Member of the month (October 2023): IKA

[IKA]

Hey guys! I have been trying to choose someone to spotlight as the Member of the Month based on their contributions to the website. Previous Member of the months include @broadwaybeyonder, @JohnnyChany, and most recently @Peypeypeypey. I picked them in June, July and September respectively, but in August when I could not get my schedule to work with me, I left it up to you guys to choose a future member of the month and you chose me! I do thank you all for that, but I wanted to do something a bit different this month as well, I'll get to that in a bit so stay a bit and read on . First I'm going to explain why I chose to step in and keep the website alive when I did, and what it means to me. 

In 2020, I revisited MagneticFox after some years of not participating just based on pure nostalgia. I had been talking to my wife about how I used to write and looked up some of my old setups (Ah how I thought I could write, turns out I was actually pretty bad at it and had fun laughing at myself.) But then, I saw a post referencing the ElectricFerret revival and so I jumped back onto the forum and again let my nostalgia whisk me away. I have fond memories of debating on these forums with other members such as @Nesh @C.T. @ND7 @DamagingRob @Skirmisher and many others. I know I was always a bit of a Dragon Ball nerd (and still am) but that didn't matter here, I was in a place where nerds belonged. In 2021 Fox had announced his wish to retire from the website and either hand it off or close it down. Now truth be told I was not the only one who stepped up and hoped to keep the site online, @Z451 being one of the others that come to mind. And honestly, I didn't care who the site went to, I just couldn't let it go away again. You see to me, this site wasn't just a place for nerds to me, it wasn't just nostalgia to me, it was an escape from reality. 

In 2007 I was diagnosed with stage 4 Hodgkin's Lymphoma Disease, I was told at that time I had really only months left to live. Spoiler alert, but, Judging by the way I type here now, that doctor was very much wrong on his assessment that he was "999%" sure of and it just turned out to be Cat Scratch disease which went away in a couple of months. However, in those few months, I shut myself away from the world, constantly trying to escape what I thought was the end and I buried my mind into anime and comics, constantly ignoring everything to get that last bit of enjoyment I could squeeze before I would inevitably get sick from treatments. That is when I stumbled upon ElectricFerret while searching for "Goku vs. Superman" (Yes, really) and fell fast onto this site. This site was The first thing I would go to when I got home from school and the last thing I would check when going to bed. @Fox probably didn't even know this, but he had given me a very real thing to give this kid who thought he was dying something to look forward to each night. In 2013 when it shut down, I was not as active as I had been before having a lot of things going on in my life at that time to really notice, so when I check in on the site and realized it was gone, It sucked, but I moved on. 

Fast forward to 2021, and this time I had a chance to save this site. I have worked in childcare most of my career and just the idea that something as dumb as a nerdy website giving a kid out there that breath of life they needed really needed stuck in my mind. I couldn't let this site disappear again. Fox warned me how hard this was going to be for someone not fully experienced especially in the languages needed to run the site. Boy have I been humbled the past year thinking I could just figure it out as I went along. I have made many errors so far, even knocking the website completely offline for an entire weekend in February. Fox stepped in each time and helped me (I'm sure it's super annoying when I mess up, especially since he just wants to be done with the site already heh.) He never expected anything in return and for that, I can't thank him enough. 

So, I decided that I would take this post as a chance to tell why I have kept MagneticFerret going, and why I will continue to do so for as long as I can. I wanted to thank everyone who helped me do so, and everyone who didn't ditch the site when it had a change of ownership. But I also wanted to share a fun update on something else happening. 

Going forward the Member of The Month will not be chosen by me, it will be chosen by you guys! If you would like to nominate someone, simply message me and tell me why, I will pick ONE nomination and pursue that!

One last thing, I have made it clear that I really wish to have a certain part of the website up and running again, but it takes a lot of time to fully understand these things and after a year of trying and failing to truly understand how much time it takes to put into this, I have decided to pursue getting a certificate in coding which will help my understanding on how this all operates and not just on a "keep it alive" basis. I have plans to update and expand the site even more but those such updates will take time so please bear with me a bit longer. However, something fun recently happened and older user @Paru reached out to me about getting his username back online, he hadn't logged in in 12 YEARS, so to make sure I was doing it right I reached out to Fox for some advice. He not only answered my question but has offered a bit more help. Help that will allow me to say this...

The CBUB Fantasy Draft Returns in October 2023!!! (More news on that VERY soon!)

Thank you all!

[leroypowell3]

Arguably the most deserved member of all.

It's really moving to see how much this site mean to people other than me.

[DSkillz]

Congratulations on this well-deserved honor, IKA!  I could only imagine exactly how much work it takes to run and maintain the Ferret. 

BTW, it's possible some members may have missed this: 

On 10/10/2023 at 4:28 PM, IKA said:

The CBUB Fantasy Draft Returns in October 2023!!! (More news on that VERY soon!)

Might be best to save full reactions until more info comes out regarding this, but a little anticipation can't hurt.  

[IKA]

Going forward the Member of The Month will not be chosen by me, it will be chosen by you guys! If you would like to nominate someone, simply message me and tell me why, I will pick ONE nomination and pursue that!

This part is important

[IKA]

On 10/13/2023 at 6:25 PM, DSkillz said:

BTW, it's possible some members may have missed this: 

Might be best to save full reactions until more info comes out regarding this, but a little anticipation can't hurt.  

Alas, it was delayed...