So long

Hey y’all, sorry to make a thing of this but this post is as much to keep me honest as it is to let community members know: I need to take my leave from this community and I won’t be posting in discussions on this board any more.

I am not giving up games, nor even IF; you’ll see more parser and hypertext out of me soon if you care. I’ll be back for stuff like IFComp and smaller comps/jams, but will stick to those threads exclusively. Maybe I’ll make an announcement on the board if one is warranted, idk.

But I don’t feel ok here and I don’t think policies are gonna fix that, so I’m making a promise to myself to no longer post to discussion threads, and here’s evidence of that. Those of you who want to stay in touch know where to find me.

See you round.

Sorry, inurashii. Hope we can find a safer place to talk sometime.

I hope that one day things will be such that you feel safe here.

I keep thinking about this post. I didn’t write anything then because I didn’t know what to say. Here are some important things I wish I’d said earlier: I’m so sorry you don’t feel able to post here. I’ve not been active here again until recently, but I’ve lurked and dipped in and out, and I appreciate the things you’ve said. I especially appreciated your openness and honesty and strength in the last weekend. Thank you. I’m sorry you don’t feel safe here.

Recently – more, actually, to do with outside attention than people here – I’ve found myself feeling completely unable to deal with reading or posting in many of the threads. I just reread everything that was written over the last weekend, and found myself (to my surprise) a little heartened, because amongst a lot of stuff that made me feel scared and silenced, there seemed to be a decent amount of stuff with people talking intelligently about oppression, standing up for folk calling out oppression, and working towards a more welcoming community.

Currently I feel like there’s an uneasy lull in conversation. I feel like some things have been worked out and some things are still simmering, and outside attention is making it very difficult to speak. And maybe people need a break. But there will be more conversations to have. I hope, very strongly, to feel able to stay here myself, and I really hope this will become a place you feel like you can be again. I’d like to be part of that.

Are the rape apologists on here then?

Silver, your post appears to be deliberately inflammatory, and it does not appear to be connected to the main conversation. Please refrain from this kind of post in the future.

It looks as if the main conversation here has closed, so I’ve locked this thread.