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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EricNoah" data-source="post: 318974" data-attributes="member: 4">Aw, gosh guys, thanks for the love!The struggle I was having over the quality of my personal life vs. the quality of my online life was getting greater and greater over the course of many months.  I'd been running this marathon and there was no end in sight -- unless I just stepped out of the race.  It was a hard thing to do -- I loved my site, and I loved the community -- but it has indeed turned out to be the best thing for me.  The strong memories for me include:  posting that first announcement and then heading out to spend some time with friends -- I came back to chaos. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  I had something like 400 messages in my e-mail, people on the boards were in panic.  And then of course the boards went down (yay Gamespy! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f621.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":mad:" title="Mad    :mad:"  data-smilie="4"data-shortname=":mad:" /> ).  When I made the decision to quit, I sort of knew Russ would be interested in taking the reigns.  I wasn't sure how well he'd be able to handle the workload though.  But as we've all seen, he's tireless, and he has innovated.  One thing I appreciated about him was his ability to rally help for the site -- I hope he continues to do that, get other people involved and responsible for parts of it, because that was something I never did and I think we all saw the results of me trying to "do it all." <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />When I look at my days now, and think about my 2 years at the helm, I just can't figure out where I got all of the time to do it.  I'd never be able to go back to a schedule like that.    And quite honestly, I never thought I'd be as involved with the site as I am now, a year later.  I figured I'd fade into the mists of time, blah blah blah.  But within a few days of quitting I got this interesting e-mail from Scott Mathews, who wanted my input on a little program that was later to be known as eTools.  And it was that move that sucked me back into the community. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  I needed to stay in touch because of that, basically.  But there were other things, too -- the great Chicago Game Days arranged by Mark.  My unhealthy attraction to Nutkinland.  A desire to help Russ handle the huge task of getting my old D20 Guide and his D20 Reviews merged together.  The thrill of being involved with the ENnies now that they were a slightly bigger deal (GenCon, etc.).  But mostly ... it was you guys.  You message board people are so darned entertaining when you're on your best behavior.  Russ doesn't know this yet (he will when he reads this though) but I'm about to take a step back from here again.  Not far away.  Part of it is that school is starting soon and so for a while it will be work, work, work.  Part of it is that I forsee myself becoming heavily involved with Fluid's message board community -- I find that I love creating/entering content for eTools, helping people with their problems or questions, etc.  But I will be around -- just not 24 hours a day as it seems I have been this summer. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Thanks again guys!  You're the reason ... for, well, everything. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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