You got me completely out of guard with this one, and summarized everything pretty well.
At some point I realized that if I didn't shake things up the community would never evolve from where it was. First because the resources we had were very limited, and black and white photography being such a tiny niche wasn't helping either.
Giving exposure to the unnoticed photographers was always our main objective since day one, but always with the utopic goal of becoming one of the best photographic communities around.
I am not sure if we accomplished that yet, but it's at least evident that we disrupted that stagnation we were in and evolved to something bigger and better.
I know I was rough, but back then (and this is not to try to excuse myself) I realized the project was in a do or die stage, so I decided to put my sleeves up and shake up the ones I actually saw big potential in. You being one of them.
I am conscient that it pushed away few people, and in some extreme cases even created some domestic trolls as you can see here and here but at the same time it allowed us to restructure the community and become a place where people do want to post in and be associated with.
Thank you very much for your brutally honest opinion and opening up the way you did here.
You're one of the good guys.
Thanks a lot @brumest. Many people don't know, but you are so an amazing person. I still remember when you helped me out with that Hive patrol guy, I think Jaguarforce.
I'm grateful for the opportunity of the daily monomad challenge. I'm grateful for the growth the black and white community has seen. And it's exciting to know that there are more improvements to make from here.
About the trolls, they'll rest in due time. I think almost everyone got the lashing about improving our entries, but I don't think it was enough reason to troll. It takes a progressive person to take corrections, learn, and grow from his/her mistakes.
I hope that the people who went away( like me 😁) realize that you didn't try to push us away, you simply wanted us to do better. And the plan is working. I think there are lots of big eyes on the daily entries now, as my posts have seen a surge in upvote value. Once again, I'm grateful grateful.
Thanks to you, and everyone on the team.
I am glad I went after you and pulled you back into Hive when that jaguar episode happened. I didn't have much to do with what happened to him after. He was already being dealt with by some other good folks around.
And please follow @castleberry's advice. Engage more. That has also been my Achilles heel.
You have the talent, the skills and most importantly, the drive. Don't waste it.
Thank you very much. I'll definitely follow @castleberry's advice.