Irreality is closing its doors this Saturday, and Squink’s asked me to reproduce his “Exit Speech” here for posterity.
I dare say that the last few days for me have been filled with a variety of emotions. There are simply too many things I wish to express than I will ever be able to write in one place, so I will do my best, and the rest of my story can be told over campfires and midnight drinks in shady bars.
This adventure started seven years ago, on a rainy evening in the UK. Although filled with intent and the firey eyes of creation, I do not think, back then, that I could have possibly foreseen the future that was in store for us all. So seven years later, I’m sitting in Vancouver, Canada, on a warm summer’s day, looking back over all the things we have seen and done together, in awe, and with a great deal of humility.
Irreality has been, and always will be about the people. We represent a bizarre cross-section of society – the strange few who ended up on the metaphorical airship, irreality, travelling the world, meeting new friends, and having fantastic adventures. We have found understanding, fellowship, wisdom, tolerance, and to some extent, ourselves. We have seen the best and worst aspects of the human consciousness, in our friends, enemies, strangers, and lovers.
Certain people – people who felt that irreality no longer accurately represented their views of what irreality ‘should be’, claimed that irreality was no longer about the love anymore. To these people, as my final, crushing checkmate, I say this: irreality was about the entire spectrum of human existence. Without the lows to contrast the highs – the shadows to our being, we deny our very humanity. To believe we can live in an environment entirely devoid of strife and negativity is to live in delusion, denying the truth of who we are.
And with that in mind, I will unveil to you the greatest secret of all, that which I have kept to myself – and only myself, for all of these long years. There are four hexagrams in the irreality logo, and the word “irreality”. Each of these four hexagrams represent the building blocks of life, our most basic biological components – Adenine and Thymine, Cytosine and Guanine (ATGC) – the heterocyclic organic compounds that make up our very DNA. This is, then, our irreal existence.
This place, irreality.net, is not shutting down because of a lack of money. It’s not due to any of the drama or the ridiculous amount of attention it requires to maintain.
Irreality is to be unplugged because this era is coming to an end. It is the right time for this to happen, for the cycle of life to continue, and for the wheels of fortune to spin round one more time. As all things must inevitably end, all things must also be brought into existence.
I believe the things we have done here, the people who have been brought together, the relationships forged, knowledge exchanged, precedents set and in-jokes made (why haven’t we heard from chaolion yet?), will echo onwards through time. I can’t speak for everyone else, but I’m certain that in a hundred years from now, I will look back on this Era of Irreality with a tear in my eye and a great sense of awe.
As a final note, this is not the end. Irreality is becoming decentralized, and as long as someone remembers what it feels like, it may regrow from that seed into the future.
With this, I take a bow, leave the stage, and return behind the curtain from which I arrived.
I hope with all my being that you have enjoyed this creation as much as I have, and I will see you all in the new era.
– Squink
September 1, 2008 at 7:34 pm
911truth
September 24, 2008 at 2:02 am
Yea right, Irrepairable damage has been done to the site, This is a “cop out” for not wanting to take on the monstrous task of resurrecting irreality.
Maybe hand the irreality project to someone else?
Who knows, It is about the people, not your ideas of what the people should be. That is the real fatal blow that came to irreality.
It was beautiful, what was created, why not let it evolve? Become its own entity?
I also do not Guarantee mentally sound conditions. I do not offer cheesecake Recipies. Chocolate chip cookies are a different story.
January 20, 2009 at 6:10 am
I’ll miss what it was, but I know it will be again. It was a great place to be when it was there, and it will stay in my subconscious for a long time to come.
March 10, 2009 at 12:49 am
Even if Squink had wanted to keep Irreality open, his lack of self-honesty, experience, and discipline in financial planning led to a situation where Irreality could not remain open. He overstated his finances, skills, and income to attract attention, he over-spent what money he did have, and could barely pay his rent cheque. Primary financing for Irreality came from its members, not Squink.
Many of the members who contributed funds to the site began to feel disillusioned with Squink’s administration of the site. The entire administration team appeared to be going insane from miscommunication and in-fighting.
Most admins (with the exception of Fenris) were powerless to make any real decisions when problems arose, and were unable to reach Squink for long periods of time to seek approval. When they did finally receive a response from Squink, they were not allowed to say that the decision came from Squink himself because Squink demanded that he maintain a squeaky-clean reputation as the “President of Awesome”. Any slight tarnish on his reputation, he felt, would reflect poorly on his “empire” and result in the loss of Irreality. The other admins soaked up his bad decisions as their own, sometimes receiving public humiliation and abuse for decisions they had not made.
According to one former Irreality admin I talked to since the site closed its doors, “As much as I loved, and still love, Irreality, Squink seemed to grow ever more distant from his admin team, you know, people who were supposed to be his best friends. You didn’t join the admin team without existing within his inner circle of trust. Somewhere along the line, he started reading Machiavelli or something, got curious about manipulating social networks, and shat all over where he ate. We’d ask him to make a decision about something, and he’d tell us to do something or other, and then turn around and blame the resulting problems on us. Publicly. It was very disheartening. Toward the end, when people were starting to stop giving the site money, he was downright abusive and mean.”
March 10, 2009 at 9:01 pm
I was thinking of responding to this, but decided I don’t want to let Irreality drama spilling over into this site. I’m closing comments for this thread.