Look at the dumb stuff I did today.

Hey cool, I started a shitstorm on Twitter today, awesome. If you somehow haven't seen it, look at my tweets and maybe try to get caught up? Idk.

Just using this space because I don't wanna use another 18,000 tweets and have to respond to a ton of people because I'm frankly sick of it. It fairly quickly devolved from discussion about potential improvement. From both sides.

I'll preface this all by saying I don't know a single thing about organizing an event. I don't know all the hoops that need to be jumped through, all the paperwork that has to be filled out. None of it. But what I do know, is that when a process clearly has issues, and everybody seems to think there's no way to solve those issues... that maybe there's something wrong with that whole process to begin with.

I don't know everybody in the speedrunning community. But I know a lot. That's what happens when you're a boring stream monster like me. Nearly every person that I've talked to has had issues either with A) Getting registered or B) Getting a hotel room. So far, all anyone's ever said about this problem is either, "Well, that's just the way it is." or the ever convincing "We're looking for other solutions right now." Neither of these should be acceptable responses. The lack of transparency with everything, and overall seemingly complete lack of communication until a stink is raised on Twitter/Reddit just really rubs me the wrong way.

The other thing that really bothers me is runners/volunteers having to go through the same crap everybody else has to in regards to hotel reservations. These are the people that make the event what it is, without them you literally can't have a marathon. So why is there no help given to them when it comes to ensuring they can more comfortably/easily/safely do the thing they're there to do? I've been informed that at the very least, they aren't subject to the registration cap, (I initially thought it was just runners, but thankfully I was wrong) but as someone who has spent a GDQ offsite, I can personally attest to it being far less than ideal. Some people may disagree with me, and that's fine, but it was a pain having to drive to and from the event hotel every day, missing out on good times with friends and having to pay a lot extra cover the extra gas/parking. Since then, I decided that it was much better to be in the actual event hotel, and have gone to whatever lengths I've needed to to ensure that. I don't feel like I'm in the minority with this, at least not with the people I've ever discussed it with. So why are the very people that make the event as special as it is being told they need to suck it up with everybody else? Concerns were raised about just opening up a block to just runners/volunteers and that's fine, but there isn't ANY possible system in place that would benefit the people that care the most about the event?

What if, you go to the runners and volunteers, and say "Hey, if you guys are cool with figuring out a group of 3 or 4, we can get you a hotel room before we open it up to the general public?" Does that work for everyone? No. People with sig others or people that just don't like people probably won't want that option, but it wouldn't affect them anyways as they'd still have the same situation as now. But now at least there's an option. There's probably lots of other potential problems with this, but idk I'm just some idiot in his computer chair and I'm firing off things that might work. Shouldn't a team of professionals with loads of experience come up with anything? Maybe they have and have already figured out why some of these won't work, we wouldn't know because we only find out when we raise hell. It just makes it seems they see the runners and volunteers as being just as expendable as the rest of the community that attends.

Even if I never run or volunteer at a GDQ ever again, it would still be nice to see at least something that shows they value all the hard work and effort these people do. I've done both multiple times and it's a big commitment no matter what you're doing, so it looks like a big slap in the face to be told "nothing we can do."

Finally, I wanna greatly apologize to the person I named as an example. They were just one of many friends I have that is dealing with all these difficulties, and theirs was just the first I happened to see when looking for an example. Instead of helping my point that even people that are trying to be proactive and not have to handle so many things all at once, it turned into "lul why you booking international travel now." Not only that, but it caused the person I used as an example a lot of stress that they didn't deserve. I feel really awful about it, and of all the things I've said, that's the one thing I wished I hadn't.

I've been pretty nonexistent lately, and today just means that will likely continue. Might just go no mic/no chat if I do stream because frankly I know this is all anybody is going to talk about and I'm just sick of it. All I wanted is to try and open up some discussion, and it turned into something awful. When will I ever learn to never have a discussion on Twitter.

TL:DR; I just wish there was more transparency/communication with GDQ. We are constantly having to change/disrupt plans with little to no advance warning, and the only time we get any sort of answers is when we have to "get out the pitchforks". Also I wish there was a little more done to help out the hardworking people in the marathon that choose to run/volunteer.