User blog:StevDev/Long time, no see...

Hello everybody, a wiki legend checking in for the first time in a LONG time. And I've got some news for you. 😊

Woah, I cannot believe it's been about 2 years since I last declared retirement from this wiki (under my old account Steve820). I miss all the users, all the fun times I've had, the joy of making up hurricane seasons, forum games, chatting, etc.! Ever since I last retired, it appears that this wiki hasn't changed that much (surprisingly). However, I do see a lot of users here who I don't recognize because they joined after I retired. The wiki appears to still be in the 2nd golden age that began around late 2015-2016 (after the first golden age from 2012-2014 and the wiki's dark days of 2015). I'm glad that the wiki hasn't become unrecognizable or entered another dark period since I left. Because this wiki is still going strong, and I will break the wiki for saying this, but I might be... returning. (Before judging me, read the whole blog post for true reasons behind my previous retirements)

YOU HEARD THAT RIGHT! You might be like... "wut", "O_O", "Again?", or just plain excited to see me return! Surprisingly, I've retained at least some interest in tropical cyclones and the idea of making our own hypothetical seasons still seems pretty fascinating to me. But the reasoning behind my previous retirements was actually ... complex, to say the least. Hint: They were not necessarily caused by loss of interest. Read on to discover the truth...

I was originally active during the first golden age (2012-14), and joined in late 2012 to a friendly and small community consisting of users who probably don't come here anymore. After making my first few seasons, I took my first break during spring 2013, and returned in June (that point starts my most active period). The wiki improved as time went on, and I had the most fun on this wiki from late 2013 through 2014. However, the first wave of underage users (Spcardozo and Douglas) joined in early 2014, and foreshadowed the initial downfall of this wiki. By late 2014, some legends (like Andrew444) started to become inactive. I then wanted this wiki to get spotlighted because it seemed like the wiki got a bit quieter and worse off than it used to be (Spotlight thread). Around this time, the "dark ages" began.

The spotlight started in February 2015, and soon after another wave of underage users (like PuffleXtreme and EF5Tornado) joined. There was also this annoying user named AnnaKendrick47 that was active in early 2015. The spotlight could have contributed to the worsening problem here in my opinion, even though it was meant to make this wiki more noticed across all of Wikia. By May 2015, the underage users problem really started to worsen, and that was when I declared my initial retirement from HHW. At that time, it seemed like HHW was starting to become a dying wiki, so this first retirement can probably be explained by the abundance of annoying users, and the worsening quality of this wiki helped push me away. A more detailed summary of my earlier days is located here (when I intitially retired). I even dedicated a 10-day long period for a "goodbye party" because I thought I would actually leave for good. Despite this retirement, I continued to contribute on and off, but was not nearly as active as I used to be.

Summer-early fall 2015 was the absolute craziest time, and I'm glad I was not active then. I remember all the underage users received bureaucrat status, and this wiki turned into an absolute disaster. By late September however, a new administration, lead by users such as Nkech and Hype, blocked all the underage users and restored order to this wiki. Despite this, I remained inactive and even tried to leave for good on December 12th. I was not too fond of change, and decided to leave for good because my old friends left or became inactive (see this). I guess I really wanted sameness and hated the fact that my old friends were leaving.

The retirement, originally triggered by the downfall of HHW, the take-over of underagers, and the inactivity of good friends, only lasted until March 2016. I don't think I ever actually lost much interest in the idea of creating hypothetical hurricane seasons (the wiki's downfall in 2015 was most likely the reason behind that short-lived retirement, not actual loss of interest). I noticed the wiki has become much better than how it was when I retired, and that's why I decided to return. However, I did not fully return until May 1st. After I returned, I gradually became more active and reached peak activity during summer, before school and stuff got the best of me by September. I retired again (blog post: here) around the time the Wikia chat first moved to Discord (yep, the older users remember pre-Discord chat). The abrupt move to Discord contributed to my retirement because I often dislike it when things change so abruptly. I also overestimated how busy I would be, and the "losing interest" thing was likely a lie. After that 2-year hiatus starting in Sept. 2016, now I couldn't resist coming back because of how much I miss the joy of creating hypothetical seasons and being with all you guys.

The story behind my claims of "losing interest" or "this wiki is a thing of the past" was a bit complex. I didn't actually lose much interest all this time. You know how kids typically outgrow things by the time they become teens, and teens typically outgrow things by adulthood? That's why I tried to remove HHW from my life. I thought of this wiki as a "young teen" phase, and when I grew older, I realized I had to, or tried to, "move on". I joined this wiki when I was thirteen, and now I'm almost 19 (a couple more days!). This mindset is behind my previous retirements (especially my most recent retirement a couple years ago). Obviously this wiki is actually usable for all ages (13+) and not just young teens. And in fact, I've retained interest in the concept of creating hypothetical hurricane seasons, and I have plenty of seasons and storms in mind that I've bottled up for so long. It's just that the mindset of "HHW is your young teen phase, time to move on" has always gotten the best of me. I've also experienced some teenage angst and even depressive feelings that may have significantly contributed to my retirements. If I actually lost interest, I wouldn't be here making this blog post.

Now that you better know the true reasons behind my previous retirements, it is now time to say that I promise to stay until either this wiki dies out, I become way too busy in life, or I actually lose interest. I will release my comeback season probably by the end of the month, and will start going on the Discord channel within the next couple days. I'll also try to be as active as I can, and will still try to contribute even when my life is very busy. I will be more busy IRL starting when the college semester begins August 27, but that won't completely stop me from contributing and being with all of you.

Also, I'm going to talk to you guys about another username change. I regret closing my old Steve820 account just because of reasons that are basically "it's time to move on from your young teen phase." I created the account SteazySteve in response to that desire to move on to other areas of Wikia (which was never actually fulfilled). And I never actually liked the name "SteazySteve" much, I only picked it because "SteezySteve" was taken and I had to misspell "Steezy" on purpose. I thought "SteezySteve" would be a great name considering Steezy and Steve both start with the same 3 letters. Also, I couldn't really think of any better name than that. Back to the username change that I'll do as I return to this wiki: My new username will be "StevDev". It combines the first four letters of my first name with the first three letters of my last name. And both sections end with "v", which I think is very fitting and makes for a nicer username than "SteazySteve". It doesn't appear that StevDev is taken. Despite my refusal to "move on" like I hoped with that mindset, I still hope to join many other Wikia communities in the future. I might even rejoin component hypothetical wikis (like events, tornadoes, etc).

In conclusion, I hope you all understand what I mean when my previous retirements were actually part of a "grow out of HHW and move on" mindset, and not actual loss of interest. I never actually lost much interest and will start actively contributing to this wiki again in the next few days. I have so much hypothetical season ideas that are bottled up inside my mind, and I can't wait to share them with you guys. The next time I try to retire with just a basic "I'm losing interest" or "This wiki is a thing of the past" reason, assume that's just the detrimental mindset getting the best of me.

By the way, a better track for my usercane would be tracking westward through the Atlantic (2012-early 2015), tracking through the Leeward Islands and then Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, and Cuba (latter two seriously disrupts my usercane), emerging into the Gulf of Mexico in spring 2016, restrengthening, making landfall in Louisiana in September 2016, and tracking over land until it's back over the Atlantic Ocean today (I'd make my storm emerge from the Carolinas and move on a generally eastern trajectory). It doesn't make sense for my storm to reform over the far northern Atlantic, probably near Great Britain (like where I think you guys have my storm at right now). Or alternatively, you could keep the track of the old "Steve820" storm and have me form again as a separate system in the tropics under the name "StevDev". But that probably wouldn't make sense since these accounts are both from the same person.

I also like the title of "The Retirement King" that I have on my profile. It's so true until now 😜

Again, welcome me back for another glorious time here! 😊 And wish me a happy early birthday! 🎉 Kind of sucks that my bday is on a Monday though...

~  Steve 🌞   Talk Page  My Edits  📧  02:04, August 19, 2018 (UTC)