Retirement from Vox Populi

Thanks for everything Recursive! You can be very proud of the work you've done here and whereas I have great faith in your successors, you will nevertheless be dearly missed in this role. Not only have you given base, form and structure for this project to continue to flourish in wake of Gazebo's step down, but you do so with a sense of humor that I really appreciate and hope to sometimes still see around.

Wishing you well with your personal situation and just all the best in the future.
 
Holy crap man, yeah. Thank you for everything you've done for one of my favorite and by far most played game of all time. Really think the world as a whole wouldn't be the same without you. Hope your able to give your life the butt kicking back it's giving you right now.
 
A few years ago I had just started to heavily add mods to games. I stumbled onto this site not knowing what to do until I found Vox Populi. And even then you always seemed like the man with a plan.
Thank you for everything you've done for us.
 
Thank you to everyone for the supportive thoughts. I'll miss you guys.

Saiph300 said:
Farewell Recursive, I have interacted very little with this forum but I heavily appreciated how supportive you were the few times I interacted with it. I can tell you were very passionate about VP and it will be a big loss for the project. If you can elaborate about "substantial costs" maybe I and others would be able to help a little at our modest scale. Cheers man
Click to expand...
Despite being in survival mode (my life is quite literally on the line here) I cannot in good conscience ask the community to foot the massive bill I'm facing.

It's a type of situation where the only substantial cracks can be made by large hammers, so GeneralAmadeus's analogy earlier wasn't far off the mark. Small contributions would just be a drop in the bucket, and I'd feel bad accepting them in today's economic conditions.

However, if anyone out there has very deep pockets and are interested in helping me out of my plight and restoring my ability to do modding work for VP - which would be a lot more than recently - I don't really have the option to refuse help, such is my level of desperation, so feel free to reach out to me privately.

Not expecting anything to come from that, but who knows - maybe there's a billionaire's son who likes to play Vox Populi or something, or someone who's family friends with someone with the necessary skill set to help me. Worth a shot, stranger things have happened, and there's all those sayings about a small world.

And we are a bunch of megalomaniac conquerors here, right? :dunno:

I cannot explain the situation publicly but rest assured the severity is such that it needs my undivided attention, and it's a huge strain on my resources. Thus I cannot mod until it is resolved - and in a worst case scenario, that could be many years from now, or never. People with substantial enough resources could rescue me from it. It's a long shot, but I don't have much to lose.

When I studied business in college they taught me about the importance of leveraging your network as widely as possible - it's now or never, I suppose.
 
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Thank you for everything you have given and done for this community.
I hope your situation resolves in the most positive way possible.
All the best, fingers crossed you come back!
If you open a Gofundme page, let us know! :)
 
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Recursive said:
Hello everyone,

I have a terrible announcement to make. Due to horrible, insane, and very expensive things that have been happening in my life, much of which I have little to no control over, I'm forced to retire as lead developer of VP.

Circumstances have gotten too bad and I don't see myself being able to fulfill my responsibilities here within a reasonable timeframe. In a worst case scenario, I might never return here, or only after many years. By the time I return, for all I know, this site may not exist anymore.

It's not impossible for me to get out of this situation (though not without substantial costs), but it will be a vigorous fight that requires my undivided attention. I can't do that and manage Vox Populi simultaneously.

It is unfair for me to continue to be a bottleneck to progress, and the show must go on.

As a result of this, as my final act as Lead Developer, I am making the following changes to the community's structure:


1. I hereby appoint @axatin as my successor for the position of Lead Developer. The Lead Developer has final say over what goes into the mod, serving as the curator for everyone else's contributions. The Lead Developer is also in charge of making new releases. @axatin has done extensive, high-quality work on Vox Populi for years, has mastery of all facets of the code, and has shown good judgement repeatedly. I'm confident the community will be in good hands with him running the ship.


2. I hereby appoint @hokath as my successor for the position of Vox Populi Congress Host. This position has the following responsibilities:


@hokath has a very good grasp of balance, experience in the practical side of modding, and enthusiasm for the role, so I think he will be a great pick as well.

As @hokath is currently serving as one of the three Magi, he will need to appoint a successor. I will leave that up to him.


3. The positions of Lead Developer and VP Congress Host are now split, which should hopefully make the responsibilities for them more manageable.


4. I have asked site administration to grant @axatin the same limited powers that the Magi have in the VP Congress subforum, but for the entire Community Patch Project subforum, to facilitate new releases and general community administration. @leif erikson has told me he will do his best to assist the VP community during this transition.


5. I hereby appoint @L. Vern as the Grandmaster of Graphs, Charts, and Other Dark Arts, because it sounds cool and I think he deserves it for all his work with statistics. This doesn't carry any practical advantage, but anyone who dares defy this order shall suffer the mild inconvenience of stepping on a Lego.


6. I will grant additional moderator abilities to some of the top devs on the Discord server so that they can handle any troublemakers, including appointing @hokath as another full Moderator.


7. While @azum4roll has expressed a desire to continue working behind the scenes, I do at least want to give him a shout out for the enormous amount of work he's put towards making 4UC a reality, and the vast internal improvements he's made before that, which have made the project far more accessible for future modding. Additionally, at his request, I want to remind the community that anyone who can code is welcome to contribute to Vox Populi - it's an open source repository. If you don't know how to contribute, feel free to ask one of the developers.


8. From this point onwards, @axatin is in charge for development, and @hokath is in charge for balance, until and unless they themselves retire or are subject to a successful revolt (manage your key supporters, you two). I wish them and the rest of you a spectacular Version 5.0 and a vibrant community for years to come. I will facilitate the transition over the next few days.


I may continue to contribute to Vox Populi here and there, since I will likely have some spare time, but I need to pass on the metaphorical torch because there's massive uncertainty ahead of me.

I will keep my CivFanatics Moderator position for now, but I will retire from that if a worst case scenario happens.

Maybe I'll return one day when my life is in better shape, if I manage to survive the upcoming ordeal. We will be seeing...

VP has been part of my life for about 7 and a half years now, and I'm happy to have made the impact on it that I did, particularly in regards to the Diplomacy AI and the establishment of the VP Congress. But neither of these would matter without all of you. Thank you all for making Vox Populi the community it is, and I hope you all continue to polish what is already a beautiful project.

All the best,
Recursive

EDIT: A number of you have been asking if you can help me through my situation, see here for my response.
Spoiler :


Click to expand...
Strong work, Recursive. You’ve earned your rest. Take care of yourself first and foremost - this community will always be here, and the progress you have made is, well, history - nothing can erase that.

I know how much work managing this project can be, and I know how hard it can be to step back when you feel so attached. It was hard for me to step back when I did, but it was the right call. I can tell this decision pains you, but don’t regret the time you spent, or the decision to step back.

Best of luck,
Gazebo
 
I am saddened to hear this but I 100% respect your decision. I am very grateful for open source developers using their time to work on community projects such as this at all, even when it is "easy" for them. Thank you for all you've done and best of luck!
 
Thank you, I play the game almost every day and enjoy it immensely. You and the other leaders past and present made that possible. Good luck, and keep fighting.
 
I’m new here. Just got VP last year and was blown away by this community’s product. I just wanted to say thanks and I hope you’re alright with your personal life.

Maybe separately, I’d love to ask anyone has ever put together a history of or the story of vox populi. I think it would be amazing to hear about the beginnings of the project and how it’s evolved to what it is now. Who were the people driving development. What were the big turning points. Probabaly doesn’t exist, but would be worth memorializing somewhere for us newcomers.
 
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