Hey everyone. So, basically, this is my resignation. Here I (rather long-windedly) explain why I'm going to be resigning from all my Wook positions (with the exception of Rollback) effective immediately.
I've given this serious thought over the past several weeks, and have been entertaining the idea pretty much all summer. There are several reasons for this decision. First off, uni work is getting quite heavy and I'm getting exhausted just from trying to juggle academic and social stuff, let alone just personal relaxing time or other hobbies, leaving me really no room to be anywhere near as active on here as I should be. And this is just term one of my second year, so if I don't have time now then I definitely won't in third or fourth year, when I'm revising for exams, and as shown by this summer just gone, I also struggle trying to edit alongside a near-full-time job.
Second, I've really lost my passion for both the site and Star Wars in general. It's nothing specific, it's just I don't get excited to edit on here anymore. The edits I have recently been making tend to either be out of habit or worse, obligation. I feel no sense of pride or accomplishment when editing, and to be honest it's gotten quite mundane. I used to use Wookieepedia to distract myself from both real life and schoolwork, but now the sad truth is I find it far easier and engaging to work on a uni essay than write or review on here. I have a lot of Star Wars novels and games I've bought over the past year that I've not actually delved into, and I find myself generally disinterested in the universe with the exception of a couple of very niche topics. And that's an incredible shame, considering how much my life revolved around Star Wars a couple of years ago, and how excited I always was to log onto IRC after school and jump into editing. But I just don't have that passion anymore. I hope one day I can get back into it, but at the moment I feel I'm forcing myself to be interested in these things for the sake of the site, which really isn't authentic.
I'd just like to drop a couple of quotes from my RFB here because I think they're relevant:
While I don't think my current situation is life-changing, I still think my words then are fitting for my decision now. I don't feel comfortable remaining as a bureaucrat with my current activity levels, knowing they won't really improve. This site is constantly changing and evolving, and top positions like bureaucrats need to be maintained by people with high involvement in the site. I promised that I would step down if I couldn't properly fulfil my duties as a bureaucrat, and so I have a duty to stick to my word. As predicted, it's with an incredibly heavy heart that I do this, as this site has helped me through some hard times and up to this point has always been my pride and joy. I've become friends with so many of you wonderful people and it's been an absolute pleasure to improve this site alongside all of you. I've changed massively as a person from the shy fourteen-year-old I was when I joined to the outgoing adult I've become, and I have no doubt that my time on here with you all has had a heavy hand in who I am now. Though, ironically, I do also think me becoming more outgoing also plays a part in my waning interest in this site.
However, I'll always be grateful to everyone who's helped me and worked alongside me over the past five years. I would not be who I am today without this site and community, from knowledge in writing and reviewing, to coding, to just interacting with and leading other people, so thank you all for that. I'll always have incredibly fond memories of this site, from first joining, to my first official position in the EC, enduring 3AM Mofferences, right up to becoming a bureaucrat just in time for one of the biggest shakeups in the site's history, and the explosion of returning editors and wonderful new direction the site is going in over the past half-year. I like to think I've made a significant impact on Wookieepedia, even if my tenure as bureaucrat was rather short in comparison to others (though, in all honestly, I think we put too much of an emphasis on the longevity of those in this position, and it wouldn't be a bad idea for us to shuffle the bureaucratic structure on a semi-regular basis, taking into account how active and driven admins are at a certain time and basing the hierarchy off that, but I digress).
Nonetheless, I'm incredibly proud to have held that position, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to lead the site in such a way. A part of me wants to stay on, as I still love this site, but I know my interest will just lessen and lessen. Leaving now, as difficult as it is, just feels like the right choice. To quote the greatest TV show ever, "Everything's got to end sometime. Otherwise nothing would ever get started."
While I am resigning I plan on remaining in the Discord server and may check in on conversations from now or then to make sure the site's doing well and to chat about any new Star Wars stuff that may be out. I sincerely hope that one day I'll be able to come back properly, with my passion for the site and the universe reinvigorated, perhaps when I'm out of uni and in a stable job. But that's years away so I won't make any promises. I'm also keeping Rollback for now since it won't hurt to retain that in case I see any vandalism while randomly browsing, though it may be the case that I fall behind on the productivity requirements, low as they are, but we'll see.
As for my duties, I feel the review boards are in the best place they've been for a while, and I'm sure they'll flourish even more in the future. Obviously, a new bureaucrat will need to be appointed, but I have no doubt the administration will find a great candidate to carry this site forward. Similarly, we have a plethora of bot operators so I don't think me leaving will damage that area of the site too much either. I'd just say that my main jobs in recent months were closing TCs and CTs and managing bot requests, so other people will need to take over those duties. Speaking of bots, I'll leave the entirety of my user-fixes.py file here (along with any other things that may be of use to me in the future or any other editors). That contains the entirety of my general formatting fixes script which I periodically ran on the main namespace, and I encourage someone to run that regularly as it contains some useful and common fixes. Oh, and this may be a little cheeky, but if any of my FAs or GAs are probed or need updating, could someone ping me on Discord please. I'd like to keep those in a good state if possible, at least.
I can't really think of anything else to say. I've probably said too much already, but I wanted to be honest in explaining why I'm leaving and to properly express my feelings towards the site and community that mean so much to me. But yeah, that's that I guess. Once this has been posted I'll begin removing my positions over the course of today. If any of you want to reach out to me in the future, to talk about the site or anything else, please don't hesitate to DM me on Discord, I'd be happy to chat!
So, thank you again to every editor I've worked alongside, it's been an honour and I will never forget the fantastic times I've had on this site. May the Force be with you all. Tommy-Macaroni 11:25, 9 October 2021 (UTC)