Forum Closure

[RapeU]

This is something I didn't want to ever have to do, but the time has come to admit my limitations and my mistakes. The forum is going to close in November. Here's the main reasons why:

1) While writing is a tool I use to help with my mental health, it is not the only tool I use. At this point keeping the forum alive for the sake of my mental health will end up causing more problems than relieving them. I'm also going to teach at a much larger school than last year, and I need to spend more of my time focusing on my students. I also need to spend more of my time focusing on my family.

2) @Claire has expressed her desire to leave the forum on multiple occasions. Each time I convinced her to stay. Last time she agreed if she could be a regular member, but she still ended up doing A LOT of stuff behind the scenes. When she expressed her desire to leave again, I decided it wasn't worth the effort to try and keep things going at the cost of both of our mental well being. I relied too heavily on @Claire's behind the scenes work, and that was a mistake. It shouldn't be just a small number of people doing that kind of work. The whole team needs to be involved, and I'm not someone who can see what needs to be done. I work better when I'm more of a second in command type person.

So, we're back to where things were roughly one year ago. The forum is going to shut down unless someone who actively wants to work on the vision of the board @Claire and I share step up. It has to be someone that wants the positive feedback culture, otherwise @Claire will remove all her contributions, not just her stories, and the forum won't be the same. I'd rather have the site close with dignity than to be kept alive on life support in a worse state than it was a year ago.

Now, if someone does take over that shares the vision of feedback culture, @Claire will probably still leave. @Vela Nanashi will likely leave as well due to significant medical issues. Whoever takes over would essentially need to assemble their own team from the ground up. Otherwise, in early November, it will be the Academy's final days. The exact date will be announced once I make the next payment in August.

[aprilt909]

:(:(

[Blue]

Too bad. But I understand the reasons.

[Claire]

@RapeU I know how thankless the job is you have been doing. So let me say thank you for everything you've done! It was a valiant effort. But no single person can compensate for the lack of engagement of an entire community. So be proud of what you did!

I hope you don't stop writing and use other platforms to keep posting your stories. As I said before: You don't need this place to keep writing. There are other places where you will at least get more views and likes.

I know how hard it is to let go when you are the person in charge. You keep thinking that maybe things will get better with the next 100 users or after the next contest or whatever. But you did the right thing. You made the right choice.

[Labaal]

This is so sad...
I just want to take a moment to thank @Claire @Vela Nanashi @RapeU @AdmiralPiet @sinfulwords @Shocker ck and everyone else who interacted with me or was active in the forum

I hope the works on this forum won't simply be destroyed if a compromise is not found by November and that all the stories including all the chapters are uploaded on ao3

I don't want the record chaser universe or any other work by any other writer to become an incomplete piece of lost media

[Shocker]

Well, that’s not what anybody wanted to hear, but thanks for being upfront about it. Also thank you for all the tine and effort you have been putting into this @Claire , @RapeU and @Vela Nanashi. As well as the rest of the support and admin staff.

If anybody wants to copy my stories, they better do it now, as it’s unlikely that I will follow the exodus to AO3, I hardly ever can find anything I want to read there.

[Claire]

@Labaal So, my stories already are on AO3. Beyond that, we created a collection on AO3 for RA stories that we used to draw new users here:

https://archiveofourown.org/collections ... ries/works

These advertisement efforts have become the most important source of external traffic for the forum since the beginning of the year.

So far, the collection has a total of 50 stories in it. Maybe some more will be added to it, but some stories by authors who haven't been here in months will most definitely disappear when the forum goes offline. That is sadly inevitable. :/

[Naor2a]

[Grimnir]

This is not welcome news but time - and lack of time will be the mistress/master of us all. Hopefully a solution will appear. Whatever happens the administrative team deserves credit for their work and efforts. Thank you all.

[Labaal]

@Claire I know rc is on there but will the full version be posted rn it's only posted till chapter 6 recharging also
Bit of a stupid question but will you continue writing on AO3 if there's no feasible solution by November