Sheep is done and so am I

Can I just say one thing re: this community?

I do care--a lot--about giving you guys a nice place to hang out.

I know the Boom decision was polarizing, and I completely understand why some thought permabanning was excessive. (Although I have just as many PMs in my inbox thanking me and saying they wished it'd happened a lot sooner.) It was very much a judgement call where I felt like the only options where to either ban him or let him keep baiting people, because he wasn't stopping after multiple warnings.

But to turn that into "this means Jeff doesn't care about the community" makes my blood boil.

If all I wanted was the money, I'd have bought the site, not put any work into it, and just ignored you guys. I wouldn't have cared enough to make the site mobile-friendly, I wouldn't have cared enough to ask folks to stop the personal attacks and ban those who refused, and I wouldn't care enough to respond to PMs. From a business perspective, spending time on those is irrational--the amount of work required for any of those just isn't worth the $ it brings.

I do these things because I care about making this site a nice place to hang out where you can chit-chat, encourage each other in your off days, express your opinions without fear of getting attacked and just generally blow off steam. I personally think I'm a bit crazy to care about doing this for people I've never met, but I enjoy hanging out on forums, and I like being able to pay it forward for others. That's the magic of forums.

The only thing I purposefully am trying to change is cut down on the personal attacks/baiting.

When I came aboard, I PM'd a bunch of users asking for feedback. The general consensus was that the board was a good place with good people, but had a problem with personal attacks/baiting. Quite a number of folks told me they were tired of it and wanted me to cut down on it.

That's the only thing I've tried to change around here. Disagreeing with someone is fine, but attacking them or continually following them around the board trying to yank their chain--even after you've received multiple warnings to stop--is not.

Other than that, my goal is to stay behind-the-scenes and let you guys be your community, and be helpful with tech problems or whatever other ways you need help from the admin.

I'm not going to do it perfectly, and I trust you'll let me know when you think I've screwed up. I don't mind apologizing, and trying to correct things. Hopefully you'll also take the time to say thanks when you notice improvements.

And again, re: the deceased member--there's some background that isn't public. I got a request from a family member, I discussed it with the moderators, and they unanimously supported how I suggested handling the situation. I have several emails from the family member thanking me for how the situation was handled. I can't say more unfortunately without violating personal privacy.