I used to have a lot of fond memories of this place, and I still do to an extent, but it's really hard to think anything positive about it these days after knowing how much damage it's done to people. I know multiple people who were groomed by users on here, and I've learned about a few Self Deletes that I can't help but think had something to do with this community.
I haven't been active in almost four years, but I still check the forums once in a while out of morbid curiosity. I don't really keep in contact with anyone from here anymore, other than Pecon's friend group and occasionally popping in to the Rebuilt Discord. I purged my Steam friends list back in 2022 and I'm not really sure I want to keep in contact with anyone else... no offense.
The past four years have been pretty crazy--moving to another state, coming out as trans (yes, another member of the Blockland->trans pipeline), and basically starting my life from scratch. It's been hard at times, but it's been extremely worth it and I've never been happier!
I do miss aspects of it--the sense of community was strong, and it was always easy to run into a familiar face. At its peak, it was small enough that everyone sort of knew each other, but big enough that it was always active and never got stale. That aspect and of course all the funny forum threads are what I'll miss. There also still has never been a game I've found that's as moddable and as fun to mod as Blockland. I've always found the game and its engine endlessly fascinating, and I probably will always come up with some sort of project to work on. (That is, until I remember how dead the game is and lose interest...)
I could write paragraphs about how awful this place was and all the reasons it became the way it did, but y'all have already done that ten times over, so I won't. I told myself I would never post here again, but the forum seems to be in its "sad reminiscing" phase, so I thought I'd post here. It played too big of a role in my life to not say something, and I'd be lying to myself otherwise.
I apologize for all the edgelord stuff I did including that stupid-ass mod I made when I was 17. If you think that kind of stuff is funny, get help, honestly.
Anyway, I wish all of you the best. I hope we can move on from this community and be happier and better people â¤