The Martin Reforms... or... The Rebirth: AFTERSHOCK

In 2016, the Ratchet series exploded onto the speedrunning scene with two excellently received GDQ runs. This, in turn, created widespread interest from people who otherwise had no association or interest with the game. In meeting with the demand for a central hub of information, the "rac bois" discord was created. The primary function of the ratchet community discord has always been, and will always continue to be a place where runners can go to discuss glitches and tech involved in the speedgames, theory craft new skips and optimizations, and become closer to the people who share a common interest with them.

While the discord has some shining examples of these uses (shoutouts to the ps4 channel for always having active and new content), there have also been some not-so-sterling examples of discord use. Many of the channels have become redundant or barren from disuse, or have become so littered with memes that they serve no more useful function (i.e. the "introductions" channel). This is not due to any one particular person or group of persons, but rather has become a widespread problem due to lack of structure in regards to how the discord is moderated. The problems currently afflicting this discord include, but are not limited to:

-There are too many nonrunners/people not associated with the community in the discord. This may not seem like a huge problem, and it really isn't, to be honest. Still, a problem we face going forward is that people assume this is the "unofficial xem92 chat" discord. The association has been pointed out by multiple people over the last several months, and therefore it would be better to eliminate this for the sake of clarity

-Not having a structured environment for newcomers. This is more a problem of content than anything else. What often happens is that a new runner introduces themselves as someone with interest in the series, and then a literal shitstorm of people proceed to hurl inside jokes and memes at them, which can dissuade them from having further interest if they think the community is a joke. If they want to joke around, it's fine if they do it in a twitch chat or a private discord. We want to make sure that everyone feels welcomed and has a spot where they can find clear answers about this series.

-A mess of cliques that all currently have some beef with each other. One thing I'm actually very proud of in regards to this community is that we don't say shit behind people's backs if we're not willing to say it to each other's faces. This circumvents a lot of potential drama, but there's still tension between the different groups of friends in this discord. A prominent example of this is the negative feelings that some have towards either me (xem) or the Chillest Bois. I speak for everyone when I say this drama is pointless, and it would be a very positive thing for the community if the beef was squashed and we could all move past it.

So, in an effort to clear all these issues in one fell swoop, a small group of us (me, Cippy, and Skrit) decided that the best idea would be to delete this discord and start fresh with a new one. Note that this is not a decision made by all the Chillest Bois. In fact, none of the others even know we're doing this. This is strictly a decision made by three concerned community members who want to do what they believe is the best possible thing for the community.

At this point, I'm sure most if not all of you are thinking "why can't they just change the current discord instead of starting over and losing all the information we currently have on this one?" Well, this would be a perfect opportunity to achieve multiple things. We have a fresh start to fix all the problems I listed above. We have a new opportunity to truly revitalize the community from the ground up, and make it more of a collective endeavor, as opposed to an endeavor of the experienced few. We can finally utilize the speedrun.com page to its fullest extent by taking all of the precious information we currently have and putting it on there so that the information is centralized and accessible to everyone, regardless of their involvement with the discord or community in general. We can clear the misconception that the community discord is based around any person or group of persons by emphasizing that this is a space for people who run the games or are interested in running the games, and not just a place where random people can go to meme (this should be done in private discords, not the community discord). Finally, we can establish proper ground rules on discord etiquette without the precedent of months and months of memes and general degeneracy that currently exist in this iteration of the rac bois discord.

In closing, this might seem like a very shortsighted idea on the surface. In fact, when Cippy and Skrit came to me with this idea in the first place, I thought it was a really foolish idea. But the more I thought about it, the smarter it seemed. Many of you don't know how much this community has grown over the years. It started as a simple Skype group back in 2012 that had exactly three members (Cippy, Linkinito, and Ricky). It's undergone so many different iterations of active runners and has already had experiences with massive change (ditching Skype for discord in the first place, as an example). Yet, we've continued to grow as a community not because of the groups we have, but because we all love this series far more than any normal person should. This change may not make sense to all of you, but I hope that you can understand why we believe that, in the long run, this will be a very positive thing for every member of the community.

If you have any problems/questions/concerns/comments about this change, please feel free message Cip/Skrit/me/any combination of the three of us *privately* in direct discord messages. Obviously, open dialogues are important and encouraged, but the last thing we want is a riot. So, again, to clarify; discussion is encouraged, but harsh words should be left for private messages. We want to address any and all concerns and make sure this is both a comfortable and transparent process. Every voice deserves to be heard, so don't feel as if you don't have a say. We want to make sure this transition goes as smoothly as possible.

Here's to the future,
Xem