Officially retiring my awards site code

[zerospace]

Dear fellow Betarians,

I've spoken to a handful of people about this over the past couple of years, and now that this year's contest is over, I'm finally making it official: my awards site code is officially dead/in the vault/done/gone/retired starting now.

I appreciate all of the support and kind words many of you have had to say about it over the years, but it has been in use since 2008 -- that's 5 years now. It's old. It's severely lacking. It's a bloody mess. It's time to retire it. I had some conversations with someone newer around here about potentially giving it a massive overhaul, but in all honesty, I don't have the time nor the interest in doing that anymore. I feel like it is time for me to "pass the torch" so-to-speak, and I think it is time that someone else create something new (or not) -- whatever happens, it won't be me doing it ^_~.

So here's what I'm asking, respectfully:

1. If you have a copy of my source code, please destroy it.
I am not deleting it from my hard drive, but I will not give it out anymore, and I am asking that it not be used again. So if you still have a copy of ANY version of it, please be respectful and destroy it. This, of course, does not include the still-hosted past awards sites , those may stay the way they are.

2. If you have a copy and choose not to destroy it, please do NOT post or distribute it anywhere in any way, use it, or alter it for distribution or do anything AT ALL with it without my explicit permission.
I realize that at least a few of you are handy enough to hack around and modify scripts or write them yourselves, even. However, as it takes many more hours to plan and write something as cohesive and large as the awards site was than to simply modify someone else's source, please be respectful and DO NOT STEAL. Please don't modify it and keep using it for any purpose and slap your name on it and call it yours. Please. I realize it's probably a complete piece of crap by today's standards, but I spent many hours working on it 5 years ago. And then I spent many more hours fixing things, updating it, etc. since then. If you want to modify it for future use, you need my permission, and this post is my way of saying "no" to all future requests. Sorry.

3. Please do not ask me to provide the site code or hosting for future contests.
This one is pretty simple -- my answer is "no". No, I'm not bitter or angry, I'm just tired & done with it ^_~. There seems to be at least a few folks on the board who are eager to try their hand at something, and I'd like to see them have that chance (HigurashiArchives, I'm definitely looking at YOU here).

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I'm going to still be around, of course, as always, I'm still a collector (even if I don't buy nearly as much as I used to). If someone wishes to consult with me on an idea, I'll certainly offer what I have time for, but I'm not going to make this a team effort. I enjoy being a part of this community, but I've neglected many other personal projects to keep doing this each year. I may not have hosted it every year, but I've ended up a consultant every time it's been used. I'm just tired, folks, and I have a lot of other responsibilities now. I'm also not a fan of drama, which seems to accompany many of these contests (this year, thankfully, the drama was incredibly minimal... HOORAY!)

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As a matter of public record (just so I'm not the only one who knows this), these are the people I know have/had some incarnation of the source code (these are the ones I know I provided copies to): Zetsuai (has a very old version), Angelic-Lair, Gabe, HigurashiArchives (has the most recent version, though still missing a few changes).

This part is not meant as a call-out to these people, but I just basically want you all to realize that I know to whom I sent the files and that the rest of the board now also knows, too. Not that I think ANY of you would do anything dishonest with it, of course -- but consider this incentive not to be tempted .

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Thanks everyone for understanding. It's been fun, and I'll see ya'll around the board.

-Z

[ReiTheJelly]

I'm glad you were willing to lend us your skills for 5 years, Z. It has certainly made the contests run very smoothly and I know that I, and probably many others, appreciate this.

[sensei]

I respect your decision, zero, and hope that the next generation will take it as an incentive to step up and bring the cel contest up to date. At the same time, please accept my thanks for having made possible the contest we just finished. As I am not knowledgeable about web language, I would not have been able to manage this event without your constant help and support. And I think I speak for the other volunteers in saying that we appreciated the guidance you gave us in managing the many angles of the contest.

It is sad to see this framework go to the vault, but I recall helping with the 2010 cel contest, which used the even older special Rubberslug gallery platform, and that was incredibly more work-intensive on all levels. It was a joy, even a bit of a game, to manage the contest this time. If the site code is going out, it is going out on top, and in the wake of a very smooth and successful competition.

Thanks, zero, for your strong work and citizenship on behalf of Anime-Beta.

[kathpatty]

Thanks -you were always willing to lend a hand to help !!

[Rekka Alexiel]

I'm quite new to the whole awards thing, but what I've seen and the amount of work you've put in to make this event a success at least for this year (I'm completely oblivious to other years, sorry!!), you've done far more than your fair share of the work! Thank you so much for supporting the even this year and we will certainly miss your great ideas, the code, everything in the future! But I know what it's like to be burned out and annoyed at old code that needs tweaking. This is actually something that I need to work on for my own site...but have had little time to do anything.

So I guess all I can say is THANK YOU and your great work will be missed! *hugs*

[tex-chan]

Z -- you are a rock star. Period. You've been so great and wonderfully generous with all of us for many years now. Thank you so much for that. I'm sending you a big, bug HUG through the internet. (Which, actually, seemed like a great idea ... then sounded rather creepy once I typed it out loud. *ahem* Anyhow ... )

[BuraddoRun]

Thank you, Zerospace!

Without you, this 2013 revival of the cel contest probably wouldn't have happened, and even if it somehow would have, it definitely wouldn't have been as smooth and enjoyable as it was. I'm glad you're not leaving the AB community, so even though the tone feels like a "goodbye," it really isn't.

Anyway, thank you again for everything!

[zerospace]

Thanks, everyone. Really. Thank you *hugs to all* (even you, texxie... ms-creepy-internet-hug , you know I luv ya, girlie!). This was NOT an easy choice, but I felt like I needed to finally make it.

Nope, I'm definitely not leaving, just hanging up my cleats on this project, so-to-speak. I'm just so busy anymore, and I'm trying like heck to get a small Etsy business going . Part of me feels bad for it, knowing that many of you appreciate my efforts, but sometimes you just have to know when to quit (which, ironically, is usually a fault of mine -- ask my husband and pretty much anyone who knows me well *laughs*).

Again, thanks everyone for the support. You guys are awesome.

[sensei]

A community is like that: we all have to do the best we can, so that we don't take advantage of people who have been leaders in the past, but step up as we can to follow their examples. It's scary: when I agreed to coordinate the contest, I was sure I'd gotten way over my head and was going to screw everything up. But having so many people on the team who stepped up and did their best made it enjoyable.

Whoever takes on doing the source code for the next contest (and let's please please please please not go back to the RS gallery model, which is insanely work-intensive for volunteers), you can rely on the same cooperation and support.

I'll volunteer now to help break the new contest site during testing. I found this year that I have a special talent for that .

[animeobsessed]

I also wanted to extend my thanks for all your efforts and your website for so many of the contests. It is so much easier this way. However, if you are working on a business of your own that says it all as to why you need to "pass the torch." Thanks again for all your hard work and expertise.