The indignity of stripping
Yesterday, I asked Ada to strip me.
But before you let your wild imagination run away with you, let me clarify what I mean by stripping.
I asked Ada to strip me of my ‘Moderator’ status on PinoyExchange.
It wasn’t easy; I’d been a moderator on PEx since it started in 1998 (or was it 1999? Anyway…). I’d moderated the Music and Radio forum since Day One, and took breaks only to get married, orwhen work prevented me from logging onto the website daily.
Months ago, when I put a halt to the PEx Countdown because it ate up too much of my time to tabulate (especially that b**ch of a year-end tally), I received a lot of negative feedback. Some questioned my capability to be moderator. It all came to a head yesterday when I received my nth private message asking why I wasn’t doing my job.
Having done all that work for almost a decade - with only the joy of helping build the country’s largest online community as reward - and ending up being chastised for one’s inability to perform the work at the levels one had when one started, well, it can sting. So I made the decision, and today, well, it happened.
I was stripped of my status. I’m ‘just a member’ now. I don’t have mod powers, can’t edit, can’t close threads, can’t chastise, ban, or warn. The fact that I still have an avatar, actually, is, I guess, a little present Ada left me with (Lord knows when I’ll be stripped of that, too).
I guess it was bound to happen. I no longer considered myself part of the M&R community. I think most of the people there don’t really care that I’m gone, and don’t know me because I didn’t spend as much time there as I used to, and the regulars during my time, well, they’re mostly gone too.
I know it stings, but with so much on my plate, and with my family needing me and another baby on the way, I guess something had to give. For PEx to be the sacrificial lamb was, well, a surprise, even to me, but at the end of the day, the returns simply didn’t match what I was giving, despite the love I have for PEx and my fellow mods.
I hope this isn’t another of my dumb decisions. I’ve made a lot of stinkers in the past.
With another kid on the line, that’s gotta be one of the best favors you did yerself, misturr. It was a thankless job anyways. or at least you made it sound that way. heheh
So there. I guess that’s my cue to welcome you to the real world
seriously, let’s get some real life here, people. I never comment in people’s blogs unless (1) I already met that person offline, or (2) your blog and your writing interests me
Well, you rock my socks, Jeff. Let’s get together again for coffee sometime or something when you’re in the neighborhood. I like keeping it real.
I can’t believe I’m quoting Kim Chiu here…but anyway. It’s like what she said last night in the episode of Sana Maulit Muli: “Lahat para sa pamilya.”
Something like that.
In Nickelodeon Brothers Garcia mode, “Todo para la familia.” = Everything for the family. 
Time to move on. 
I think you did the right thing.
Should I congratulate you? Well, that leaves Pandaemonaeon to cover all the bases. haha