Topic: Kongregate /
3 long years... and a lot of good Memories!
Hi! My Name is Quinn, or otherwise known as CommanderSaNtA.
I am also Canadian. Nuff said there.
Also, before you start getting into reading, this is a long post, so please don’t kill me, I’ve just warned you
This post is my 3rd year anniversary post in commemoration of, well my 3rd year on Kongregate! first i have to thank Jim, and Emily Greer for making this site, and allowing me to call it my Internet home. I also have to thank Greg, AlisonClaire, Ducklette, Alison, damijin, and all the other staff members for making this site run, and for giving me the tools to have fun, and also be the Moderator i am! And last but certainly not least, i also have to thank Sprout, for with out you, i would never have become a mod in the first place! <3
Now that the “Thank You”‘s are over and done with, its onto the meat and bones of why I’m writing this post, which is to say what a wonderful time its been on here!
Time:
I joined the site on February 23rd, 2007, as a fresh 16 year old kid (my birthday was less than a month passed), who by some stroke of luck was able to play on the site, as the my old school’s blocking program hadn’t quite caught up yet. I had played for a few days before joining up on the site, and thought it would be worth my while to talk to some of the users. and what a treat it has been since! When I first joined I was a little nobody with a funny name (and honestly, who in the world would put the title Commander, before the famous name Santa?). I got my first friend on the 24th of February by the u
Username of Rusty. This would be the start of my “domination” so to speak.
i was a regular in the General chat room, as, back in the day, General was where the cool people were… or so I thought. Within the first month of play, I had met and befriended a few people, and after that I was pretty content.
Until I thought I wanted to be a Moderator.
That changed everything, and quite literally too. I went to general everyday and tried my damnedest to try and look good enough to be a mod, and sometimes I guess it looked like a little kid wanting attention, but I will never know. But then one fateful day, that being April 20th, 2007 I logged in to find out that I had the M of Moddship. I had done it, and as I said, if it weren’t for Sprout, I’d never be a Mod!
By May or so, I had tired of General, so I went looking for a room. Fortunately (or unfortunately) I landed in Barrens Chat, Greg’s (in)famous room. Also by this time, Kong was entering its Beta phase of life. To say the least, I am a Pre-Beta Mod. A rarity nowadays from my understanding.
But alas, I was still in High School, thus I had exams to do (seeing as Canadian school goes from early September to the end of June). So I left.
I left long enough to miss a chance to be in an article about Canadian gamers on Kong, being done by Marc Saltzman. I was pissed that I missed him, but hey that’s life. I also stayed off because of my little toy called a PS3. I didn’t come back till about November of 2007.
That’s when ItsaMEEEEEMario started this competition to see who could have the most friends. I gave up after a week or two of adding people from every room. By that time I had about 1100-1200 friends.
I stayed for a little while, but got drawn back to the PS3, seeing as I was 16, and was free from a job to distract me from being one of the top 100 MotorStorm players of the world. Yes I said the WORLD.
I didn’t come back from that till after I was a mod for my first year. I was disappointed that I had missed my first Mod-versary, but made a promise not to miss my next one. I didn’t. I made a few week long appearances during 2008, just checking up on the community, and making a few friends here and there.
Then came 2009.
After being away for a long time, and being grateful that I hadn’t lost my mod powers, I made it a mission to be on more than once every couple weeks.
So I held true to that word, despite working 2 jobs, being in my Senior year of High School, and my PS3, and friends, I made time to be on the site (geez I was a busy kid back then!).
During June, I spent most of my time on this site since coming back after the winter, mostly in part to losing my wireless internet connection on my router to my PS3, and in August, my first PS3 took a hit; its Bluray drive failed. So I was again in a Kongregate mood. And it hasn’t stopped. I got the new 120 GB PS3, and haven’t played it much since aside from being addicted to Borderlands (still a great purchase, seeing as i was able to watch Zombieland on BluRay XD).
The beginning of 2010 has been a lot of fun, with my brainstorming on bringing new and exciting things to this site (and hopefully you will be able to see some of this by Summer/Fall), and approaching my 3rd year on Kong (that being today), and my being 19, I’m a much more mature, and responsible person than the one who joined the site back in 2007. And this site has helped in that.
Experience as a Member:
I have to say that the site has completely changed in the 3 years that Kong has been on the web. I have to say that I personally like most of the changes.
The only one I still feel bitter about is when rating games fell from 5 points to 1. but hey, 1 person cant change a site can they?
Being a Barrens Chat member, I have learned one thing: Trolls are my friends. Just ask some of the evening (8pm-Midnight CST) casuals.
I also learned that I enjoy going onto games like 2DArray’s Just Chatting, and MainFrame_Games’ A Quest For Idle, simply because I like talking to the people who reside in my room. They are after all just like me; wanting to have a good time, and talk to people while doing it. And that is the one thing that brings me back constantly. The people. It’s the one thing that makes me really love this site. Talking to them is a true highlight of my day.
The games used to be a big part of my time here, and I have to say that I do enjoy the odd game or two, but with so many, it gets a little overwhelming trying to find an 8-bit style game. Those are my current favorite flavor of game.
And of course, being “Santa” I am asked about presents all the time. Its kinda annoying, but at times I enjoy taking people for a good “LOL” or two about a present that they want (FYI, the “Pony” is the most asked for “toy”).
Experience as a Moderator:
In the early months I was overly strict, as back before Beta rolled out, the only way to take care of trolls, spammers, alts and the like was just simply banning people. Because if I abused the power, I would lose it forever. Something that I did NOT want to do, and still don’t want to do.
By I believe 2008, the silencing system was implemented, and thus taking a lot of stress off of me. I still did not want to $@#% up, so I only banned/silenced when it was a DIRE need. Which is probably why I am the mod I am now, and why the denizens of Barrens love me so. And I love them, as much as they may annoy me from time to time.
I also have to say that the way moderating the Chatrooms has evolved has definatly come a long way. Positively, because I no longer have to ban people for having alts (I of which have 2).
That’s all the positive.
Fortunately for me the negative is very minor. my only real complaint is that when people first see that there is a Moderator in the room, they treat me like dirt. Which I guess is normal for someone with an M next to their name, although I am still not used to it. That and when “n00bz” come into the room and start, dare I say it, player-hating towards us. It really disappoints me to see that, but c’est la vie.
Oh and one more beef with being a mod. The backlash when someone who’s silenced is pissed that that happened to them. For those reading have been or who regularly get silenced that have a hard time understanding why they were silenced, please read the PSA below.
PSA:
If you have been silenced or banned, talk to the moderator via PM, and explain the situation with them. They are more than willing to tell you why you were out of line, but be civil, we (or more specifically myself) don’t like when you get all angry at us for silencing you when you were in fact out of line. We are there to make sure that EVERYONE is having a good time, and sometimes that means Silencing or Banning someone. Please do NOT let it be you!
AHHH that was a good vent (something I do not normally do)!
Closing Notes/Comments:
All in all, I’m just glad that I have been able to use Kongregate as a time suck for the times that I have nothing else to do, and despite my mother being totally ANTI-Kong for the longest time until I got my own laptop. Now all’s good, and I have to say that I am still singing my Xmas Carols, and forever will. I am also proud to call this my “Second” job, that I would gladly go and do, no matter the circumstances!
Mind you getting paid would be nice (JUST KIDDING!! but seriously…).
Finally in closing, Jim, and Emily Greer, the rest of the Kongregate Staff, and Moderators, I am glad to be working with, and for you, and for the rest of the Kongregate populace, I am glad to be your Moderator!
And here’s to yet another Year and Moderatorship Anniversary on this wonderful site!!
Moderator for Life,
Quinn,
A.K.A CommanderSaNtA
