Well, now that a lot of the edge is off.... I really don't think I have anything important to say that hasn't already been said, but I guess I'll add some of my own perspective just so it's out there. Forgive me if this is a bit long-winded.
I think I was fourteen when I first joined the community, and to be honest I probably couldn't have cared less if the game was centered around Sonic or Mario or Bomberman. I had a fascination with fangames and fan content generally speaking -- the flaws, the creativity imbued in them, and the sort of sandbox nature of their communities. Sonic Robo Blast 2 was the embodiment of this -- not only was it my first exposure to online play, but it was a highly varied experience with half a dozen modes of play and near-full moddability. I wouldn't have fully understood it until several years later, but I've always had a very strong interest in game design, and the expressiveness of community content, with all of its best and worst qualities, always spoke toward my fascination and my desire to really pick apart what exactly it is that makes games "tick".
I was blissfully unaware of any grooming that had been taking place, but I had sided with Spazzo before and during the major split that happened along with 2.0, and when Spazzo was banned I had pretty much left the community out of contempt for everything that had happened up to that point. Fast forward over one or two instances of me reappearing to make an ass out of myself; judging from my infraction history (nine infractions and never a tempban. How did I do that??), I didn't really reenter the community until after lua was introduced. 2.1's reversal of 2.0's more restrictive elements brought back the creative vigor that had always appealed to me, and I was much happier to pop in from time to time. Ever since then, the content I've seen produced from everybody has only gotten more and more impressive. The SUGOI trilogy is a triumph in community collaboration and engagement. I can't even believe the number and diversity of high quality characters 2.2 has received in just the span of half a year. The ceaseless and overwhelming amount of creative output this community is capable of makes me proud to consider myself a part of it.
As for Mystic...
Ritz's post really strikes a chord for me; in addition to being extremely thoughtful, well-written and insightful, I feel like I had undergone sort of a similar arc, maybe with some varying caveats. I had always had respect for Mystic -- not so much because he was an authority figure, but because I perceived him to be the "voice of reason". I honestly admired the way in which he tried to consistently explain his point of view as clearly and rationally as possible, with absolutely no bullshit and no sugar-coating. That sort of edgy "facts over feelings" mindset is the same thing that got me into a Richard Dawkins phase later on (though I was already an agnostic by the time I had joined the community). Looking back, it definitely shows in a lot of my much-older posts.
My ideological shift must have started when I decided to spy on a hangout server to record logs for rule-breaking, before realizing a couple of hours later that I was just ruining someone else's good time under cynical pretenses. For maybe the first year of Mystic's management I had agreed almost by default with the position of "ban the noobs", but it didn't take me long to realize that outright banning servers and setting hard character restrictions -- set in large part to spite hosts and content creators who weren't playing the game in the way that suited our tastes and aesthetic -- is intimidatingly authoritarian, a lot of extra busy work, and frankly rather counterproductive in the long term.
To that end, the point of conflict for me had always been the way in which the community was managed, and anyone who remembers "SigSev[sic] Cafe" knows this. Our aura of elitism disgusted me. Seeing infractions handed out for minor grammatical offenses made me feel like the "good boys" were part of some English literature club. In fact, I'm still not sure if we ever got rid of the forum's ridiculous "they're/their/there" CAPTCHA system.
At some point, I had just taken the presence of the "old guard" and the culture that followed as sort of a given. My distance from the community must have numbed my perception of things, or maybe I had just assumed my own misgivings were simply my own. I have chatted with plenty of past and present devs, and whether their grievances were social, personal, or related to development, I can easily count the number of people that
didn't have a problem with management on one hand. And in the one year that I have been active on the team, it was not hard to see why; I can say from personal experience that trying to gain traction on any issue required playing a lot of politics.
My music thankfully did not suffer nearly as much from the kinds of beaurocratic obstacles that many other members felt, and there was only one or two particular instances where I was pressured to change things at the last minute, which did frustrate me a little bit. But being met with outright obstruction after Nev3r and I had spent hours prototyping ability reworks was genuinely insulting, and I know that many former and current team members could share similar experiences that discouraged them from wanting to work on anything. The super discussion is probably the dumbest recent example of needless gatekeeping, and if there was any "vocal minority" that was being catered to, I think many will agree that there was at least a little bit of projection at play. I tried to bend over backwards to reach a solution that would please everybody, but it honestly felt more like I was trying to play diplomat between a king and his serfs, rather than two parties trying to find common ground. This is to say nothing of his recent actions towards the community and specific individials in particular. I always knew Mystic to hold a grudge or to be stubborn, but his behavior as of late just felt petty. Considering his overall trajectory, I guess it was really only a matter of time before Mystic left on bad terms with the community.
It's easy enough for me or anyone else to just say "fuck him, I'm glad it's over with" and move on, but I've never harbored any ill will toward him and I hope no one else does either. Many of us go through a point where deep soul searching is required, and I think it is past time that Mystic reflects on his own situation, what he really wants in life and how he is going to pursue it. Does he want to be a critic? An analyst? A teacher? Something else? Does he need love? Does he need to create? Both introspection and exploration are necessary to answer those questions. In spite of our disagreements, I sincerely hope that Ben finds what he is looking for.
On a lighter note: I feel like I was fortunate enough to be placed onto the team exactly when I was. The vast majority of the people I've worked with are awesome, passionate people. That first week of being on the private discord gave me a high I hadn't felt in a long time, to the point I almost wondered what ever made me left. The months that followed was a thrilling challenge to see just how much of the soundtrack I could finish in a short amount of time, and I enjoyed nearly every second of it. I have no grievances with anyone who is on the team at this present moment, and I feel strongly confident about the direction we have taken with the team's cohesion, as well as our approach to community management. For that matter, the amount of community solidarity I have seen from this thread alone positively reassures me that we can build a future for the community that is grounded in trust, empathy, and mutual respect for one another.