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Forums: Index Stepping Down: Actene Edition
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It is with mixed feelings of relief and wistfulness that I announce that I will be stepping down from my position as bureaucrat and administrator of Halo Fanon, effective immediately. I have been in this position for over a decade, and while it has been an immense pleasure to serve this community I know that it is time to step aside and relinquish this role. With my ordination to the priesthood and the beginning of my ministry in the Church—as well as maintaining my personal life and pursuing my own writing goals—I find myself with less and less time to devote to the responsibilities of helping to run the site. It is high time that I lay this mantle aside.

I joined Halo Fanon when I was a freshman in high school. Halo 3 had been released less than a year previously and the community was still riding high on the lore implications surrounding the end of the Human-Covenant War and the joys of being able to pose and take screenshots (rather than relying on a gallery of about 20 promotional screenshots and book covers for site images). So many seasons have come and gone since then, both in my own life and the Halo franchise. I still remember one of my first contributions to a community discussion, in this case a forum gripe-fest over the appearance of Elites in an early Halo Wars trailer. Some things change, some things are eternal.

There’s no exaggeration when I say that this community and the work I’ve done here have been a huge part of my life. Characters like Simon, Cassandra, and Shinsu ‘Refum have been at the forefront of my creative imagination for over a decade. While I will be the first to admit that they are hardly the most original or inspired characters out there (Simon has yet to accomplish his original purpose, which was to win Survival of the Fittest) they’ve been fun and exciting parts of my life and I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who’s been a part of my journey over the years, either through collaborations or role-plays or just good old reader engagement.

Writing is one of my great passions and there’s plenty of stories left for me to tell on Halo Fanon. I already have a lot of site work planned, including a full-length story, more short stories, and many, many article rewrites. My time in this community is far from over, but I will continue as a contributor rather than a leader. I want to thank past, present, and future leaders for making my time as an administrator so rewarding. I extend that thanks to the entire community. Everyone here contributes to making this site a fun place to explore, enjoy, and expand on Halo’s distinct universe. For anyone who might consider seeking an admin role in the future, good luck and Godspeed. It's rewarding work and I have been blessed with serving alongside some great people during my time in this position.

Following in Brodie's footsteps, my last act as Bureaucrat is to promote Ahalosniper to fill my role.

Thank you all! It's been a privilege and a pleasure.

Actene: Heaven and Earth


SmartLinkScope
AhalosniperWho are we? Heroes? Monsters? Cowards?
TALK CONTRIBUTIONS
I will rule with a gentle fist of iron.

We've known Actene's retirement was coming for some time now, but that intention for it to be somewhere in June kept spooling out. Something would pop up, or we in the admin chat would just collectively not say anything in hopes it wouldn't remind Actene of his intentions, and it all kept going a lot longer than I dared hope. June became September became the year's approaching end. We all knew it wouldn't go forever, but then, I don't think any of us intended to be here a decade, so why should it change tomorrow? But change it did.

Much of what I said on the forum for Brodie's retirement applies here; we were promoted to the administration together at a time when the old guard were dropping off, and in the following years between us divided and revived, reworked, or invented many of the standing site projects. I hope any grizzled ancient looking in on us won't mind my saying I think we were somehow a more unified administration than those who'd come before. Whether that's down to our individual personalities, better communication through Skype and eventually Discord, or being able to vent our frustrations on each other with Gravity Hammers in Halo Party Time, I can only let those who were there guess. But it lasted more than ten years without any major arguments blowing up. If we ever disagreed, it'd be over the best course for the site, and knowing we each had that in mind meant we'd never take anything personally.

When I think of Actene's specific contributions, what comes to my mind is consistency—which he might disagree with, but I'll stand by it. I'll readily admit, there have been whole years in my time here I've barely made edits to the site I supposedly help run. I surmise we've all felt bad about that once in a while, and my reason is recalling Actene expressing the same thing—and he's written perhaps more prose than any other user on the site! Sure, there are dry spells for all of us when life takes precedence over the hobby of writing fanfiction, but how often have you seen Actene advocate for simply writing daily, however little that is? And the result has been not just the mere page-limit-busting Halo: Heaven and Earth, but long-form stories going back as far as Halo: Avenger's Quest from before he became an admin, where I first stumbled across his wealth of intriguing characters.

Expanding on that, I could expound on the varied cast he's built up over the years, from the lowest of Spartans and exile Elites to humble civilians, but chances are you're already familiar with many of them even if you haven't read his long-form work (it's more worthy of your time than your next Youtube binge, I assure you). I chalk that up to how much he's actually written about them, since such an amount of content demands plots to develop and characters to play them out. Story is character, I've heard it said, and Actene has chronicled a great deal for his characters to live through. I think I've ended up praising the quality of his work often enough on the site to make further glorifying it redundant, but that quality is in no small way owed to the consistency with which he's made efforts on articles and stories on the site.

And fortunately for all of us, he's never been shy about limiting those efforts to only his own works. I hadn't realized for the longest time he started out collaborating with RelentlessRecusant ages ago, after which he became involved in Sona's Against All Odds, and after setting out to establish a cohesive timeline of his own has regularly involved other users and their characters in the epics he's put together, a number I'm privileged to count myself among. At every stage, he's offered others the chance to have the characters they put something of themselves, their observations, and their excitement for Halo into, participate with meaningful parts in the stories he creates. It's given those characters events in their bios and connected them to a wider web of Halo Fanon's creations, rewarded in turn by Actene's own characters becoming central threads for them all.

In addition, after I and many others stepped back from the Weekly, Actene has tirelessly taken on the demanding task of operating the Weekly for years on end, advising other users on how to improve their prose, which I assure you from experience at it myself is a Herculean task to come back for week after week after week. It's absolutely mad to think that project is still going after 8 years, and I've scarcely seen anyone offer their gratitude for all that work. Have you offered as much the last time he reviewed a piece you submitted? Sure, criticism of something as personal as writing stings, but training alone embeds errors, and having the unbiased view of any reader--let alone an experienced writer--is going to benefit you. There are people out there you'd have to pay for this kind of thing! A darn ty in chat would be the least one can offer.

And so, it seems I stand the last of the three elevated eleven years ago. Which means I can't easily run for the door now myself without sufficient hands to leave holding the basket. Crap. Well, it means I'll have to train up a new batch somehow. Fortunately, when someone goofs something up, I'll have the legacies of Brodie and Actene to point out and tell them "do that". Thankfully, we'll have them both around for a while yet to pester for advice, collaboration, and every now and then a game of Slayer. So if no one else will say it first, alright, I will.

Thank you, Actene, for being on Halo Fanon at the same time I have been, so I might have the chance to share and shape ideas with such a talented and dedicated writer and fan of the same concepts and stories that so excite me in the Halo universe. I hope one day to produce enough of the many stories we plotted and left idle long ago to repay your interest in what I brought to the table in kind. And we're still on for Pendragon Monday. Wish the knights luck in the fae realm.




S013-Banner
Ajax 013 - <Death to Heroes>[The Damned] [The Lost][The Forgotten] ObscurumVictoria
TALK - Greenwich Mean Time
I'm not one for long speeches and the like, but it has been an absolute pleasure to work with you. Its sad to see you go, but I know you have bigger things ahead.




Tesseract folding
Distant Tide"No part of my training prepared me for my first kill, it only helped temper the crisis that followed."
TALK CONTRIBUTIONS

When did I start interacting with you, Actene? Late 2017 or early 2018 probably. Six years is a long time to come to pass, my experience with Halo Fanon long predated my joining of the wiki community, but it was without a doubt your and Ahalosniper's writings that drew me into this site. I started reading Halo Fanon in high school: about the adventures of Gamma Company's oddball misfits strewn across the frontier with their love triangles, escapades from the law, failures at criminal enterprise, and dealings with a galaxy where they struggled to find their place...

It was thanks to Simon-G294 that I found a greater meaning in what an OC in a fanfiction space could be. They were more than just a character vehicle for a writer to explore a world, they could become cherished and shared by others as well. I say this from the heart. Thank you for inspiring me Actene: for the humor, shitposting, worldbuilding, collaboration, writing and feedback. I miss being a reader in younger days but I think more than anything else, it was a personal wish realized to get to write the rare short story for your characters and to see my characters join yours and others in your well-spun tales across the galaxy. Halo has changed a great deal since you started writing Halo fanfiction or since I joined the site myself. I'm glad to hear you still have a project or more to spin on the site and I appreciate you and Brodie's tenureship over these many years.

I hope to continue to do you proud as a site administrator and to keep Ajax (mostly) in line. Not that he needs help with that. Good luck with your own IRL pursuits, you've told me a little bit of where you're headed. I'm not very good with biblical remarks but I hope you find much heavenly and earthly inspiration to come. Pun intended too. Best of luck brother. Keep at writing and I hope to keep collaborating with you into the future.

Also, I encourage you to still get your stories on Fanfiction.Net and ArchiveOfOurOwn so more people get see what you've been cooking considering this wiki's many-years battle with eyeball-dragging advertising.



Paint
SonasaurusThey are coming for us...who will stand together?
Spartan laser

TALK CONTRIBUTIONS
Damn, this really flew under the radar for me. Apologies for coming into this late, but I can't let this pass by when there is so much I have to say.

Where to even begin? Actene joined the wiki not long before myself, and the two of us didn't really speak much in the early months. But even at the time I found myself stymied by the talent, and even more importantly, the drive he exhibited as a newcomer. As someone who was still finding my way around at the time, it made me think a lot about how I wanted to apply myself on the wiki. Naturally, he was one of the first users I invited to the then-budding Against All Odds project, and without question he was one of its standout writers. And although AAO very much needed him, the same was not true in reverse, because he just kept going after the project stalled out. Throughout the years I became familiar with much of Actene's core cast ― Simon, Diana, Shinsu, Tuka, Cassandra, Kahn ― due to his sheer perseverance in polishing them until they shine. And then keep polishing even more even when they've reached a point of outshining some of our works.

But I don't need to prattle too much about Actene's revered writing prowess to anyone reading this. Instead I feel it's necessary to speak on the strength of one's character, something I'm pleased to see this community places great value in today. As some of our more seasoned users may remember, this wasn't always the case, and it took years of hard work, patience, and an unwavering belief that one must lead by example before expecting others to follow in order to reach the state of stability Halo Fanon enjoys today. And I feel like I am describing many of the admins I've served with, both past and present, but none moreso than Actene. In the many, many years since I first knew him, he has conducted himself with unfailing dignity, courtesy, and above all else, integrity. I don't know how he does it, but I aspire to one day.

Anyway, pardon me but I'm about to get even more vulnerable for a minute. If I have one regret, it would be the timing with which I came back to the wiki to hear this news. I'm old enough at this point to know that life takes you where it will and that there's no use feeling sad about what could have been, and despite Actene stating that his retirement does not mean he is leaving the wiki, it's still a tough pill to swallow, seeing the sands of time inevitably shifting us in different directions. Perhaps it wouldn't be the same had I stayed for at least some of the past decade (geez, decade?), and while I am tremendously proud of how far I've come as a writer in the intervening time, there is undeniably a part of me that can't help but wonder what could have been had I stuck around and actually taken Zenith of the Dismantled off the ground. Actene had said yes to joining me on that endeavour too, after all. I'm sure it would have been something else, in another life.

So having said all that, I will end off by addressing you directly, Actene. Thank you for everything. It's a simple statement, but right now I really am finding that clumsy human thoughts cannot do my feelings justice. So instead I'll offer some words of wisdom from the Book of Romans, Chapter 12:

4 Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, 5 so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. 6 In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. 7 If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. 8 If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. 9 Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. 10 Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.

All the best for your priesthood, my friend. May the Lord bless you and the work you do in the ministry. As for me, I intend to cherish whatever time we still have in the coming days. Don't disappear on me just yet.