Board Thread:Fun and Games/@comment-31540897-20190515141324/@comment-31540897-20190719150034

I'd like to say something to all of you, in this particular moment, even if it's been a few weeks already since the last reply. I hope you'll be willing to hear me out.

In the beginning, when I decided to make this thread, I was doubtful in regards to the ability of this community being able to come together. The ability to be genuine, to respect others, to give others compliments, et cetera. And in a world like today, where hateful, disrespectful, and harmful comments can be thrown at each other without any repercussion or warning, it's important to spread love within a community, or else it falls apart. It becomes toxic, people leave, and it becomes a graveyard of the past that people will miss, but not wish for again.

I know I don't frequent this community often anymore, but I still check in from time to time, simply because I still care. The nostalgia is still here. And there's quite a couple of things that factor into that, but a very particular thread of thought is why I'm here today.

Zed's initial respect/compliment thread. A simple request, for everyone to say what they respected about the person above them. Yet for some reason, that really touched me. You might say it's strictly a respect thread, but if people are sincere, compliments flow forward as well. And it was sincere, to all degrees! It wasn't the normal tomfoolery, jokes, memes, or roleplaying. It was being sincere, and honest. People were able to sustain it for a long time. Even if things got repetitive, people would still come up with the smallest of things to respect about the user above them, and however small that may have been, it was still something.

That being said, the threads seemed to eventually derail. Without any moderation, it seemed that users would just eventually not care, and give throwaway comments if just to keep a thread "alive" or whatnot. So I eventually forgot about it. Sure, the threads would occasionally be revived, but it would lead soon to monotony once more, eventually shut down due to the number of off-topic comments.

Then came this thread. An impulsive decision by me, despite some of my friends' words, to write this thread and hope for the best.

To say that I was surprised at how well this thread would go? It would most certainly be an understatement. I think I'm a bit of a controversial person in this community at this point. I've had a lot of controversies if you are willing to call it that, and I'm not always the kindest. But I still genuinely believe that we can make the world a better place. When Zed reached out to me once and told me that my words really did have an effect on him, it showed me something. Simply by giving someone a thought to care about, that another person does indeed care about them in some way, I managed to make someone's day. And I want everyone to have a chance at that happiness, even if some people can't grasp onto that happiness.

So perhaps, to wrap this all up, I want to say something I respect about all of you, every person here who has contributed and taken the time out of their day to write a comment. I respect the fact, and I deeply appreciate the fact, that all of you were able to come together, recognise this thread as something meaningful, and contribute in a way that meant positive thoughts being spread all around.

'''Cheers to all, and thank you for your efforts. Continue being a nice person, and change the world for a better place, one step at a time.'''