Hey guys, sorry for the extended absence - again. There's been quite a lot going on both in my personal and professional life and it's seriously impacted my ability to work on the site over the last few months. I'm not aiming for excuses here, this kind of thing is exactly why I don't like making official public announcements about deadlines that I cannot 100% guarantee. Shit just kinda happens and I've learned to roll with it. I appreciate you all holding down the fort while we're busy getting our shit together. I know that activity here is dwindling hardcore, so hopefully that means I haven't caused any problems by not being around.
For those of you who still care about this place, you should know that we're having a bit of a change-up with leadership. Until further notice Stone will no longer be acting as community manager of SP. If you have any SP-related inquiries that you would normally go to him about, please route them to me instead. This comes as part of a short-term plan to begin rebuilding the foundation of the community as one geared towards creatives, so over the course of the next quarter we will be making changes to the forum to accomplish our goals with that plan. Along with this, we are setting aside a significant budget for a set number of animation competitions to take place this year. We are aiming to always have a competition with cash prizes going, and we intend to learn from and refine the process as time goes on using data analysis. That way we're actively improving ourselves along with our community, and by the time the site is done we'll have a much more appealing competition system.
I don't expect to suddenly have an active community again, but if you guys are still keen on sticking around I would love to have the help for when things do pick up. We let things get to a point where we're almost starting with a blank slate, which I think is ultimately a good thing since we can focus on inspiring a new generation of creatives, which is ultimately what SP should be doing long-term. The new site is an important step in accomplishing that goal, but we're in a position where taking our time and doing it right is more important than whipping something up for the handful of people still kicking around here. I know the lack of roadmap updates or really any word about what's going on might make some people lose faith, but I think I'm okay with that. When we eventually do release I'll let my work stand for itself, then people can decide whether or not it was worth the wait.
Anyway I'm finally back in the office on a consistent schedule, so once again I'm here during the day on weekdays. I'll be sure to give everyone here a heads up before we make any major changes, just so you're not caught off guard by anything.
