User blog:Toastmonster/Burned out

Some of you may have noticed I've been absent from this wiki for several weeks now. I hope I haven't been missed too much.

It's a funny thing. Circumstances meant I wasn't able to get to my computer for a day. There were more important things to do. Well, I did them. And the following day, when I returned to the wiki, I discovered my 160+ days progress towards the "True Scribblenaut" achievement (contribute to the wiki every day for 200 days) was lost. Gone. 0/200.

Suddenly I lost all motivation. It turned out that working towards that one achievement was what kept me going. And now I was back to zero. It was as if all my hard work since Christmas last year was gone.

Of course, I know really it's not gone. This wiki is a testament to that. It now has thousands of pages and images. Our little band of committed editors worked hard together, day after day, to get this far.

But I had stumbled. I lost my rhythm. I slummed around on the internet, spent more time at Reddit and other online haunts. I avoided the wiki entirely. Just visiting my profile page reminded me that I was back at zero days for that achievement. I felt a guilty pang as I navigated away again.

I couldn't bring myself to even play Scribblenauts during this time.

And then, three weeks ago, I got into the beta team for the relaunch of a game that I had last played in 2009, shortly before it closed down. This was a game I had been waiting for the relaunch of for four entire years, and finally it was coming back. I threw myself into it, and quickly became an administrator. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? The game is still in limited beta, and the developer is still refining it as we point out bugs and make suggestions. But it's due to be opened up to the public soon. Here's a link, just for completeness sake:

It's how I do things. I find something, and I obsess about it and pour all my energy into it, and then I burn out and move on to something else. There have been many sites, communities, and games I've been through this with before. It was simply the turn of Scribblenauts Wiki.

But I don't want to give up. Not on this wiki. Not on this community. I'm determined not to. So here I am, writing this blog post, trying to work out how I can get back into it. I need to pace myself. Split my time between communities. Keep things fresh so it becomes fun again and doesn't feel like a chore.

I need to catch up with my friends, CandD, Nintendalek42, and Psychicken17. I need to find my feet again. I need to get back into capturing images, making lists, and doing everything I can for this small band of brothers that we are.

And importantly, start from zero again. One day at a time.

Toastmonster (talk) 15:46, June 17, 2013 (UTC)