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Riftwalker Star Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8 |
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![Contract Devil](http://cdn.paizo.com/image/avatar/PZO9450-ContractDevil_500.jpeg)
(The most important rule: Don't be a jerk. It even says it right underneath the Submit Post button.)
I hesitate to submit this thread--because my intent is to not call attention to my post or generate more drama. But I do want to apologize to those affected and do what I can to atone.
I am sorry. When I read the post that triggered my post, I felt like I had been unfairly sniped. And because of the contest rules, I felt powerless to do anything about it. That powerlessness turned into anger, which festered until I made the original post that included the hot-headed response. This is not an excuse--just an attempt at an explanation.
I shouldn't have posted it. It generated heat but not light and injected negativity into this community which is uncommonly, overwhelmingly positive. It reflects poorly on myself, is unprofessional, and serves no purpose. I should have handled it better and failed to do so. For all of this, I am sorry.
I will not let it happen again and have attempted to undo any damage I've done:
- I've apologized to the original target of my rant.
- I asked for the offending text to be removed, which Sean thankfully did.
I'd also like to offer my PM-inbox as a target for anyone needing to privately vent in the future. Better there than to pollute the message boards, and I'll definitely be able to empathize with you. Perhaps in this way I can help prevent someone from making the same mistake I did.
Thank you to everyone for making this such a wonderful community.
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![Madame Ivanja](http://cdn.paizo.com/image/avatar/PZO9045_Ivanja.jpg)
(The most important rule: Don't be a jerk. It even says it right underneath the Submit Post button.)
I hesitate to submit this thread--because my intent is to not call attention to my post or generate more drama. But I do want to apologize to those affected and do what I can to atone.
I am sorry. When I read the post that triggered my post, I felt like I had been unfairly sniped. And because of the contest rules, I felt powerless to do anything about it. That powerlessness turned into anger, which festered until I made the original post that included the hot-headed response. This is not an excuse--just an attempt at an explanation.
I shouldn't have posted it. It generated heat but not light and injected negativity into this community which is uncommonly, overwhelmingly positive. It reflects poorly on myself, is unprofessional, and serves no purpose. I should have handled it better and failed to do so. For all of this, I am sorry.
I will not let it happen again and have attempted to undo any damage I've done:
- I've apologized to the original target of my rant.
- I asked for the offending text to be removed, which Sean thankfully did.I'd also like to offer my PM-inbox as a target for anyone needing to privately vent in the future. Better there than to pollute the message boards, and I'll definitely be able to empathize with you. Perhaps in this way I can help prevent someone from making the same mistake I did.
Thank you to everyone for making this such a wonderful community.
I am sorry if you felt I was sniping you, but I am glad you made your peace. Email, posts and texts are an awful form of communication and I meant my words in the most loving sense even if I sometimes come across more direct than intended. I am glad you are sticking around and I hope you get everything you possibly can from the contest this year. I would love to understand your item and we should probably,y do that part via PM if you are interested. If not, I wish you all the best in your future design and gaming! :-)
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![Crone Queen](http://cdn.paizo.com/image/avatar/PZO9072-CroneQueen_500.jpeg)
Hi Riftwalker-
I don't know that I saw the original post, but I admire your ownership of the lapse in non-jerkness.
RPG Superstar can be emotionally tense. Its easy to have raw, frayed nerves get stepped on pretty easily and respond in a less-than-ideal manner. Good on you for moving past it.
We do have a good community here, just not perfect. :) Glad you're a part of it.
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Jeff Lee |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
![Silas Weatherbee](http://cdn.paizo.com/image/avatar/PZO90121-Silas_500.jpeg)
Not sure which post spawned the apology, Riftwalker, but I did see you restrict the feedback of your item to people that didn't post in the rant thread.
I'd like to stress again that the rant thread is meant for people to blow off steam and have a little fun. It's not like every item that received a comment was down-voted every time. Likewise, some of the items I commented on got more up-votes than not.
The critique thread is an entirely different animal. If you ask, then you will receive. It's not necessarily going to be what you want to hear. I thought my item had a decent shot to get me into the Top 32 this year. It didn't even make the top 100. Voters just didn't like it. That doesn't make me happy, but it does change the way I think about item creation. Therefore next year I do things differently.
Whether you're doing RPG Superstar or writing things for publishers in the industry, there are going to be people reading your writing and responding to it. Those responses aren't all going to be good ones. Someone is bound to dislike your work, for whatever reason. It's best to develop a thick skin early, ignore the unhelpful and look for critique that helps you improve as a writer.