Quite a bit happened in the last couple months. I tried to help the USA forum in its activity and even created a game thread for it, but it was too complicated, and I found myself totally unwilling to carry it out, so I had to kill it early on. Shamefully, I kind of let down USA. Academia also had some trouble. I introduced the game Travian to Academia, and we had a thread there about it, the same that brought activity to the forum. A few weeks later, a member suggested the Travian forum, having seen this thread and that some people would actually use such a forum. Shortly thereafter, the forum was founded, and the thread in Academia fell into stagnation again. Just a few days ago, Praetorian_Lord lost his moderator status for Academia and its sub-forum. It was sad to see him leave the moderator team. He is still a trusted friend of mine, and he is the kind of guy who did not spoil in his own position of power.

So the Travian forum formed, and it was pretty active for these last couple months. Activity seems to be declining, though. It is a very difficult game, and I think most of us are at the end of our ropes and patience with it. I finally just quit it altogether; although, I am still sitting Deathsythe's account.

The Halo Social forum became a bit more calm for a while, but controversy soon arose again. Willow Vampire developed a reputation for making an argument with guys who said they liked big breasts. This lead to the creation of the Breasts thread. It initially started out as the kind of discussion that I just described, but then it soon became an album of images and gifs of huge breasts. The Thread of Sexiness became the eye of the storm in the conflicts. At first, they were posting sexy women. Then Byzantine and w00tageseven started posting erotic images of Anime girls and furry art. Some people didn't like this. Jeffroe was the most vocal about it, as always. This became an issue for him too, though, as he had recently been promoted a moderator to a couple of the Halo forums. I had seen ChiroVette get on him already before for being a jerk to other members while wearing the moderator tag. It was not very professional, and I cannot say that I disagreed with Chiro.

Jeffroe started posting pictures of Barbie dolls without clothes as a crude joke to what they were doing. I thought it was actually kind of funny, but Byzantine and w00tage took offense to it. In retrospect, it was a bit offensive and not the best way for him to behave. Jeffroe's angle on the controversy soon became his undoing, however. In the third installment of the Breasts thread, about a month ago, Jeffroe started making unfair jabs at w00tage, without even the slightest provocation. The Killing Light and Byzantine called him out on it. He stonewalled by saying he couldn't change being an "asshole" and that we never will. W00tage gave a mature response, saying that it wasn't very proper of him as a moderator to act as he did, and even said, "Soon in year, you will demote." Haha. I came in and supported w00tage's post and went on to say that if he could not change, then he should resign. If he does not then he is going to get demoted sooner or later. Whether or not he was going to be mature enough to serve was up to him. In the end, all moderators are charged with representing the integrity of the site.

Daedric showed up not long after and said that moderators criticizing other moderators for what they do was one thing that he would not tolerate and suspended the conversation about it, under penalty of ban. However, it seemed that w00tage was right in what he said as this offense was among the last of many straws. Not long after this incident, Jeffroe demoted. He just would not change, and if being a moderator meant that he had to, then he no longer wanted to moderate. That seems like a pretty lowly way to go about on this site. I just hope people can take this story as an example that all members and moderators are accountable for their actions.

But meanwhile, a whole chain of events were going off on the other side of Neoseeker, in big forums like Lougnin' and IE. Koloth had begun to become less active and did not tend to close threads as much or even perform typical moderator duties. I had a feeling inside that he might demote soon. So I sent him a PM, asking who in the forum would be an ideal successor for either of us, if one of had to step down. I was willing to go with whomever he might have suggested, and he happened to share the same opinion as me: Byzantine as a top pick and Naked Snak3 as the next best. Both had been there for a long time and proven themselves as people who could discuss controversial topics with an amazing amount of self-restraint. They had all the traits that had gotten me promoted in the first place, maybe even to a higher degree. It gave me comfort to know that Koloth and I would be together on this, if one of us had to demote.

At about this time, the Neoseeker elections started. It was just a couples weeks after the last update here that I posted my Farewell Address in Loungin' and officially stepped down as president. I changed the message in my signature to "Former President Rome", and my days as Neoseeker's first president were finally over.

In my address, I tried to stress that people have fun and try to win, without taking it too seriously. I also stressed that the president gets no power and that people shouldn't make too many promises that they will not be able to keep. The president only represents the site, and that is all we should expect. People should vote for someone who can properly represent everyone. I tried to do that, and I hoped the next president would too.

Some members got ahead of themselves and began organizing campaign machines prematurely. Aether was the chief example. He had banners being made, several members brandishing them, and even had a blog set up in which he was interviewed. I retorted with a blog of my own, saying that it was all pointless and needed to stop, because nobody even knew if they would be selected yet. When the candidates were announced, Aether was not among them. I felt a bit bad for him. Hopefully, he'll get a shot at it next year.

However, I began to think seriously about who I was going to support, because I naturally wanted someone I liked to succeed me. I had to think of someone with the right qualities but also was likely to be selected as a candidate by Ryancola or one of Lougnin's moderators. I decided Klope was the best choice. He was my fiercest opponent last year, as I previously wrote, but he and I had become good friends in the following year and still are. He has a great personality, is pretty smart, young, handsome, and even sported a few moderator tags of his own. If his base of support was anything like it was last year, he had an excellent chance.

So I contacted him and discussed his running in the Elections. He was a bit reluctant, so he entered on one condition. He had tried to get me more involved in his Big Brother events last year, and I declined both times. After going through the Elections last year, I did not want to get so involved in another event. However, after competing against me, Klope knew I could make things interesting, if I were in it. His condition was that I had to enter the Big Brother 3 event that was coming up. I cared more about ensuring that a quality candidate gets elected, so I agreed without much hesitation. As I predicted, Klope was selectd as a candidate in the Underated Party.

There were only four parties this year, as opposed to five last year. This was to cut the amount of time spent on the overall event, but that kind of proved pointless, because Ryancola had difficulity in meeting his own deadlines on time, and that slowed the event some.

In the Shane Party, I agreed to support Praetorian_Lord, because he was a good friend of mine, and I felt he would make a good successor as well. He and I both share a love for politics and power. He won a pretty decent victory against Rune Ripper and Angyles Cerddoriaeth, his only real competition, and it gave a hopeful sign for future successes in the Elections. Bobbonew ran with Kjgmusic as his running mate. It was unfortunate that I went against him in his primary, when he selected me last year as a candidate. It's also sad that he and I don't talk as much. Kyle was a very personable, kind, and brilliant person all around, and I miss the conversations we had together.

Another thing happened just as the Elections came to a start. Koloth sent me a PM, stating it was time he should step down as mod of IE. It just became more of a chore for him these days, so there was no point in carrying on. My intuition had been right. Now I would submit my request for Byzantine to be promoted alongside me. I knew he was the right guy for the job, but with the Elections going, I also thought of how it would affect things. Daedric Prince had also entered the elections and pulled the evil stunt of selecting Byzantine as his running mate. Eric came to me on MSN, excited about it, and I knew immediately that he had been selected, mainly because Daedric was hoping to acquire my support. However, I had no desire to get Daedric even one vote, even if my best friend was running, so I didn't meet his hopes. Now if Byzantine were the mod of IE, this would be an incredible boost for Daedric's campaign, because my tag alone last year made a huge difference. I was worried at first about this, but then I realized something else. Eric only accepted Daedric's offer, because he wanted to boost his own status on the site and gain a little more recognition. With the the IE tag, he would have that and could drop out of the race without any loss. I suddenly didn't feel as irked about recommending him as a co-moderator. However, in the end, both he and Naked Snak3 were rejected, and I ended up being the sole moderator of the forum.

The Quierta Party was challenging. I had to go against my best friend. I had gotten to know Chad from the Travian forum and liked him a lot. Playing the Bill Clinton of the Elections made me liked him even more. I really would have liked to support him, but I decided I owed The Don, a long-time friend of mine and supporter of mine from last year. Things proved difficult, because some of my mutual friends with Eric would not vote against him in this primary. I remember trying to coax The Lost Soul into not voting for Daedric, but he would not budge. When I started to get a bit frustrated about it, he said that his one vote would not really matter anyway. Boy was he wrong. This primary was about as close as they come. Everyone came within just a few votes of tying, and--lo and behold--Daedric and Chad tied for first place. They both ended up advancing to the general election, which meant I had to go against my best friend again.

The Underated Party was Klope's race. It was interesting, because almost all the black candidates were there: The Hazard, Toby, and Klope. This meant that none of them could play the Obama card. As Klope's primary started, he had lost regular access to the Internet, so I had to do all the last-minute campaigning for him. I did as best as I could, but Toby won with an enormous margin of votes, and it seemed like he was going to be the ultimate victor in the end. Klope came in a modest third place, after the Hazard. I think The Hazard was helped by his coolness and a very funny video made and posted by Glotnot in support of him. I did my best for Klope, and now his side of the bargain was complete, and I had to do mine.

I supported Capn Droid in the Ryancola Party, because he supported me last year. This primary was about the quietest part of the Election, since things had been so delayed and drawn out that people lost interest. He did not do well, and Avalith ended up winning by a small margin, and voter turnout in that primary had been pretty low compared to the rest of the others. Many predicted that the general election would have very low turnout as well. I decided to support Praetorian_Lord, as I had in his primary, to the end. I wanted to support Chad too, but I still had my obligations to P_L to honor. In the end, voter turnout was only slightly less than that of the general election last year. Chad won, and P_L did much worse than I had hoped. Still, I was happy Chad won. He would make a good president, and at least both Neoseeker Presidents so far have been Americans. In his Congratulations thread, I jokingly posted the results of my general election, compared to his. He and I had the same proportion of votes, but since I had a higher turnout, I had more votes. Now the point of the joke was to, more or less, satire the persona about me that I took the event really seriously. A lot of people didn't see that and seemed to think I was simply bragging, but to hell with them. If I really took the Election that seriously, I would have been pissed that Klope and then P_L lost, but it never really bothered me at all. Regardless of what happened, I'm glad for Chad.

Around the time the Elections were ending, Big Brother started. I applied, and of course, got into the event, just as Klope wanted. My friends Various and The Lost Soul had gotten into the event as well, and so did Chad. They sure did pick an interesting cast. In the first competition, Various and I got nominated to get kicked out. Various won the Veto and nobly used it to remove me from getting knocked out, leaving himself at risk. Unfortunately, he was the first booted out of the Big Brother house, and many people thought it was unfair. I won the next game and nominated LivesLikeBeth for eviction, since she nominated me, but she won the Veto and save herself. It was about at this point that I almost got into some trouble. Apparently, a rumor of my deal with Klope got out that I had bought my way into the event and victory by supporting Klope in the Elections. This resulted in Quierta interrogating me about it. I was shocked at the tone she took with me, because she seemed almost certain that I had done something wrong from the moment the window came up. The whole time I felt like she was suggesting there was some impropriety on my part due to my supposed egomania. Only until I told her every last detail did she drop it. I have to give her credit for hearing me out, but I felt she was extremely rude and out of line in the way that she did it.

It was also at about this point that my computer started having trouble, and I couldn't get on Neoseeker enough to participate in Big Brother. In absence, I was nominated for eviction and then voted out. I managed to get my parents to let me use this family computer, as I first did when I joined this site, but this was only just recently. Ironically, I ended up like Klope in my event. I couldn't access the Internet, right when it counted, and it may have been what cost me. I felt bad that had not done my utmost to make the event interesting for Klope, but he didn't make an issue of it. Finally, after a very sluggish election, a harsh hearing, and a short-lived competition, my deal with Klope was done.

As I mentioned earlier, my recommendations for my new co-moderator were shot down. Since then, I have tried to make some sweeping changes in IE. I made a New World Order thread in IE, and starting gathering ideas for the forum. There is now a Current Events thread, but it's been minimally active. I put into place a harsher policy for rulebreaking, especially toward flaming, and I made citation a must for all Zero Tolerance threads. Koloth never left the forums, and strangely enough, he was the first that I banned with these new rules, for telling Barmy Brat to get it through his "thick skull". Koloth was perfectly cool about it and recognized that he, even as the former moderator, held no privileges in the forum. Right now, I'm trying to get a Video Debates thread going in IE. It might work, but first, I need to get some participants. I have also issued the creation of a Source Archive, to list multiple sources that members can use to follow the rule on citation. Naked Snak3 and Another_Mutant have been very cooperative and productive in what they have done, but there is so much more yet to do.

Daedric demoted just recently, but for different reasons the Jeffroe. The activity of Halo Social and his other forums had dropped significantly, and so he no longer had a job to do. I had many conflicts and disputes with Daedric, but I ultimately think that he pulled through as a good moderator. DragoniteBallZ still retains his spot over Halo Social though, and we are currently in the process of trying to bring the forum out of its recession in activity and restore some of its former quality. I currently have a thread, devoted to planning the Next Internet Sensation there. Right now, Glotnot, Willow Vampire, Jeffroe, and I will be working on it. We'll see how it turns out.

Shane finally demoted from Loungin', and then Darknet, Lone Warrior, and Chad were all promoted to the forum. Times have been good for Chad. So much happened in the last two months, that I'm surprised I can remember it all. I'm glad I'm still meeting new people, like Zaraxia, Angyles Cerddoriaeth (who had a great interview), Chad, and Glotnot. Rise or fall, win or lose, the best part of this site is the people you meet.