!! THIS BOARD !!

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    As everyone has noticed, the website has been locked and collectively shut down. Please do not panic. All of your information is safe. Nothing was deleted, but merely hidden. This is because TFA is being shut down. Here's why.

Originally I had envisioned for TFA to be a community where warrior-cat loving roleplayers could comfortably and collaboratively write with one another. It was meant to simply be a hobby, where everyone could relax and write one giant story. All together, it was intended to be a unique experience, unlike that of other roleplays. In the beginning, this is what it was. Members put time and effort into creating a world for their characters, and it worked.

However, it was not so easy for staff members, as many already know. For staff, it became a tedious and time-consuming job that we worked for free. We were paid only in the pride of what we created and worked for, and in the joy of roleplaying our characters. This can, and only, went so far. Soon managing the roleplay, for me and some others, became a chore instead of a hobby. For most leaders, it became stressful to log on and roleplay our characters with a happy face after putting huge amounts of work into the website and roleplay as a whole every single day. It got to the point where we no longer felt joy in roleplaying our characters. We had our lives outside of the virtual cat roleplay to put energy into, and we had an additional non-paying job called TFA. As leaders, we were expected to put on a smiling face, act, and lead a certain way despite our constant stress from the relentless tide of complaints, the endless amount of daily work that we didn't have time to get done, the events we had to plan, the plotting we had to do, the ooc inter-clan disputes and problems we had to deal with, and so much more. We were not allowed to be tired or grumpy. Our personal lives and wellbeing became insignificant, and all that mattered in the eyes of Staff towards each other was, "Did ___ log on today. Did ___ do our job the right way?" instead of seeing one another as human beings. We became public servants, and our feelings and how much enjoyment we were having became meaningless. In summary, this RP was meant to be fun, but it instead became a stressful job in which we worked for free.

Here's a taste of the constant and seemingly endless shit we received. We have dealt with members who have threatened us with suicide. We have dealt with people who are excessively sensitive and who have gone around gossiping and complaining to others because something we said sounded mean or hadn't had the correct tone to them. We have to constantly tip-toe around the anxiety and feelings of others in fear of sending one into a panic attack. We have received lengthy essays from multiple people telling us how bad and despicable one staff member is. Almost every day, I received a complaint in some form. Not a suggestion, not constructive criticism (granted we did receive those and they are very helpful), complaints. Whining. We became babysitters of petty conflicts between members. My own map, as most may have noticed, was completely ripped off multiple times by several people. People would come into my house and say "look at this map I made, isn't it pretty!?" but yet they have asked me personally for advice in map-making, which meshes I used, only to post their map and attempt to lure members into joining some RP they made in six days. They'd use the exact same style, the same meshes, everything was so similar, one would think I made it. These things seem minor, but they are not. It is extremely disrespectful and rude considering the map was a project I put six months into working on. This, and so much more. So much that I'm unable to list everything that has occurred entirely, and it should not be this way. All of this soon became normalized in our minds. We all figured, "Oh, this is just what comes with owning a big roleplay and it is expected." I no longer agree with that. I believe that everyone, staff and members alike, should log on each day because they want to. It should be a place for members and staff to take a break from reality and take on the persona of a cat in the Warriors universe.

We, as a Staff team, found relief in talking shit about members in the staff chat. We did, dude. I feel bad, and so should the rest of us, but we still did it. This isn't how a staff team should be. I'll get into this later. Everything was so unbelievably time consuming. At the end of each day, I felt no desire to RP. I felt no excitement or motivation to roleplay, and I just wanted to sleep. There was little reward in all the work I have done, and my fellow staffers too.

My personal life became increasingly busy. I have a baby to raise and support, school to attend, and other personal problems. I did not have time to manage the RP. Though I do more so now, I was not allowed to take breaks because that wasn't what leaders and RP owners were supposed to do. TFA became too much, and I was relieved to leave at last. But I was not allowed to feel this way. Since my departing, I have received hateful messages from those I once considered friends. They have expressed their disappointment in me. They have continued to hound me about my lingering responsibilities in TFA, because the map was late by a few days and StarClan forbid it be Greenleaf for a few more days!, or maybe some apprentices had to wait another week to get their warrior names, threads were not being updated in a timely manner, and much more. Several have told me that I should have been a stronger leader, and that I should have done this or that or something else. This is not the way a roleplay should be, how staff should be treated, or something anyone should go through.

But the members are not all to blame. After I left TFA, plots have gone downhill. They are not as well-planned, very long. They are less inclusive and more solely based around one character. Ideas are no longer welcome from members as they once were and many get disregarded instantaneously. TFA has the tendency to have a very unwelcoming atmosphere, and members are often spoken down to by certain staffers. After Llama and I left, we were erased. We were used and extracted for every resource we could give. We were no longer friends with some staff, and we were treated like objects to be used. We did not have access to our own work and information, and much of it was lost and erased without consent. This is not okay. This is not what I had in mind in the beginning.

TFA should have just been a hobby for nerds to roleplay dumb cats. It should have been just that. Staff should not have had to go through this much bullshit, members should not have felt left out or excluded, or secondary-characters. This should have been a family, and at one point it almost was. A roleplay should not consist of this much stress and this much work. Members should not enter roleplays with a checklist of expectations and demands. In the end, it's just a roleplay about cats, and that alone. It should have been no problem to include members, to just relax and not stress over little insignificant problems in a cat roleplay. Maybe it became this way because it got too big. Maybe not. I don't know. 

There were many good eggs in TFA. Active, dedicated members who had true passion to create a welcoming environment. I saw you. I noticed your activity and dedication, and I'm sorry. Llama and I feel the worst for all of you. This roleplay was for you. We can't express how sorry we are to those who have put so much effort and time into building, writing, and being actively a part of this bittersweet community. My inspiration came from multiple sources, but significantly, it was inspired by my desire to give back to my friends who have given to me. Tahari. Duckei. Llama. They have been my friends for a long time, and together, though in several different instances and maybe not all of us at once; we've all joined a million RPs, created ones that died in 2 weeks, and going through and learning from those failures gave me the passion of creating TFA. TFA was for you, Llama, Vul, and Duckei, Spooncat, and Tahari too. Thank you for being my friends. I don't know how you might feel about me now, but I appreciate the years of friendship. I hope that this won't taint it. I'm so sorry, and I love you all so much. You deserve the best and only the best, and I'm sorry I could not provide it.


All in all, even with the plentiful golden moments that TFA had, it has transformed into something other than what it was intended to be. Therefore, the roleplay will not continue. This RP is not TFA, not anymore. Members may wander freely around the maps if they choose, but they should not be used for any form of official roleplaying. The website will be locked permanently. If you possibly need to recover any information, please reach out to me, Skitty, or Llama on Discord or Skype. Any reasoning you provide will be valid, you have the right to your own work.

Thank you all for the good times. I'm sorry that things ended up the way they did, I truly expected TFA to turn out different. This was not my intention. In the end, TFA is my project. I poured my heart and my soul into this, and in return I became a slave to it. 

-Skitty