User blog:SilverPlays97/Why I left, came back, and much more

In may 2012, I joined the Sonic News Network mainly to promote my youtube channel. Here is what my user page looked like:

Hello everyone in the world of Wikia!

I am SilverPlays97!

My YouTube page:

''New here so i don't know what i'm going to do. Maybe some technical editing, who knows!''

Anyway, here are my top 5 Sonic the Hedgehog characters!

Little did I know that I would make dozens of Voice Actor pages, fall in love with the Worlds Collide story ark, be obsessed with sprite comics, and try hard to obtain any user right. Along the way, I would meet some amazing people, spend hours in the chat room, and read and comment on hundreds of blog posts. I also meet some interesting people/characters that still perplex me to this day.

Then high school came and the stress that comes with it. The pressure to succeed in scouting as well made me realise I had to give up SNN to focused on what mattered. So I announced my departure very dramatically in May 2014 and tried to gain attention to myself. I think I did so because I wanted to know I would be remembered when I was gone.

But, I came back. I honestly don’t remember why. It was not immediate, though. I came back slowly and eventually returned to my full editing self by January 2015. I became a forum moderator and created the Sonic Game Tournament. I still talked to the same great people I knew, but I tried to focus on editing. This return would be brief, as I would leave again. This time, without a trace.

Why I left
I lost my motivation. The spark isn't there anymore. I was chasing after something that didn’t exist. Any way you put it, I was not happy to be here anymore. Two of my friends at the time, Solace and Unleashed, left. It was just me and Blue out of the “Four Musketeers”. I was stuck with mostly mundane editing and trying to complete almost insurmountable tasks. Eventually, I decided to stay away from SNN.

I achieved that task for 3 years. In that time, I grew up. I am no longer the random, misspelling, occasionally arrogant user you will see in my contributions 3 years ago. I try to keep to myself, focus my time and energy onto one goal, and have better literacy. OK I still do have problems spelling words. I deal with more serious problems like finding a girlfriend, managing expenses, understanding politics, finding a career path, and dealing with crazy characters/people.

Despite all of this, I came back to a website that was run by tennagers and sonic fanboys. Why would I come back to a place that I have so many dramatic memories of?

Why I came back
In 2017, I became an active twitter user. There, I discovered the account SonicDahMario, aka Shikki. She posts a bunch of stuff about games and Sonic, and I followed her because I enjoyed her posts. It was through her posts I learned about Sonic Mania. After seeing the trailer and the Hype for it, I knew I had to get it. I downloaded it the day it came out on PC, and have loved it ever since. The game is beautiful, colorful, happy, and really fun to play. Currently, it is my favorite Sonic game. Sonic Mania brought me back to Sonic games.

I saw Shikki post several Sonic photos and videos that were funny and weird. I noticed there were accounts on twitter that posted “No Context” pics of stuff, like Marvel Movies and Mario. I thought it would be the perfect idea to make a No Context Sonic account. I have tried to make a meme account before, but it didn’t turn out well. The account started to grow slowly, but soon, thanks to all the time and commitment I put in, people began to notice. Soon, accounts I looked up to began to retweet and like my stuff. Sonic creators and other significant people began to share my posts as well. The rate of growth of the account in July was crazy. I went on a 4-day string of posting the best tweets on my account, one that broke 1000 favorites. In less than a month, I gained over a thousand new followers. Something that took me over 3 months to do in the same year. I expect this growth to continue, and I can’t wait to see it happen! Twitter has brought me back to the Sonic community.

I knew when making this account the best place to find sonic images was SNN. I was worried about returning, that I would fall into my old pitfalls and come to dislike being here again. Running into old users also worried me, since I haven’t talked to them in years. As it turns out, allot can change in 3 years. The vast majority of people I knew left or are barely active. The chat room has been abandoned, since this wiki now has its own discord (which I think would be better than the wiki-chat room). Many of the issues I ran into on maintaining SNN have been virtually eliminated or moved under Admin control. It makes sense since the rules put in years ago were made for a much more active community. It still saddens me that no one makes sprite comics anymore or I will never see MetalMickey’s shenanigans in chat again. Those memories can not be recreated.

So why did I start editing again? To put it simply, you look for one thing to edit and you find three other things to edit. Soon you have dozens of tasks you want to do and get satisfied when you finish them. I enjoyed completing the Video Game scripts, archiving old talk pages, completing the comic by year category, and purging the broken file links category. The more I edited, the better my skills became and the stronger my drive to contribute became. I have even started to look into wiki scripts and coding to solve issues I run into. I look forward to eliminating all the missing talk pages by merging them or deleting them; all thanks to a script someone made for me on the dev wiki.

This pales in comparison to my main project, which is to cleanup and complete archie articles. I do mean everything archie. Staff, comics, covers, characters, locations, items, I want to improve it all. Most of this stuff is from Mobius Encyclopedia and allot is still incomplete. I am currently making a document listing all staff credits, which I will add to their articles, and then show what covers staff members worked on, who they created, and their interpretation on drawing Sonic. My dream goal is to own all stories in archie sonic, mostly by buying paperback collections and graphic novels. I know I will have to buy individual issues because many of them did not get reprinted. Thanks SEGA >:(

My growing drive to contribute has brought me back to editing on SNN. I have done more editing now than I have ever done my first 3 years. I hope this drive can help me in this next goal:

The future
Wikia’s WAM score is a good way to see how active a community is compared to the rest of wikia. Currently, SNN is 17th on the Gaming section and 37th overall. We are still an active community, but we can do more to grow. New editors and users will make our community more diverse and active, creating more content and keeping our reputation as the best place for Sonic information true. Soon, I will be suggesting to start an interview series. This will bring more traffic to SNN and make us more connected to the Sonic community outside of SNN. Starting a twitter account was a great idea and I have ideas to make it more active and involved. We recently redid out design for Mania Plus’ launch and we should keep doing that for future games like Team Sonic Racing, but perhaps we should try to reach out more so people can see what we have to offer. If there is some way we can convince Wikia to write some articles related to Sonic, or include Sonic more in their articles, that would surely bring more users here. I want people to come to SNN for the community and stay for the editing. That’s what happened to me.

As for what my future holds, I’m not sure. I have recently been granted Admin rights, and I would like to thank everyone for supporting my nomination. I did not actively seek adminship, but the admin team wanted me on board and the community supported me. I am ready to take on this role. Maybe I will look into coding more to find and fix problems, and I will keep working on my archie project. College is starting soon for me, so that might affect things. I can’t put this above what happens with me outside of here. I do see myself here for the foreseeable future.

The current crew
Just because SNN isn’t as active as it used to be, doesn't mean we don’t have a great group of users right now. Here is a list I made of the current team and a brief description of them (and a fun nickname, sorry in advance if I don’t include you):


 * Ultrasonic9000, the Dragon: Wikipedia users say Dragons are the rarest editors who devote so much time to editing and a wiki that you can not compare them to anyone else. Ultra is the Dragon of SNN; a consistent and reliable editor whose contributions go beyond numbers. Always looking for work and constantly improving game articles, words cannot begin to describe how much Ultra has helped SNN. Although he, as we all do, run into problems, Ultra stays strong and continues on his quest.


 * Mystic Monkey, the last Monobook wikian: Mystic is one of the longest serving users on SNN, going through every stage of its history over 10 years. A sonic fan at heart, Mystic loves to share what he thinks about the Sonic franchise with everyone, new users and old. Friendly and sociable, Mystic is a person everyone can like.


 * Myself 123, the Guardian: Myself (himself, not me), is another longtime user of SNN who is known for protecting the wiki’s pages from vandals and false information. He also tracks down sockpupets and bans those who do more harm than good to the project. He is always there to lend a hand if someone needs help.


 * DeCool99 and Veralann, the Sociable: Both of these users can be found helping all things Sociable on SNN. Whether that be modding the Discord server, talking on the boards, or tweeting on SNN’s twitter, DeCool and Vera are there to make a conversation. While being social, they also keep SNN updated with the latest Sonic news and information.


 * luma.dash, the Dev guy: Luma is dedicated to maintaining SNN behind the scenes. He is always modifying the gadgets, improving the layout, and changing code so SNN is a better site to browse. Luma can also be found working with the administration team and changing templates.


 * SilverPlays97, the Janitor: SilverPlays can be found cleaning up the wiki in different forms. From deleting unused files and talk pages, to cleaning up archie articles, to moving files and fixing citations, SilverPlays works hard to keep the wiki organised and clean.


 * DanikV, Super-Hedgehog, and CSR843, the Image gurus: SNN is known for its large amount of artwork and image galleries. These guys are here to make sure SNN has these images organised, are of the highest quality, and are able to find images you can’t find in a google search.


 * IndogamersPro, the Real World editor: Indogamer has consistently worked on expanding and improving on articles about Real World topics. Voice Actors, Systems, and staff members are just a few categories Indogamer has contributed on. Though real world is his forte, he can be found editing general articles as well.


 * PenBird2000, the Strong: PenBird is a jack of all trades who is always searching for something to edit. His hundreds of new articles and page cleanups have helped improve SNN. Even after running into issues and a ban, PenBird keeps his editing spirit going.


 * Katherine Alvarez, FredCat100, IdeaFan128, and Xpress816, the Young: These users are still new to SNN and are making an effort to make their mark on the wiki. In any case, we hope they stick around and continue to grow as editors and users.


 * Supermorff, the Legend: Perhaps the oldest active user on SNN, Supermorff is an editor many look up to. Though not as active as he once was, morff can still be found editing from time to time. He is one of the few british admins still active on SNN and a great contributor to Sonic the Comic related articles.

Thank you for reading my blog. I want to let you all know I care about this wiki and it’s users. I am proud to be a contributor to the largest database for everything Sonic the Hedgehog.