The BaseTown Aftermath

So, the BaseTown thing happened and frankly, I’m somewhat still surprised.

This site started 6 months ago (5 months publicly), and since then, it has only grown stronger. It has been growing startlingly well since then, to the point that what happened just a few days ago caused a big shift in the subreddit staff.

I’ve been talking to Phisnom for a while, especially in a group chat I used to frequent, before I split off to form the FNaFlore Skype chat. Often times, when talking about the site, he had said I had seemed a bit egotistical, particularly regarding this site. I don’t want to be that person, and it seems most of that was based on talking about this site, it’s reach and traffic. For the most part, I try to avoid that. that’s not me.

What has happened on the site in recent days though have had me talking and thinking about it’s influence and power. This time, it’s no longer the “bragging” or “pride” I had in the site, but more of a place of some fear. I have never seen this much traffic in my life. In the past, whenever I’ve had an audience, I’ve fucked it all up.

The post, in 1 day, had 1983 hits – just under half of the hits The Dolls had. I’m not even joking, that’s the exact hit number. It then took 1 day and 3 hours (11 minutes and 48 seconds) until the situation was solved, and since then, the subreddit has gone from strength to strength, and that is amazing how quick it’s fixing things, even if some questions are still unanswered.

But I’m still thinking on the whole about this site’s role in all of this. When The Dolls blew up, I was suprised, but I accepted that my audience might have been somewhat large to have garnered Scott’s attention. I still feel down that Scott’s mind is probably coloured on FNaFLore due to that, but still, I then put into place plans for a personal blog system.

That system is in place, by the way. posting this on the subreddit will make the link turn into a simple homepage link. It simply will not link to the opinion section of this site.

So ok, take that on the chin. no more posting opinion stuff on the subreddit, and take steps to prevent it from blowing up. ticked on both accounts.

Then, the Flumpty door started to open, which caused the site to completely fail. It also spawned at least 5 pieces of fan art/creative works. That took me aback, but ok, probably just means that I shouldn’t set timers, or work on sorting things out so I just have to click one button. There was a fair few larger assets. sounds and images etc, fair’s fair.

Then, the BaseTown thing happened, and now I’m very, very aware of the issue of this site. I say without ego, this site is getting so big. Unless I get systems in place, I cannot put together editorials without it being scrutinised and shared en-mass. It’s taken as an extreme, rather than my thoughts and feelings on some issues, which are often more centre than left or right.

But it’s happened 3 times now, and in the wake of the BaseTown editorial, Rather than be happy for the community getting what they’ve wanted, my mind’s been focused on the statistics and change this site has caused, and it’s terrifying. I expected it to take maybe a week. Perhaps a month. Perhaps so long I had to modify the countdown to count months as well. Yet it was just over a day, and it worked. The community unified, and made themselves known through specific channels, putting on pressure to sort this out.

I don’t know where I’m going with this. I don’t know what’s my goal in writing this. I just…I feel afraid I’ll fuck all of this up, and I won’t have even known I did so until it is too late. I was working on an article outlining who Freddy_Fnaf is, and why he’s seen as a meme. If I did that now, just how much hate would he get? What pressure would it put on him?

That’s but one example, with this situation exposing much more damaging information. It’s scary to think about. Once again, this isn’t me stroking my own ego. I’ve legitimately pondered over this the last week or two.

But those are just my thoughts on all of this. I don’t know where this site is going to go, I can only hope I don’t screw it all up. If I’m lucky, I won’t mess up badly.

Still, this whole situation has been chaotic, and though it’s finally over, there’s certainly a lot more unease on my part. I’m getting just a bit more antsy about each post and page I make. I only hope these new measures will help lessen the blow my personal thoughts on drama will have on the community. These posts should be treated as one user’s opinion. Nothing more. Though the last post was meant to be a voice for the community, it shows just how much damage an opinion piece of my own could do, without the proper disclaimers and drama easing measures.

Kizzycocoa – Owner and designer of FNaFLore.com