Last night I realized that I can’t really enjoy space, rocketry, and all that much anymore. At least, not right now. Over the past year and a half, I’ve begun to notice that things are just terrible in that scene, and they shouldn’t be, and it’s really started to take its toll on me.
I’ve mentioned this before – even last night, actually – that the community wasn’t the best. It’s become very polarized, overly political (ironic seeing the heavily political origins of the US and Russian space programs), and incredibly hostile. Indeed, that was going to be the core subject of today’s blog entry, but as I began to write it I just couldn’t. I finally realized that I’m tired of it all. All the arguments, all the obsessive fans, all the hate, all the politics… all of it.
While I can just avoid discussion groups in theory, in practice it’s not so easy – social media is the main way we gather information today, and new sites these days are not shy in writing from a biased standpoint – the few that actually can discuss the subject with a degree of knowledge.
Even in cases where I get the information straight from the sources, where it’s actually available, you still run a chance, thanks to social media being the way info is shared, to run across the same old commentary you are working so hard to avoid. The snark, the childish snipes at what different companies do and don’t do. The overbearing hype, the herd mentality and people “drinking the kool-aid” with regards to what could happen.
I’m tired of it. I’m just plain tired of it. It’s absolutely ruined something I’ve loved for literally as long as I can remember.
It shouldn’t be this way at all, but well, it is. In the past few years, I went from getting back heavily into something I love, to finding a bad side to it, to discovering that the bad side had taken over. Hostility is all over the place, and I just don’t want to be involved in it anymore.
What’s worse, that bad side had taken over on my end. Xadara, over the past year, has become something I never wanted it to be. For one, way too heavily focused on space and two, way too focused on my frustration with a particular company and its fanbase.
I’m not going into 2018 with the site this way, nor am I going to continue it here. Writing about something you love shouldn’t be a chore. It shouldn’t be painful to try and do. It shouldn’t be mostly spent having to tear apart stupid ideas and actions from people. It should be fun. Period.
I want to write about what makes me happy, and things I enjoy. I don’t want to spend my time and server space addressing idiots. While a great stress release, it just isn’t worth it in the long run, and just grows to immeasurable levels. I’m tired of dealing with it, and having my entire site look negative for it.
There’s too much stuff I love out there, and want to share, and goddammit I’m going to enjoy myself, so going forward:
- There will be minimal discussion of current events in space beyond where I feel they are worth covering.
- There will continue to be discussion of historic space events and anniversaries, as well as archive films and documentaries related to space.
- Previous content regarding then-current space events will be migrated over to a secondary blog, and over time removed from Xadara.
It seems nothing can be left alone these days without people dragging it down into the mud. Congratulations, it seems you’ve been able to seep your way into all of my hobbies, save for maybe 1, and I’m tired of it. I’m going to enjoy myself and the best way to do that right now will be to distance myself from things.
I’m done. That’s all I can say.
I’m done.