Thoughts on PSR

So tonight I had a heart to heart with Wartab. I decided to try to organize my thoughts for those who still feel like this reset button on PSR isn't worth it and is blown out of proportion. I'm hoping that you'll listen.

I've covered my story a lot, so I don't think it's necessary to get into those specifics. It doesn't matter right now. After Wartab and I talked, I realized there is indeed a cultural aspect at play here. Something important to understand is that PSR is a global community. We need to do what's best for the least of us. I can't speak for Europe, and things do seem much better for gender minorities etc there, but in America people are often bullied or ostracized or dead named or misgendered etc. The list goes on. You don't need to use the gender role, but they allow those people to feel safe in knowing that THEY won't be misgendered.

Now this part. I am telling you this as the person who was the ONLY female top Pokemon speedrunner. I don't even know if I still am. I haven't looked. But listen to me when I tell you that I felt ignored. I was fucking good at this game, and still felt brushed aside and less than similar skill level players. It was hard. I stopped caring about routing. I gave up on having my ideas heard. Now the people who were closest to me I knew respected me. When I wiped all my times, that wasn't one fight that triggered it. It was enduring the 3 years of feeling my work was worthless that lead up to that fight. Had there even been ONE female mod or admin I might have felt safe to talk to them or even speak up about ideas I might have. That matters. Representation matters. The fact that I was alone and out of dozens of mods I had NO ONE was hard. This reset is necessary to reflect the era we are in in PSR. We need new mods, people who people can trust to go to. Not just people who are good at the game.

Which brings me to my next point. A lot of people are excited about the prospect of being a mod, since we do have a full reset going on. I need you all to understand that being a mod isn't a position of power. It is a responsibility. You are responsible for the people in the community. You are responsible for making them feel welcome. You are responsible for answering people's questions, handling disputes, and verifying runs. That last part is a lot more work than it looks by the way. It's an unpaid job that's often thankless. Please consider that when you consider applying for moderator.

I'm excited to see where things end up from here. I feel a lot better about things after that whole talk. I'm glad the friends I had are still my friends, even through our differences. I think others who are hesitant can also eventually understand why this is necessary. As Eddaket said to me once and I'll paraphrase "The community loses something too when you lose an individual runner." That trans person who felt uncomfortable could've been the next top dog. >I< could've even been better. Maybe I would've stayed motivated long enough to actually get XY wr. Maybe I would've found new strats. You don't know who will actually be important. And that is my final point. In Hollow Knight, one of the biggest reroutes we ever had in 1xx% was found by TopHatLuke. He is not a top runner. He just loves the game and had a good idea. Think it over.