If I waited too late to respond to anyone's concerns, I apologize. I felt that it would be bad form to involve myself heavily in this thread without giving everyone a chance to comfortably express their concerns to the people whose recent decisions have raised those concerns.
I felt my continued presence could only exacerbate an already difficult situation -- and, really, I had no business getting involved. Honestly, I couldn't have spoken to the rationale behind selecting me as well as those who had themselves made the decision.
For that matter, I'm the new guy here, in all reailty. Sure, I've lurked since the site was put up and was a member at ACF, but TLS isn't ACF, thank God, and a good number of you are unfamiliar with me.
As such, I didn't want in any way to negatively impact anyone's comfort in voicing their concerns. Knowing a guy's in the room while you're discussing him in a situation such as this could be awkward to some, and I didn't want that.
That said, I assure all of you that I'm aware of your concerns. Though I haven't posted since the second page of the thread, I've read every post that's been made.
As Omega has now specifically requested my presence, I'm going to respond to a number of the concerns and issues raised.
Before I do that, though, I want to reiterate once more that I will try not to let down those whom the position is intended to serve: the community. I encourage -- nay, request -- that if you have any concerns about either the site or my own conduct, you bring them to my attention, or the other staff's should the situation call for it.
For the record, by the way, I also got that Phobos was joking about the cock gobbling. I chuckled.
I'm sorry I didn't do this. It honestly didn't occur to me. I wasn't online at the time the update to my account was made, as I was at work, and by the time I would have actually been in the position to make such an announcement myself, this thread had already been made.
That being the case, I just decided to go ahead and post in here.
I made a post
here, though it could have easily been missed given the
nuclear proliferation of this thread.
I hope I explained adequately in this post's opening comments why I said nothing else until now.
I agree with this as well. I know there's concern that my selection may have been based in part on a desire to select a new staffer who wouldn't be prone to disagreeing with the current staff, but if they say or do something I disagree with, I'll let them know it. And I believe they know that.
As it is, in my first post on this forum, I said I disapproved of the general manner in which fans of the CloudxAerith pairing were discussed (I'm a CloudxTifa guy myself) and view deference to what's canon as a bullshit concern when narrative coherency and in-universe continuity are raped as viciously as they have been with the Compilation of FFVII.
Elsewhere, I've disagreed with several of them, and not just on matters related to Final Fantasy. I sent Mako a PM one time telling him that I felt he was being unnecessarily dickish to someone. I'll happily do it again if I think it needs to be said, and neither liking him nor serving as a moderator will make me any less likely to do so.
In all reality, it should make me give more consideration to whether I think another member of staff is out of line.
I'll admit that I've spent most of my time on this forum there, but I do intend to branch out, and have been doing so of late.
Obviously there are still things I'm going to need to learn and people I'll need to get to know -- and who will need to get to know me -- but I'm not frightened by the challenge of hitting the ground running. That's really how I learn best anyway.
In closing, I want to say to everyone that I will do my best and don't want to let anybody down. Also, again, tell me if I fuck up somewhere. I firmly believe I have the potential to do a good job, but I'm sure there will be times I could use the input of another member of the community.
So: please help me not fail.
Thanks for reading. See you around the forum.
And ask me questions if you have them.
If the articles we've featured are anything to go by, I can tell that you're going to be a dedicated staffer, with lots of great input, which will bring alot to this place. I have nothing but optimism in this matter.
) being on staff here is rather trying, to say the least 
.
