"The End"

Hi again.

Community

What a fascinating social study Giant Bomb would make. Though some of us would rather believe that we are all disconnected from each other (and at times I can certainly see why), the truth is that we are more than anonymous users typing anonymous things into anonymous little boxes (unless we’ve actually become 4chan. Then god help us all). The truth is we are a community in every sense of the word; we bicker, fight, joke and laugh about things that are important to us both individually and collectively. We make friends and enemies, and the lines between both seem to blur the more we get to know one another. In fact, we’re so much a community I can already almost feel those cynical, world-weary fingertips trudging across your keyboard, primed and ready to tell me how wrong I am.
 
Now most often on Giant Bomb, when community is brought up, it’s in a negative light (or at least a would-be constructive one). Usually it gets brought up because we’re all being a bunch of jack-offs and someone feels the need to call us back into line. Usually those threads devolve into people slinging mud at one another, never wanting to admit they (le gasp!) might be in the wrong, so I’m not here to say or do any of those things. I think every part of Giant Bomb’s community is, for better or worse, essential to its survival. From the trolls to the old hands to the fanboys to the newbies to the bloggers to that guy who hates everything and everyone for no particular reason. Everyone has a place. I’m not here to tell you that the way you Giant Bomb is wrong, because there just ain’t no “right” way, baby.
 
However, if there was one thing I could leave you with in this section, it’s this: don’t lock the doors. In my year and change of activity on Giant Bomb I have seen a disturbing trend of clique-ism that is becoming more and more pronounced (although it wasn’t ever particularly subtle to begin with) amongst the “veteran” user base. I shan’t name any names and I hope no one takes this personally, because that’s not the point. The point is that it’s ultimately detrimental to everyone if we retreat to our ivory towers and scowl at the plebeians milling about below. Fresh blood should be welcomed, and if you honestly can find no other reason in your heart to do so, then at least take comfort in knowing that by your actions, you are promoting the continued existence of the Bomb. And if one of those newbloods ends up doing something cool, celebrate it. Let them know! It doesn’t make you less of a man/woman/forum-goer, and it will encourage the creation of worthwhile material instead of cheap gags to get a quick laugh.

Give a Little, Get a Little

This bit’s more for the moderators. First, you all do a daunting and thankless job. Without you, this forum would have collapsed under its collective weight long ago.
 
However.
 
We need to talk about this quest thing. Namely we need to talk about the blogs that are still clogging the forums. We need to talk about the fact that in spite of the continued efforts of myself and many other regulars to flag them, these threads remain open for far too long, often taking hours to sink (unlocked!) to the bottom of the forums. The most common excuse thrown around is that you’re “too busy” to respond to every thread. Aren’t you forum mods? Shouldn’t your primary concern be the forums, regardless of whatever other task you’re no doubt saddled with? Didn’t you just recruit two more mods? Essentially, the regulars are moderating the forums for you, and it’s creating friction amongst them. Why? Because it’s unclear as to what should receive a reprimand and what shouldn’t. Should you post a clearer version of the forum guidelines so that we can understand and enforce them better?
 
No.
 
Because we are not the mods. You are. So here’s the bottom line:
 
If you are a forum mod, moderate the forums. If you think you can’t find enough time to collectively respond to every spam thread, then find someone who can and give up your spot. It is not the community’s responsibility to clean up quest spam, and its sucking morale faster than a six-dollar hooker.
 
As I said before, moderating is a daunting and thankless task. Naturally, not everyone is up for this task. If you’re not then you’re not and you need to find someone who is. Whew! Now that that unfortunately nasty bit of business is out of the way, let’s move on.

You Rock. Yes You.

Specifically you. As you’re reading this, you are actively rocking. Why? Because you’re a part of this great, big, beautiful mess. Whether you’re staff, mod, blogger, troll, wiki slave, forum-goer, lurker or anything else you’d like to add to that list, you’re helping make Giant Bomb possible, and for that you have my personal thanks (for whatever its worth to ya'). In the year and change I’ve been here I’ve seen the forums grow and shrink, soar and self-destruct, praise and abhor. I’ve made both friends and enemies, and to both I am grateful for whatever wisdom they may have bestowed upon me. Now I never wanted to make this post overly sentimental or too self-indulgent, so I apologize if all of this seems rather abrupt. I won’t give much by way of explanation for what comes next, because I don’t think you guys need another one of those. The next bit, a quote from one of my favorite literary characters, sums up both how I feel and what I need to say, after which I suppose I’ll wait for the flights of coolstorybro.jpgs to sing this blog to its rest.
 
Alas, a year is far too short a time to live amongst such excellent and admirable forum-goers. I don’t know half of you as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.
 
I regret to announce that this is THE END.
 
I am going now. I bid you all a very fond farewell.
 
-End_Boss.

Hi again.

Community

What a fascinating social study Giant Bomb would make. Though some of us would rather believe that we are all disconnected from each other (and at times I can certainly see why), the truth is that we are more than anonymous users typing anonymous things into anonymous little boxes (unless we’ve actually become 4chan. Then god help us all). The truth is we are a community in every sense of the word; we bicker, fight, joke and laugh about things that are important to us both individually and collectively. We make friends and enemies, and the lines between both seem to blur the more we get to know one another. In fact, we’re so much a community I can already almost feel those cynical, world-weary fingertips trudging across your keyboard, primed and ready to tell me how wrong I am.
 
Now most often on Giant Bomb, when community is brought up, it’s in a negative light (or at least a would-be constructive one). Usually it gets brought up because we’re all being a bunch of jack-offs and someone feels the need to call us back into line. Usually those threads devolve into people slinging mud at one another, never wanting to admit they (le gasp!) might be in the wrong, so I’m not here to say or do any of those things. I think every part of Giant Bomb’s community is, for better or worse, essential to its survival. From the trolls to the old hands to the fanboys to the newbies to the bloggers to that guy who hates everything and everyone for no particular reason. Everyone has a place. I’m not here to tell you that the way you Giant Bomb is wrong, because there just ain’t no “right” way, baby.
 
However, if there was one thing I could leave you with in this section, it’s this: don’t lock the doors. In my year and change of activity on Giant Bomb I have seen a disturbing trend of clique-ism that is becoming more and more pronounced (although it wasn’t ever particularly subtle to begin with) amongst the “veteran” user base. I shan’t name any names and I hope no one takes this personally, because that’s not the point. The point is that it’s ultimately detrimental to everyone if we retreat to our ivory towers and scowl at the plebeians milling about below. Fresh blood should be welcomed, and if you honestly can find no other reason in your heart to do so, then at least take comfort in knowing that by your actions, you are promoting the continued existence of the Bomb. And if one of those newbloods ends up doing something cool, celebrate it. Let them know! It doesn’t make you less of a man/woman/forum-goer, and it will encourage the creation of worthwhile material instead of cheap gags to get a quick laugh.

Give a Little, Get a Little

This bit’s more for the moderators. First, you all do a daunting and thankless job. Without you, this forum would have collapsed under its collective weight long ago.
 
However.
 
We need to talk about this quest thing. Namely we need to talk about the blogs that are still clogging the forums. We need to talk about the fact that in spite of the continued efforts of myself and many other regulars to flag them, these threads remain open for far too long, often taking hours to sink (unlocked!) to the bottom of the forums. The most common excuse thrown around is that you’re “too busy” to respond to every thread. Aren’t you forum mods? Shouldn’t your primary concern be the forums, regardless of whatever other task you’re no doubt saddled with? Didn’t you just recruit two more mods? Essentially, the regulars are moderating the forums for you, and it’s creating friction amongst them. Why? Because it’s unclear as to what should receive a reprimand and what shouldn’t. Should you post a clearer version of the forum guidelines so that we can understand and enforce them better?
 
No.
 
Because we are not the mods. You are. So here’s the bottom line:
 
If you are a forum mod, moderate the forums. If you think you can’t find enough time to collectively respond to every spam thread, then find someone who can and give up your spot. It is not the community’s responsibility to clean up quest spam, and its sucking morale faster than a six-dollar hooker.
 
As I said before, moderating is a daunting and thankless task. Naturally, not everyone is up for this task. If you’re not then you’re not and you need to find someone who is. Whew! Now that that unfortunately nasty bit of business is out of the way, let’s move on.

You Rock. Yes You.

Specifically you. As you’re reading this, you are actively rocking. Why? Because you’re a part of this great, big, beautiful mess. Whether you’re staff, mod, blogger, troll, wiki slave, forum-goer, lurker or anything else you’d like to add to that list, you’re helping make Giant Bomb possible, and for that you have my personal thanks (for whatever its worth to ya'). In the year and change I’ve been here I’ve seen the forums grow and shrink, soar and self-destruct, praise and abhor. I’ve made both friends and enemies, and to both I am grateful for whatever wisdom they may have bestowed upon me. Now I never wanted to make this post overly sentimental or too self-indulgent, so I apologize if all of this seems rather abrupt. I won’t give much by way of explanation for what comes next, because I don’t think you guys need another one of those. The next bit, a quote from one of my favorite literary characters, sums up both how I feel and what I need to say, after which I suppose I’ll wait for the flights of coolstorybro.jpgs to sing this blog to its rest.
 
Alas, a year is far too short a time to live amongst such excellent and admirable forum-goers. I don’t know half of you as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.
 
I regret to announce that this is THE END.
 
I am going now. I bid you all a very fond farewell.
 
-End_Boss.

wait, where are you going?

It's really a shame to lose yet another great intellectual person here on GB for reasons as trivial as you mentioned. 
 
Good luck where ever you'll be End Boss, it was a great knowing you my friend.

=(

Thought you were  gonna talk about  "The End"  
 

All you guys are jerks.  Nobody loves me ;(

I know what you mean I can understand how you feel but I think you may be giving up a little too easy. Sure, all of those useless blogs for XP hang about for a while and the mods are generally never there when you need 'em but I don't let that get in the way of the forums that I've come to enjoy and love, despite it's faults. That's just how I feel about it anyway, I won't try to influence how you feel about the whole thing.

So are you actually gone for good or are you just GETTING MY HOPES UP you WHINER

o-o  
 
you're leaving?! 

coolstorybro.jpg
 
Heh.  I think you should just ignore what makes you want to leave the site.  Just look at the good parts of it, ignoring the bad.  I'm sure there are many topics in the future that you would want to post your thoughts in, so don't say that you'll leave or something.  Just say that you'll post less, or perhaps involve yourself less in the community.  But don't just flat out go away.

It doesn't have to be the end you know. 
 
If you change your mind, we'll be here waiting.

cool story, bro.

" cool story, bro. "

" @Sweep said:

" cool story, bro. "

That was a brilliant troll.   Anyway, moving on...I'm glad join dates were removed from user profiles. "

Ok i'm not going to be a complete dick, or at the very least I should rationalise my dickishness. 
 
I don't really understand why people feel the need to officially "arrive" and "leave" a website. It's just a fucking website. I think the whole concept of anchoring yourself to a specific site is fucking stupid because it's unreasonable to expect it to cater to all your needs. It's not like you have a commitment to post or even get actively involved, and it's not like you can't use other sources of the internet if you feel that one is inadequate. If the forums aren't up to scratch then join neogaf, that doesn't mean you can't continue to flirt with the staff editorial content or read user reviews. This is not an all or nothing scenario, so stop treating it like one.
 
Whatever, I hate these bullshit melodramatic farewells. Say hi to Endogene for me.

I bet this thread was just to get points for the quest.

" @Sweep said:

" cool story, bro. "

That was a brilliant troll."

" @Sweep: Lads is an awesome word...so is bollocks. I'm going to work on getting those used more often in the US. "

" Ok i'm not going to be a complete dick, or at the very least I should rationalise my dickishness. 
 
I don't really understand why people feel the need to officially "arrive" and "leave" a website. It's just a fucking website. I think the whole concept of anchoring yourself to a specific site is fucking stupid because it's unreasonable to expect it to cater to all your needs. It's not like you have a commitment to post or even get actively involved, and it's not like you can't use other sources of the internet if you feel that one is inadequate. If the forums aren't up to scratch then join neogaf, that doesn't mean you can't continue to flirt with the staff editorial content or read user reviews. This is not an all or nothing scenario, so stop treating it like one. Whatever, I hate these bullshit melodramatic farewells. Say hi to Endogene for me. "

" @Sweep said:

" Ok i'm not going to be a complete dick, or at the very least I should rationalise my dickishness. 
 
I don't really understand why people feel the need to officially "arrive" and "leave" a website. It's just a fucking website. I think the whole concept of anchoring yourself to a specific site is fucking stupid because it's unreasonable to expect it to cater to all your needs. It's not like you have a commitment to post or even get actively involved, and it's not like you can't use other sources of the internet if you feel that one is inadequate. If the forums aren't up to scratch then join neogaf, that doesn't mean you can't continue to flirt with the staff editorial content or read user reviews. This is not an all or nothing scenario, so stop treating it like one. Whatever, I hate these bullshit melodramatic farewells. Say hi to Endogene for me. "

I understand what you are saying. But I think the OP stated how he feels the site is part of a "community". Think about living in a community with a nice neighbourhood and what not. Once you move, you are out. You aren't coming back to the community. I think thats how the OP feels about the site. I'm sure everyone can understand your view, but I guess not everyone shares it. "

End_Boss Said:

 "However, if there was one thing I could leave you with in this section, it’s this: don’t lock the doors. In my year and change of activity on Giant Bomb I have seen a disturbing trend of clique-ism that is becoming more and more pronounced (although it wasn’t ever particularly subtle to begin with) amongst the “veteran” user base. I shan’t name any names and I hope no one takes this personally, because that’s not the point. The point is that it’s ultimately detrimental to everyone if we retreat to our ivory towers and scowl at the plebeians milling about below. Fresh blood should be welcomed, and if you honestly can find no other reason in your heart to do so, then at least take comfort in knowing that by your actions, you are promoting the continued existence of the Bomb "

 @Sweep: I figured you'd probably be the first to misinterpret this, as I'm sure many others have. Let me just clear this one thing up for you.

 I'm not leaving because I'm "mad" at anyone and I’m not moving on to some other site (wherever did you get that idea?). As I said in my post, I am grateful to the community, mods and staff. What you just read is simply my (hopefully constructive) take on the site on my way out.

I'm moving on because I feel like, for better or worse, GB has given me what it's going to give me as a writer, not to mention my going through some very uncertain times in my personal life right now. Look, I understand that part of your whole "thing" is to not take this seriously, but as I've said to you elsewhere before, I do take this writing thing pretty seriously, and I take the people who read this stuff pretty seriously as well. You can call me a ridiculous tit all you want, but that won't change.
 
@MB:@CitizenKane:  Oh I get it! Because my guesstimated dates don't exactly add up you're having a clever little exchange about it so you can continue to be passive aggressive without speaking your mind! Awesome. Glad to see you fellas took what was important out of the post.

I understand when someone leaves with melodrama that their is an adverse reaction, but this all seemed nicely put and constructively as well.  Good luck End Boss in all your endeavours.

Why would you leave a website? I can understand if you were staff, or KaosAngel (Streets would be live), but just a normal person seems a bit..dramatic. Like those people who leave and come back a week after, with a new blog!

You inspired me to take up my job in Japan a year ago....and the main reason I started to give away stuff last year for Golden Week.  :( This place has gotten so bad lately, I end up spending more time other places...like 2channel, or more recently Team Liquid.   You were a good guy, or should I say you still are.  Wherever you go to next, they will be glad to have you.  
 
The next live stream we do of SC2, and EVERY replay ArtOfWar and myself upload shortly will be dedicated to you.  Already got the graphics setup, and it will be a fitting end.   
 
gg
 
EDIT:  When BoG left I cried...I will cry again.  :(

Suicide note. I'm calling it.

I'm sorry to see you go 
It's somehow as beautiful as the first snow 
I will miss touching your beautiful face 
your memories are forever, and cannot be erased. 
 
R.I.P.

End_Boss, where are you going!?

You shall be missed.

Hey this isn't about the final episode of Lost at all. Oh well where are you going?

" @Sweep: Lads is an awesome word...so is bollocks. I'm going to work on getting those used more often in the US. "

" I'm sorry to see you go It's somehow as beautiful as the first snow I will miss touching your beautiful face your memories are forever, and cannot be erased. "

TL;DR

Dammit. I read that whole thing, agreeing with everything you said, then Bam!, you're leaving? I would have just posted this:

Farewell

Say hi to your mother for me. *he types with cynical and world-weary fingers*

My dick is so hard right now.

" @MB said:

" @Sweep: Lads is an awesome word...so is bollocks. I'm going to work on getting those used more often in the US. "

From experience, Brits hate it when you use "their" words. "

This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I'll never look into your eyes...again
 
Is all I have to say. Enjoy yourself wherever you are going and you are welcome to come back (with a bit of a reputation).

" Say hi to your mother for me. *he types with cynical and world-weary fingers* "

I know you might never see this, but I just wanna say thank you for being here on Giant Bomb.  I promise people won't forget you, and you have truely helped the site grow in the first year and half...but I do hope you come back one day.  
 
 一期一会。 さよならエンヅボオス。

Hey wait, I can spam! Pick me, pick me!