it.

I'll close for now, though, as I said before, I'll be posting my personal dedications and the like later in the week. (It may be long enough that I'll have to type it up seperately first. )

[CrazyDitto]

Considering that this is perhaps one of the only forums where I actually feel at home, hearing this is a really hard blow for me. Well, the people make the forum, not the other way around (I hope), but it's still sad.

Well, I suppose the natural thing to do would be to migrate to the Ashtray (or SF/FEP/whatever). Now, I just need to stop smelling cigarette smoke whenever I hear that word.

[Sara Jaye]

I came and went so much you might as well have had a revolving door with my name on it. *shot*

But seriously, folks. FESS was great and I'm glad I was a part of things, even if only a small part. Bus, you did a good job holding things up as long as you did, and I'm glad you (and others) talked me into joining. gtf23, Vincent...others I'm drawing a blank on at the moment, thanks for all the awesome discussions here...and hopefully we'll get to have more on SF, cause I do plan on joining at some point.

...yeah. Not much else I can say other than I'll miss ya, FESS. It's been fun. *salute*

[DTN]

sup

I admit I became a lurker again after the move because at the time my interest in Fire Emblem was at the sidelines for a while. However I still popped on FESS. As to why I stopped posting, I don't know. Perhaps with all the interest skipping I go through I didn't talk much about Fire Emblem. Or being lazy (oh yeah it's the lazy isn't it).

FESS was a big part of my internet life, much more lively and exciting than my days in other forum like places (or whatever ffnet and dA are considered nowadays) so of course it'll be hard to see it go. I have a lot of good memories from the times here, met so many people, and one of the forums I actually managed to join. Or join and lurk.

I'm quite terrible at these kinds of things so it's 1 AM here and I'm playing a game and doing an assignment AND need to rush before the net is cut what now D: but really. Really, it's been fun guys, all these years. ♥ I'm really glad to have joined FESS and the friends I met here

The old manga-ka of FESS finds it difficult to draw LINEART in GIMP now. See how much she has de-evolved X'D

[Sardine]

Well, before the heavy hitters give their five page funeral speech, I guess i'll say a few notes.

I owe quite a bit to this community. Through here I've met one of my most endearing friend, (she can make mention on her own farewell post if she wants) and i'm really grateful to have met her. Thanks to this place, I have gone through some interesting life experiences, and met some interesting members.

To the people in the art board: I know i come across as an self-righteous asshole, and I regret that I will not be seeing some of you grow as artists, as many of you have a lot of potential, but my intent is to help you get through those awkward adolescent stage of drawing. I remember when i sucked, it wasn't too long ago. I know what it's like to look at your own piece and agonize over how off it is. I still do from time to time. Just keep practicing and learning.

With that, I'll probably be one of the smoldering ashes in the tray. My interest in FE died at the 9th iteration of the game. So Adieu FESS.

[dilbertschalter]

This makes me sad, not much else to say about it.