[Doctor Internet]

We've had our share of difficulties. We've had our share of arguments. We've had our share of good times. I know why you've left, and I respect that.

Some of us are still trying to push your vision. Good luck in whatever you do now you glorious bastard.

[Jono]

We're on the same page in terms of direction, as you know. I understand why you left and agree with most of your post.

I don't think limelight will ever be what we can envision it being, and that's okay if we go forward whole heartedly knowing what the deal is.

Been a pleasure working with you boi, am sure we'll keep in contact, even if only to talk ideas.

don't be a stranger yo

[Blazing]

You've always been a level headed person from what I've seen, and I'm sure a lot of the work you've done has gone unnoticed by the general community. You'll be greatly missed. Good luck with your pastures anew.

[Vinic]

Welcome to the club, Vauld. We have jackets.

[The Rock]

Welcome to the club, Vauld. We have jackets.

No u dont

[Preditor]

*Gives jacket for probably like the 8th time*
I still love you.

Also amen to the OP, back in my day it was never about the money.. Not that it is now but.. Sure does seem that way.

[give me the gamemode]

*Gives jacket for probably like the 8th time*
I still love you.

Also amen to the OP, back in my day it was never about the money.. Not that it is now but.. Sure does seem that way.

Limelight is a business, businesses are made to get money.

[Jokhah]

Goodnight, sweet prince.

[Vauld]

So I've done extremely extensive thinking over the last few months, and I'll try to break down things even more for anyone curious.

The biggest issue LL has right now is that the entire staff team has responsibilities outside of LL. No one is really willing to invest a large portion of time into LL as a whole, everyone just focuses on their own department and no one pays attention to the entirety of the community. HR focuses on HR, SEC focuses on Security, and Developers focus on development... Who focuses on the entire operation and moving every department in a common direction? - no one. This is the largest issue by far I think Limelight has, I've done extensive research on virtual teams, and it's absolutely vital to have an invested and connected leader who can push a common goal. So why hasn't this happened? Keep reading.

As for your point @Preditor you're partially correct. This comes with what I mentioned earlier, the staff team is much older now, and everyone has real life responsibilities. It's a simple fact of the matter. As a result of this, people have limited time and would rather work on whatever they feel like in their own department. And it's all on the staff member's time schedule, we've always said "Life comes first" and the staff team still stands by that. The issue then at that point, is you have a lot of young adults pursuing education/careers, and while that idea of life comes first is nice, if you only have 5 minutes of free time - how do you motivate them to invest time into developing things they don't want to do, or to take the time to lead a company direction. The answer is money.

It's not like we're dealing with 15 year old admins anymore, we have an extremely mature staff team and it comes with huge issues. Young adults/adults who have a busy schedule can only go so far through volunteering before it becomes frustrating and a time-sink that's not worth it. The solution is to pay the staff team to lead, and to do things outside the requirements. At that point the issue becomes the overall feasibility of Limelight as a business. It's truly difficult and time consuming to make money. Even then, the money simply cannot support paying a competitive rate, development, management/leadership, etc.

However, it's important to point out that it isn't about the money. But that sentiment can only go so far, everyone is comfortable saying "It's not about the money" until you realize that people work for tens maybe even hundreds of hours doing work. Perhaps for a 15,16 even 17 year old this is great, you get decent money and help a community you love. But for a 19, 20, 21+ year old, it's not feasible to do hours and hours of work for little money. It results in a burnout - you got other shit to be worrying about.

I hate to sound like such a debbie downer, but this is the reality of Limelight's situation.

The results are unfortunate, instead of driving fun, community and roleplay - I feel like we're driving updates, security improvements and rule enforcement. You might say, well updates promote fun, community and roleplay? Well sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. That's not my point. My point is that the core values of Limelight have been lost through an aging and busy staff team, the emphasis is less on the why and more on the doing. We haven't had a real shakeup in years, the results are a stagnant server.


So yes, we have an extremely professional, mature staff team- but that comes with an incredible amount of issues. Ultimately, this is the situation we're in, and what needs to happen is not feasible. We'd need to completely rework the staff team, redo the company equity situation, and the community would probably implode. So we gotta work with what we have, I proposed a few things to improve our situation whilst I was helping, and I truly hope to see these changes pushed through - I think it would help the situation. I also have a lot of faith in the staff team to make the right decisions for Limelight as a whole. I know many people on the team agree with me and are trying to make things work better in the situation we're in.

tl;dr:

Staff team is busy af with real life stuff cause they're all older (which is great #proud of all the team), but results in a bunch of issues and slow pace/stagnation. Confirmation of Gmod not being profitable enough to be a long-term things for adults: 99% of communities are run by 12 year olds.

[Soviethooves]

ill miss u bb

[give me the gamemode]

So the solution is to promote more kids? Cool and nice

[Vauld]

we need more 12 year olds.

PRE-TEENS UNITE!

[Nev]

Drain the swamp, bring in additions (replacements) to the staff team that want to play and most importantly have the time to play.

Some administrators should reflect on their priorities and understand that they're not doing the community a favour sitting in the role with the intention to hop on maybe a few times a week. Activity should be reviewed and if you're not able to balance school, family and having this commitment then it's time to face the facts and take the decision to resign if you haven't been asked to already. You're not doing anybody a favour holding the position and being inactive due to personal time conflicts with the premise that you'll eventually have time to dedicate to the game.

If you want to keep a relatively small administrative team, then at least have one that consists of members that are active both on the forums and in-game. It seems like the band-aid on the wound recently has been the promotion of a few moderators that seem to have taken the load of in-game calls and this is dandy but you should find individuals that can consistently have the interest in administrating than that seen in moderators with the drive to make it to the next stage. You've brought on this feeling of immunity with the role of administrator - once they make it they don't have to react to @ calls with swiftness and they instead can sit back and allow moderators to get the work done while they focus on clans, builds and role-playing.

[SourLemon]

-snip-

[MrMarsh]

Sad to see you go.
I think limelight has a great potential (that is not fully met yet, although we are on a realy good way). I just hope well continue that way without to much trouble.