My dearest Tumblr Friends,
I’ve been putting this off for far too long, so here goes.
I’m not sure how many of you may know this, but TAT has been around since 2017. 2017! Can you believe it? That’s five years. Five years, 260 weeks, and over 13,000 posts, to be exact, and I’ve been around for every single one of those 5 years, 260 weeks, and 13,000 posts.
I know the issues I went away for a bit to ponder are polarizing with many a strong opinion on all sides, but I think we can all agree that 5 years is a very long time. A lot can change in five years: a community, for one, and a blogger for sure. I am certainly not the same person I was 5 years ago, and I think that fact is starting to show. My personal squicks and triggers were beginning to interfere with my ability to run this event as the open and honest space it deserves to be.
That being said, it is with a heavy and yet relieved heart that I am announcing my retirement as the custodian/moderator of TAT.
I do want to make one thing perfectly clear to anyone who may feel this is not the right decision to make. Stepping down as moderator of TAT isn’t about me cowing to anon hate or the discourse in the community previous events generated. This is about me, the person who runs this blog, who is ready to hand the reins over to someone else after 5 years at the helm of an incredible project that was imagined up by a fellow whumper. An event that was entrusted to me 5 years ago and transformed into one of the longest running and, if I may be so bold, one of the most popular events in the community.
What it all boils down to is that I am ready to move on. I’m ready to focus on other things like my writing (I want to try my hand at writing a novel!) and gifmaking. I want to take a step back, hang up my spurs, tuck up beside the fire and enjoy the fruits of the community I’ve helped build. I want to retire.
One thing has become very clear to me over the course of the last year or so, and friends have even pointed this out to me on more than one occasion. I haven’t been happy running TAT for a while now. In the words of Marie Condo, it no longer sparks joy. I was canceling the event more and more and you guys deserve better. TAT deserves better. It deserves a moderator who is excited about tropes and who isn’t on the verge of a burn out. (And I am dangerously close to that precipice.) I want to be able to enjoy tropes again. I want to write them and read them for fun and comment on them, not because I have to, but because I want to. And so, I think my tenure as moderator has come to a natural close. I want to step aside on a high note, and 13,000 posts seems like a pretty good high note to me, don’t you think?
I think TAT has a lot of life in her yet and I don’t think it should go away just because I have made the decision to step down. I was thinking I could possibly rename the blog to archive the previous posts so that the TAT name could be reused and someone new could take over. I would only ask that it be made clear that I am no longer affiliated or providing input for the blog and the owner would be free to do with it what they will. If anyone is interested, please contact me over DM to discuss. The askbox will remain closed.
I know I said above that I’m dangerously close to a burn out, but that does not mean I haven’t enjoyed every single moment of running this blog. Or of interacting with the amazing members of this incredible community. I am going to miss seeing those 100+ asks in my askbox every week. I’m going to miss getting that first glimpse at the limitless creativity and infectious enthusiasm you all have for whump. This has been an incredible 5 years and I can’t thank you all enough for all the support, love, and understanding you’ve shown me over the years.
I will forever be grateful to you all for making TAT so incredibly special.
Yours in whump,
Marie