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+--- Thread: Important: Reflections on One Year (/showthread.php?tid=49109)
Reflections on One Year - Thaddeus Duke - 08-01-2025
I have an announcement to make but before I get to that, I wanted to take a little time to reflect on this past year. Relentless weekend last year the big chair was abruptly thrust beneath me upon Theo's surprise departure. Not only did we have no fedhead, but Gravy was leaving that weekend too. Both situations I was not aware of until Relentless weekend.
With Relentless rolling around again, I wanted to kind of go over some of the goals I made when I sat in the big chair.
- One of the biggest priorities when I took over was to enlarge the staff. When the others took their leave, it left me and Flynn on staff. That's it. Since then, we have either added or reactivated past staff members in order to help out in different areas. Some primarily stick to judging, some primarily write some matches. All of them, I deem important. All of them contribute to the overall creative direction we take the fed.
- A big topic of conversation when I was a GM was the use of AI. It was hotly debated for several days but it never really made it out of committee, so to speak. Through many many hours over the course of a few days of experimentation, debate and conversation, we created, installed and enforce an AI policy that thankfully very rarely comes up.
- I wanted to change the way we were perceived among the efed community at large. It matters to me how 'outsiders' perceive us. For a long time we were viewed as a toxic environment and over the last several years I thought that was an unfair assessment of our corner of the community. I don't know how we're viewed nowadays but we've added a lot of great writers to this fed which leads me to the next thing on the list.
- No fed is sustainable without fresh faces. Last years WarGames I believe was instrumental in earning a lot of outside eyes on our community. Since then, we've added dozens of new faces that can stand toe to toe with our established veterans. Growing our roster with real, true talent (and not simply for the sake of having a large roster) was a big priority and we've done that.
- I also wanted to continue on with the erasure of the previous owner. Shove It? Gone. The ridiculous humiliation kinks throughout the FAQ's? Gone. That's not who we are as a community. It's not who we are as a fed.
- We needed some stability, for sure. Adding to the roster was part of that. Adding to the staff was part of that. Adding to the match writing roster was and always is a part of that. (we always need match writers, try it out) Despite the exit of some talented people, we've had a period of, in my opinion, incredible growth, an engaged roster, and a dedicated staff.
- We had to fix Warfare. It ran for a LONG time without a dedicated GM and its really showed in the middle of last year. For the flagship show to not have a dedicated GM was never gonna help the fed long term. Now, I believe, we have two great shows that anyone would be proud to be a part of.
- I wanted to try new things as a fed. I wanted to steer away from the cheap unoriginal ppv names like March Madness (may it rest in peace.) Some of the new things we tried never actually ended up seeing the light of day like the original not-known-to-yall idea behind REBELLION. (Win some, lose some lol)
It hasn't been perfect by any stretch of the imagination and this is not a give me praise sort of post. This is mainly just me reflecting a little in order to say 1) that I'm proud of the year this fed has had. And 2) I did what I set out to do and this fed is undeniably in a better place today than it was the day I took over.
Announcement 1: Another goal I had was to revamp the judging rubric. It is a good rubric but not perfect and still carried some of the language from before the RP rules changed. Before y'all oldheads get butthurt about a rubric change, keep reading. The new rubric, if it passes, is largely unchanged. There are some language tweaks to better reflect the current XWF rp rules. It isn't a complete overhaul but as a staff we took a lot of time to break down every category and debate what was and wasn't really that important. The biggest potential change is how we look at story. As it is currently, it really doesn't take into account the content of a story but rather focuses primarily on the technical ability aspect of it and we felt that that needed to change some.
I learned my lesson from tryna mess with the Xtreme title rules. If this new and improved rubric does get Vinnie's stamp of approval, we will pass it on to the community before we install it as a permanent change.
Announcement 2: As a staff we have either accomplished the goals I wanted when I took over, or they're on their way (minus tweaking the X title rules you bitchy fucks). My free time is not what it used to be. I'm forever having to bail on helping with shows or matches and sometimes even judging and that bothers me to no end. I love this fed with my entire heart and being a major part of its current success fills me with a ton of pride.
When Relentless wraps next month, so does my time as your fedhead. I cannot, in good conscience, continue to occupy the big chair when I barely have the time or the post-work brain power to truly be an effective head. Being the head of this fed, with this roster, while it was certainly a surprise and extremely sudden, it was also an honor.
From the staff, to the roster, thank you all for giving so much of yourselves to our little corner of the interwebs.