Passing on the torch

Congrats Bag, you really do deserve it and I’m proud of you. Dusty, I’m glad you were finally able to stay down, as it seems that’s been something you’ve been wanting for a while. I wish you the best for whatever you occupy most of your spare time with after this <3

Congratulations on your new role, Bagera. If anyone deserves it, is is you — I have a feeling you will do great things for TG going forward.

I hope Dusty is able to get the rest he deserves, we are forever grateful for all that he has done for the forums.

Ahhhhh! Congrats! You are gonna be a great owner! *hugs bag*

(Today 17:04)Bagera Wrote:  This is a rather huge announcement that I write in a bit more of a personal tone since I feel that it deserves a level of reverence and respect.

As many of you know, DustWolf has been wanting to step into the background for a long time now. He has been the owner of tg, and thus it's face, for... I don't even know how many years at this point. Love him or hate him, he keeps the lights on, he pays the bills. He coded TG from the ground up and he is still the only person here who can take care of the site from a technical standpoint. Whether you like him as a person or not, please understand this and respect the work he has and continues to dedicate to this space. Many people in the wider therian community dislike him, but despite all of this, he still put forth that dedication to keeping this space here, so all of us can use it freely. This place is like home to many people, myself included.

I've been here since the year TG was founded, back on the old website. I remember back when Dusty joined actually, I've been here even longer than him, and lots of folks over the years already thought I was staff since I just seemed to be a fixture in the community. When TG needed new staff early this year, I felt that it was a chance to give back to this space that has been my home for these many years.

Now I come to you all, once again taking up a mantle of service for this space.

Dusty will be officially stepping down as owner of Therian-Guide. He is tired and has been trying to give the rest of us staff the tools we need to take over as much of the technical as we can. He won't be leaving the site, and still plans to keep the lights on, but he wants to fade back as much as he can to enjoy the quiet role of tech wolf. The past few days, we staff have been carefully discussing and casting our votes on who will be taking up the torch as the new owner of TG. As you may have already surmised by my winded personal speech, I have been chosen to be the new owner of Therian-Guide. Unanimously so. I was humbled to wake up this morning and see that every single staff member felt that the community would be best in my hands.

It was a lot, I'm feeling many emotions right now, and I write this announcement nervously because I'm feeling some hella imposter syndrome right now. I also want to make sure I do what is best for this community, and that isn't always easy. Being staff was already difficult. More difficult than many folks see since we try to keep much of the goings on behind the scenes, to try and keep this space tranquil. As the other staff have said during their votes though, they have seen me consistently handle issues head on, with compassion, and maturity. I know I'm not perfect and will end up making people mad at some point, but please know that I truly love this space, and will do everything in my power to do what I feel is best for it. So with that, the torch is passed. May we continue on to a bright future.

With humility,
Bagera

THIS IS HUGE!! I’m so proud of you Bag! I know you’ll do great as our new leader!

Hey everyone,

Just so that you won't be worried, I just wanted to say that yes, this is really going on and also it's not sudden... we've been kinda talking about this for a long time now.

Basically, the Therian Guide community is a wonderful thing. This forum may just be a platform, but it's been a home for so many of us therians over the last 15+ years. It's changed the lives of many therians, by allowing us to meet and make friends with people who genuinely understand our somewhat esoteric experiences.

Because of this, I've come to realize that what is best for TG must take precedence over what I might personally feel. We've already done this to a large degree with the staff team, as I mentioned before I've been only very marginally involved in staff decisions lately.

The truth is that I am not a social animal and while I genuinely love many of you and I'm sure you know that, having to force myself to be social with thousands of TG members has taken a toll on me. My life is pretty complicated with my job and stuff as it is, I've been feeling stress from the changes that I needed to make, to make myself a better person through therapy. So simply put, taking care of TG stuff on top of that has been a bit much at times for me.

Many of the other old staff have simply left TG because of this stress... and this honestly is what I would have done as well, but I couldn't because there are technical aspects of TG that depend on my help to exist. As I have mentioned, TG is too important for me to simply let it die, so... me and the rest of the new staff team are slowly figuring out how to release TG from under my care to the others and well... one of the things we talked about is passing the torch of ownership of TG to Bagera.

I will do a short writeup about about where we are with the more practical stuff in the staff journal, because I know you guys care about TG and I think you have a right to know.

LP,
Dusty

I wish you the best of luck

Congrats Bagera, none of us doubt you'll do great. Thank you for taking on the responsibility!

And huge thanks to Dusty for keeping the site alive, enjoy the well deserved rest!