The Community As A Whole

I've been sitting and thinking about the community as a whole. I know that some of you might have had negative opinions or feelings about fansites; official or not. So instead of that, I want to focus on the positive at the moment.

I just wanted to let you know that I, personally, am very proud of our tight knit community. I don't care if you're an official or non-official fansite. I have seen all of you work very hard to try to provide great content, posts or art for the community. It shows that you're doing it from the heart. It's hard work keeping up a fansite. Some do not succeed or some still struggle. Don't let others make you feel like you're a failure. We are STILL proud of you. Every one of you is a puzzle. Some are big, some are small, some are still here, some are not. You all have your own shape. But together, we complete a puzzle. Without you all, the community would not exist.

I want to thank all of the official fansites for working hard and trying their best to provide the best for this wonderful community. I know from personal experience that it's incredibly hard, harder than you think to keep up and manage an official fansite. They're incredibly generous with giving their time to help their follow gamers in-game, managing events and creating guides for the community. So they deserve all of the accolades and positivism that you can give them.

I adore managing contests. It's so fun. Many people say that the community has become an contest oriented community. It's not really true. If those same people who said that had the ability to give amazing prizes, they would change their tune. Because honestly, even though it's difficult wading through all of the entries and making sure nobody cheated as well as picking the right winners, it's still FUN! It's fun seeing all of you smile and laugh. Every time I see a contest being made on the fansites, Twitter, blogs, etc, I smile to myself because wow.. It's not just the official fansites that are doing it, it's the rest of the community too. I love seeing people give away to others because that's something that I like to encourage.. Generosity.

Also, when there's no content, contests keeps up the morale and spirit of the community. So, every single time someone provides a contest, it doesn't matter if it's an simple giveaway or a major contest, it keeps the community busy and happy. It's like trying to manage a house full of kids hyped up on sugar. Not pretty. But if you set them to an activity, it helps! Remember, even us official fansites came from an non-official status once, so don't compare the amount or type of prizes that is given. A prize is just a prize.

I notice something that has been bothering a lot of the non-official sites. Many people worry too much about followers, about popularity and being official, that sort of thing, don't. If you write something and one person read it, you have already succeeded. You are a winner in my eyes. Be proud of it. Sometimes it's just a matter of finding your niche and practicing, everyone has to come from somewhere. It's like drawing with me, I suck at it. But with practice, I do get better. I figure out what style suits me, what kind of subject I like, and I figure out how to draw it in my own way. It isn't easy to do. It took me a long time. But in the end, I'm more proud of myself for trying than how many people liked my art.

I also want to thank the Wizard101 and Pirate101 community managers, Tom Purdue aka the Friendly Necromancer and Kiersten Samwell aka Lydia Greyrose, for allowing us to make many of you smile and cheer because of all of the contests that we are able to give. It's incredible to think how many codes they give out every year, just not to the official fansites, but on Twitter too! Now that's generosity to the ninth degree.

To end this letter, I do want to encourage all of you to still keep up your work. Write, draw, sing, make, create anything that speaks to your passion of the game. Don't let anyone get you down. Tomorrow is another day to succeed or create something amazing. You all are amazing to me, every single one of you. I thank all of you for being a part of the great community we currently have!