EDIT: I’ve returned to the management team for a short period of time and postponed my resignation as DBD isn’t in the greatest place right now, and the extra help could be valuable seeing as the managers seem to be dropping like flies. I’ll resign for real in the near future, but seeing as I’m still active on DBD and Scratch I may as well help out. The end of an era… I’m joking btw okay Imagine the girl waving in the thumbnail (Maya) and the guy staring into the distance bittersweetly (Phoenix) is me saying bye to the DBD manager role, and the guy in the sky looking down on them wistfully from the plane window (Miles) is DBD reminiscing about my host shifts and the time I was a manager. Anyway, helloo, as you can likely see I demoted myself from DBD (Different by Design). This isn’t a joke or anything this time, I’m stepping down from managing. I know this is quite sudden, so I’ll give some context ✌️ I applied for manager around August–September of last year (I can’t remember exactly) as I really like leadership roles and genuinely cared about the studio. At the time I submitted my application, DBD was quite different. It was an enjoyable place to be in most of the time. I got promoted around January, and it was reallyyy stressful until around May. DBD as a studio wasn’t doing well — we (the managers) were much more inexperienced at managing, and we had some really odd rules to say the least (that we’ve now changed) — but we managed to get the studio back on track. Back in like, March, I was so sure DBD wouldn’t survive for the 1 year anniversary, and look at where the studio is now _:P_ just pretend the emoji works okay. After April things got back on track, and I was very happy managing DBD until around July, possibly late June. After then, managing felt like a chore, unfortunately. I think two main things made DBD more stressful — some of the Hive members migrating to DBD (don’t take this the wrong way, keep reading), and my health. First, the Hive members migrating to DBD part. I’d like to clarify that I am not blaming the Hive members for making DBD more stressful or something, like. It is not their fault okay This will accidentally turn into “The History of DBD and Hive’s Friendship” if I don’t keep it simple, so getting straight to the point — we clash, unfortunately. I mean, we don’t clash as badly anymore, but we used to be two magnets with the same poles. Our senses of humour seem to differ, and DBD just has an ignorance issue. When Hivians have tried to educate us in the past, DBDers have brushed it off and tried to change the topic. However, some Hivians have also come off as unnecessarily harsh/hostile, so this caused arguments. I do think a lot of us are more informed now, though. A lot of DBDers seem to have beef with the Hive and vice versa, which also causes issues. Some people on DBD also have a superiority complex. If I dive into it this’ll be unnecessarily long as this is just supposed to be about my resignation, but it’s just public shaming at this point. Unfortunately you’re not more morally correct or better if you make fun of/shame/vaguepost about an uneducated 11 year old DBDer. I totally get it if it’s an older teenager who’s just obviously ignorant and refuses to educate themselves, then getting annoyed with them is valid, but with primary schoolers? Hello?? The call out posts in general just rub me the wrong way in most situations. There’s also been some really rude people who have harassed me and the other managers for trying to enforce the rules. How low do you have to get to harass us for a mistake? We’re teenagers, we’re not much wiser than you are and we will make mistakes. We’re essentially glorified curators with the job of keeping the studio in order. Also, many times I’ve been correct when enforcing a rule and people have instantly made a really harsh comment instead of trying to figure out how it broke a rule first. If we made a mistake, respectfully correct us. Or even correct us a bit harshly if it’s especially stupid, we’ll listen to you. Like, we want to do a good job and we really are trying. We can take accountability dude I’m not using the “but we’re just glorified curators and teenagers!!” argument to excuse any actions from us that are wrong, of course. Despite that, we were chosen for the role and knew what it included, so we should at least be competent and mature the majority of the time. I’m just saying that mistakes by us will happen, and harassing us for it is insane. When I was a manager, I was afraid to enforce rules because of the amount of times I’d get harassed for it or just get replied to harshly for it. “Shut up” “??? Are you stupid, how does this break a rule” do we not know variations of those that are respectful or what, bro I would be more than happy to explain how it broke a rule if you ask nicely and I’ll admit to my mistake if I realise I was wrong.
(Continued, mann I didn’t think this’d be so long and now the text above will be more annoying to read I just haate having to put things in the notes and credits, sorry guys) I’m just sick of DBD for this reason, to be honest. I know it’s full of teenagers so obviously won’t be sunshine and rainbows all the time, but it’s not that hard to be respectful most of the time I promise _:'P_ again just pretend the emoji is working alright. I get it if you’re rude or harsh or whatever when needed, there are situations where it’s justified, but some people just like to be Master Edgelord all the time. I’m also unfortunately a fairly sensitive individual, and it has reaaally done a deal to my mental health and self confidence whenever I’ve been harassed or made a mistake. I also feel like I’m somehow more sensitive now than I was a few months ago? Because of this I’ve found managing in general harder, unfortunately. I’ve also been exposed to. Really disgusting 18+ things while managing, some of which have been directed towards me, and that sucks. It’s the least of my concerns regarding managing DBD tbh because I’m not sensitive to that kind of stuff, but still insanely disgusting. So yeah, that’s the main reason I’m put off DBD. I knew this’d happen as DBD got more popular as this unfortunately happens to every major Scratch chatroom eventually, it seems, but it’s still frustrating to see. Now for the second reason I mentioned, my health. This is mostly about my physical health. My performance as a manager of DBD has been impacted by my PoTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome). You can search it up if you want to know more about it. I’m sure you know by now that I have PoTS if you’re a DBD regular, as I’m constantly complaining about it nowadays. _<3_ (An exaggeration obviously) I have severe PoTS and get really bad flare ups because of it. Sometimes I get multiple flare ups a day, or a flare up that lasts for days, even weeks, on end. These flare ups often make me fatigued and give me bad brain fog, and you can imagine how that would affect my performance. I’ve been ruder lately, and haven’t been thinking straight when making decisions due to the fatigue and brain fog. I thought it would be best to step down now that my PoTS has gotten so bad. Well, I think that’s mostly all! That’s why I’ve stepped down from managing DBD. I’ll definitely miss my host shifts, and managing DBD has been so enjoyable a lot of the time, but I mean. I’m turning 17 soon, anyway. It’s about time. I have lots of really nice memories from DBD and really appreciate so many of the people on it, so stepping down definitely feels bittersweet. It’s been a major part of my life, tbh. I’ll be like 80 and be reminiscing about the good old days of DBD As for one more thing, am I leaving Scratch? No, I’ll still be active here! I have things like Design-a-thon to do, and I’d also miss many of my friends dearly if I was suddenly leaving like that ☹️ And am I leaving DBD? Uh, kind of? I’m not really sure, yet. What’s likely to happen is I’ll either be much less active there, or I’ll completely leave and use Scratch for interacting with friends and sharing art instead.* I’m planning to slowly start becoming less active though, as I need to focus more on real life and I’m starting to outgrow Scratch. I’ll probably stay for longer if I get accepted into the SMP, but otherwise I’ll leave once I turn 17 or soon after. That’s it, bye! :> Also sorry for the essay basically, this was supposed to be short. Let me know if you have any questions or disagree with anything in this project, I’d be happy to listen. I might have written this badly, as you can tell from the situation a bit earlier I’m away with the fairies atp *I’m saying this, but I’ll probably be just as active on DBD bro ✌️ it’s addictive, and plus sooo much more pressure will be taken off now that I’m not a manager.
