by DanceJonDance Sat Jan 29, 2011 8:49 am
Hello fellow TDA members,It's me! How've you guys been? I hope you've been well. I see a lot of new faces, and I think most of you guys are probably unfamiliar with me and my work. Well for those of you that don't know me I am the original creator of this forum, and it its prime we were ranked number 1 by forumotion.com when it came to all Yu-Gi-Oh forums--yeah we were pretty big. However, it seems that was a decade ago and unfortunately the activity in the forum has vanished and is not a quarter of what it was some months ago.
This issue, among others, are the reason for why I will be making a brief return. If you're wondering why I left to begin with well I guess it's fair to give an explanation.
I am a twenty year old student in the University of San Francisco in Califonia majoring in English. I've reached the point in my studies where I have to read entire books in a two-three day period in order to write a ten page essay in two days. In other words I am busy, and I use all my free time to have fun whether it be doing stuff with friends, family, girlfriend, or online. Notice how I used the word fun, and this very word is a major factor when it comes to my departure from TDA. You see, in its prime this forum was very hard to keep organized. It required me and other admins to clean up after members, and organize things for hours--I mean this literally. There were days when The Detonator and I would spend over five hours fixing up TDA. Whether it was updating non-dueling events, creating new tournaments, making new GFX, testing new members, answering questions, etc. In other words, logging into TDA became like a chore more than a hobby. As my studies became more strenuous and I had less "me time" it became increasingly annoying to come on TDA. Instead of going online to have fun, and duel I felt that I had to come online and clean up after everyone, and I just simply didn't have the luxury to do so. It was either the TDA chore or have fun, and well TDA wasn't creating any sort of revenue or anything so I obviously chose fun as selfish as it sounds.
When I left I left BERKAY in charge of everything, and well several things have happened that have made activity go down. I won't go into detail, but the main concern that has been popping up are complaints of BERKAY. I have come on several occasions to defend BERKAY and his decisions, but unfortunately it seems that it's just not gonna cut it anymore.
As of late BERKAY has been making some questionable decisions regarding the forum such as deleting important topics, etc. The heart and soul of a forum are their countless topics that members can go back to look on, and further elaborate on the topic at hand. This is also a way for members to earn respect, each reply ears members a post and people's post count is a measurement of activity in a forum. However, if topics are being deleted, post counts are going down, then we definitely have a problem.
BERKAY has been a very loyal replacement, but it seems that people think there's just nobody that can fill me or Deto's shoes. However, I think this is wrong. For the next few days I will be observing the forum and I will be looking out for members to add to a brand new staff. Once added, I will personally teach these members to perform the tasks that were once performed by our original staff that included members such as Nhant, xcross21, Janembo, GothicMess, OptimusYale, etc. Hopefully with this we can create some activity in TDA and make room for some growth and hopefully restore the forum to its former glory if not make it reach new heights.
As of this moment though BERKAY is no longer the head administrator of the forum. He will be deranked to a moderator position due to the complaints made against him. However, I must thank BERKAY for putting forth the effort he did. He tried really hard, but the shoes he had to fill were just too big, and some of the power he had may have been too much to handle which lead him to make questionable decisions. I strongly stand by all the decisions made by BERKAY until this point, including the post deletions, however, if anyone is familiar with how I did things then you will know that I'm the type of administrator that gives the forum as a whole what they want rather than make decisions for them. The forum was just simply not pleased with BERKAY, and it means that it's just time for BERKAY and the head administrator position to part ways. BERKAY is still a valuable asset to this community which is why he will remain a part of the staff, however, if he chooses to not take on the job I will understand.
As of right now there are no staff members other than myself and CatGirl. I have been gone for way too long to make a decision on who staff should be. However, CatGirl will be adding members to staff soon as she is now the new Head Administrator of the forum. I will help her find a new staff, and review her choices. I know CatGirl has earned the respect of many members in TDA and I am proud to say that she is the first female member to be the owner of a Yugioh Academy Forum, and I know she will do a good job. I will be mentoring CatGirl in every way possible as I did with BERKAY in an attempt to bring TDA back and if all goes well CatGirl should lead TDA into a new era where I am no longer needed and I can be a happy lurker.
Expect to see more of me in the following days, just not too much. I'd also like to ask the few active members that read this to let me know more problems that are going on in TDA so that I may have a better understanding on the situation so that I can find a solution.
