It’s the end of an era. A brief era, but an era nonetheless. The inimitable Chevis Preston announces his retirement from service as /r/eve Moderator. From the moment of his elevation to mod just over one year ago, there was little doubt that Chevis Preston was going to make a difference.
Who else had the gumption to ascend to moderator status by sheer force of meme?
Who else wrote for EVE Onion before EVE Onion even existed, with such gems as CCP is a Money Laundering Service: Here’s How?
Who else could generate “gud fites” on /r/eve with such skill and sheer disregard for good taste, courtesy, and kindness?
Who would continue to moderate a notorious forum even after being purged from his own alliance for objectionable behavior and/or inactivity?
Who else used his own alts to petition for his removal?
Chevis Explains World War Bee
http://i.imgur.com/klWrk01.png
Chevis made a difference.
The subreddit sits quiet for entire seconds, waiting for the punchline as Chevis announces his retirement with one last stab at EVE Celebrity, culture, and community:
But there is no punchline. Chevis simply fires a final volley, then ejects in time to rob anyone else of the killmail and loot.
Within a day of his departure, a fresh breeze blows in. Suddenly, /r/eve is filled with gud posts. Two, in the space of a single day! A hard core nerd blows our minds with How Much Ore Did Blood Raiders Need To Mine To Replace Their Losses in October (you want to read this), then CCP_Rise sheds light on the state of Medium Autocannons in PvP (surprisingly strong).
Say what you will about his moderation and his memes. Argue among yourselves as to whether he is an enormous jerk, or a content creator. Is he a memelord, or a racist hate monger? Debate whether this salute is offered with hand upon heart, or a single digit.
But one thing is certain:
Chevis made a difference.
By stepping up? By stepping down? Does it matter? Chevis made a difference.
Mr. Preston was kind enough to respond to a request for a quote on his departure, included here in its entirety:
If you can’t laugh at even the most edgy of remarks, humor is lost on you; life needs to be taken less seriously by so many people. I’ve said a great many stupid things, and then followed them with a great many well cultivated, genuine opinions. The general consensus is that your opinions are invalidated if you have a flaw in character. Nobody keeps an open mind anymore in the world.
Likewise, if you can’t show respect at the most important of times, humanity is lost on you. Everybody is somebody, and that code of respect really does exist in most people.
I’m not a racist. I don’t believe any race to be greater than another. Instead, I believe in individuality, whereby all people are different. No two black people are the same, nor two white men. Ethnicity is nothing but another trait to bullshit about because, at the end of the day, we are all human. All different, yes, but united under the flag of humanity.
I stepped down from /r/eve because the game, my game, was being killed for me. Can another individual find it fun? Yes. But I’m not willing to play something that isn’t fun for me anymore, or post in a subreddit that isn’t as fun as it used to be. Integrity drove me to step down after making that realization. Other mods stay for e-fame and power. I didn’t want that. I genuinely wanted to help create the best sub possible, fueled by individuality rather than us vs them mentality. Unfortunately, as the content creators slowly quit, I felt like I had failed in that.
I’m an asshole. I’m a great guy. I’m a mixture of both. That doesn’t label me as a racist or a great human. It just makes me individual, and that’s something today’s society of labelers (sic) forget.
FUM8 & o7 from your friend(s?) on /r/eve and from trolls and content creators across the interwebs.
