On March 4th, 2023, I created this forums account. Since then, it’s been a whole year and I would like to reflect on my journey since then, from the begging.
I don't know why it never occurred to me that I should actually go to the website on the right side of my screen until then. As silly as it sounds, I was curious if there were any job opportunities I could qualify for (I was way in over my head) For some reason I thought moderators actually got payed, lol, I feel so silly looking back. I created two bug reports over the next 4 days which were both not reproducible, and then it seems I didn't return for a couple of weeks. After the 24th, I created two more reports that actually got accepted and made my first community interaction at the time. I was starting to get back into lucky islands after I had finally made it on the leaderboards around late December. At the time I was discovering many glitches left and right, which was leading me to report them all, and it would also be the topic of my first post.
Over the next few days, I interacted with several different lucky islands threads, got many more bugs reported, and even created my first thread. Looking back, I was putting a lot less effort into the threads I make compared to what I do now, I had some pretty bad opinions and made threads about less important topics. My replies to other threads were also short, and unnecessary in my opinion. Another thing I realize now is that I didn't feel as welcomed on the forums as I did now, and felt pressured to make myself established. I probably should have worded some things differently, or stayed quiet all together. At the time, nobody on the forums was familiar and I was learning how to fit in, but I was definitely less mature back then.
A lot was going on in my life outside of these forums. This was the point where I started to realize that lucky islands was an incredibly fun game that I cared a lot about. I became part of a circle of friends I met with during a few matches, and would end up playing on a realm with them over the summer, which was a ton of fun. I also started keeping track of the lucky islands leaderboard. Around this time, I also discovered fluffyroses's guide for lucky islands. It was outdated sure, but undeniably ahead of its time and incredibly detailed, it inspired me to start working on my own.
The 1.19 update would really shake things up for me. I'm mad that I gave my opinion so early, because it quickly went from positive to negative. Seeing such as well crafted game get such radical changes was what really made me realize how much I cared about lucky islands and wanted it to live on. I would make my first long post, and work a lot harder on my guide than I had initially planned. At this point, I had come to know many other community members and stopped caring about trying to be a helper, as I realized the position wouldn't be for me at all. I started working on some of my own feedback as well as replying to other lucky islands feedback, but it seems many more players cared about the 1.19 update for eggwars more.
By mid August, my guide was developed enough I decided to release it, and continue editing it afterwards. I was very happy with the positive feedback I had received. This was when I would really start to work on regularly posting feedback and facilitating community discussions. By this point, my comments were more meaningful and detailed, and I would care a lot more about how I respond to other messages. (Side note, apparently 1 game was supposed to receive "ambitious changes" after 1.19, but I still have no clue what game this is referring to) I would work on weekly discussion threads and feedback threads until mid October, when I decided to make my own introduction to help new and existing members get to know me better, and for me to make a portfolio of all of my important threads. I would also start working on my lucky islands quiz by this time, which I released during mid November, although I came to the point where I stopped making my feedback and discussion posts, simply due to running out of material and wanting to make better feedback during a time where it would be more likely to get looked at. However, I think my quiz ended up being a ton of fun, although I may have made a few slip ups.
I would take a step back from making new content and start focusing on research. I got a lot done around December despite a fever causing many of my plans to fail. I managed to get Laura's attention, which played a huge help in allowing me to figure out how certain mechanics in lucky islands work. I also got invited to the feedback team, which I was delightfully surprised to learn as I hadn't been a part of the community for that long, nor did I consider myself to be at a mature age.
January and February were my 2 worst months. I found the drama that happened to be very heartbreaking and angering to me (I don't want to publicly discuss my opinions here, but I was deeply upset by it) I was also starting to get really burnt out from playing lucky islands. Februaries for some reason are always the worst on my mental health, and most of it honestly had nothing to do with lucky islands. For now, I think it’s best that I avoid talking about what happened here as it might not be entirely appropriate. I think I'm doing a lot better now. However, these two months would be the quietest for me on the forums, and I got less done than I wanted to. On a more positive note, I think I have accomplished a lot on these forums in the past year. I've certainly learned a lot of valuable lessons in that time and am working towards many of my goals. I'm very proud about how my guide has turned out, and honestly had so much fun with the lucky islands quiz. I can confidently say I'm not going anywhere anytime soon and my work here is far from finished.
I already have quite a few plans for the future. I have a lot of ideas for future research projects with lucky islands, I want to keep improving my guide, and also want to dedicate time to a glitch compilation, as my list of reports has grown quite long by now. While it might be a while before I post it, I want to keep working on feedback. Finally, there is a secret project of my own I would like to work on, and perhaps a silly second one if I get to 1000 positive reactions, no promises though. I must warn, there is a chance I might be interning this summer which would be a huge deal and take away a lot of time, I'm supposed to find out this month if I got accepted.
I would like to end this by thanking all of you for interacting with me and my content and giving me support. So many of you have been so encouraging for me to keep going on and have helped me through my hard times. A few of you have shown me some awesome opportunities or inspired me through your own accomplishments. I can't wait to see what this coming year brings.
I don't know why it never occurred to me that I should actually go to the website on the right side of my screen until then. As silly as it sounds, I was curious if there were any job opportunities I could qualify for (I was way in over my head) For some reason I thought moderators actually got payed, lol, I feel so silly looking back. I created two bug reports over the next 4 days which were both not reproducible, and then it seems I didn't return for a couple of weeks. After the 24th, I created two more reports that actually got accepted and made my first community interaction at the time. I was starting to get back into lucky islands after I had finally made it on the leaderboards around late December. At the time I was discovering many glitches left and right, which was leading me to report them all, and it would also be the topic of my first post.
Over the next few days, I interacted with several different lucky islands threads, got many more bugs reported, and even created my first thread. Looking back, I was putting a lot less effort into the threads I make compared to what I do now, I had some pretty bad opinions and made threads about less important topics. My replies to other threads were also short, and unnecessary in my opinion. Another thing I realize now is that I didn't feel as welcomed on the forums as I did now, and felt pressured to make myself established. I probably should have worded some things differently, or stayed quiet all together. At the time, nobody on the forums was familiar and I was learning how to fit in, but I was definitely less mature back then.
A lot was going on in my life outside of these forums. This was the point where I started to realize that lucky islands was an incredibly fun game that I cared a lot about. I became part of a circle of friends I met with during a few matches, and would end up playing on a realm with them over the summer, which was a ton of fun. I also started keeping track of the lucky islands leaderboard. Around this time, I also discovered fluffyroses's guide for lucky islands. It was outdated sure, but undeniably ahead of its time and incredibly detailed, it inspired me to start working on my own.
The 1.19 update would really shake things up for me. I'm mad that I gave my opinion so early, because it quickly went from positive to negative. Seeing such as well crafted game get such radical changes was what really made me realize how much I cared about lucky islands and wanted it to live on. I would make my first long post, and work a lot harder on my guide than I had initially planned. At this point, I had come to know many other community members and stopped caring about trying to be a helper, as I realized the position wouldn't be for me at all. I started working on some of my own feedback as well as replying to other lucky islands feedback, but it seems many more players cared about the 1.19 update for eggwars more.
By mid August, my guide was developed enough I decided to release it, and continue editing it afterwards. I was very happy with the positive feedback I had received. This was when I would really start to work on regularly posting feedback and facilitating community discussions. By this point, my comments were more meaningful and detailed, and I would care a lot more about how I respond to other messages. (Side note, apparently 1 game was supposed to receive "ambitious changes" after 1.19, but I still have no clue what game this is referring to) I would work on weekly discussion threads and feedback threads until mid October, when I decided to make my own introduction to help new and existing members get to know me better, and for me to make a portfolio of all of my important threads. I would also start working on my lucky islands quiz by this time, which I released during mid November, although I came to the point where I stopped making my feedback and discussion posts, simply due to running out of material and wanting to make better feedback during a time where it would be more likely to get looked at. However, I think my quiz ended up being a ton of fun, although I may have made a few slip ups.
I would take a step back from making new content and start focusing on research. I got a lot done around December despite a fever causing many of my plans to fail. I managed to get Laura's attention, which played a huge help in allowing me to figure out how certain mechanics in lucky islands work. I also got invited to the feedback team, which I was delightfully surprised to learn as I hadn't been a part of the community for that long, nor did I consider myself to be at a mature age.
January and February were my 2 worst months. I found the drama that happened to be very heartbreaking and angering to me (I don't want to publicly discuss my opinions here, but I was deeply upset by it) I was also starting to get really burnt out from playing lucky islands. Februaries for some reason are always the worst on my mental health, and most of it honestly had nothing to do with lucky islands. For now, I think it’s best that I avoid talking about what happened here as it might not be entirely appropriate. I think I'm doing a lot better now. However, these two months would be the quietest for me on the forums, and I got less done than I wanted to. On a more positive note, I think I have accomplished a lot on these forums in the past year. I've certainly learned a lot of valuable lessons in that time and am working towards many of my goals. I'm very proud about how my guide has turned out, and honestly had so much fun with the lucky islands quiz. I can confidently say I'm not going anywhere anytime soon and my work here is far from finished.
I already have quite a few plans for the future. I have a lot of ideas for future research projects with lucky islands, I want to keep improving my guide, and also want to dedicate time to a glitch compilation, as my list of reports has grown quite long by now. While it might be a while before I post it, I want to keep working on feedback. Finally, there is a secret project of my own I would like to work on, and perhaps a silly second one if I get to 1000 positive reactions, no promises though. I must warn, there is a chance I might be interning this summer which would be a huge deal and take away a lot of time, I'm supposed to find out this month if I got accepted.
I would like to end this by thanking all of you for interacting with me and my content and giving me support. So many of you have been so encouraging for me to keep going on and have helped me through my hard times. A few of you have shown me some awesome opportunities or inspired me through your own accomplishments. I can't wait to see what this coming year brings.
