2022 was a rough year for me. I won't go into details into personal matters, but regarding my time on staff more generally, I have spent a lot of my time going from fire to fire. In some of this cases I feel like I've made a difference, but I've realized too late that all this has some issues. It's been very taxing on my mental health, prevents me from working on projects I actually care about (which have suffered tremendously as a result), and, honestly, the fires on the site are going to keep coming. There are other people on staff, I don't have to take everything on.

Technical work is why I originally joined staff, and is what I find most engaging and interesting. As opposed to other matters, which are generally draining, I find technical work to be generally invigorating.

I have spent too much time being pulled aside into these various tasks, which in the long-term has been damaging. It became clear several months ago that I needed to change tracks or I would risk burning out hard.

As such, this is a general announcement that I am shifting my work on staff to only technical matters. If there is any work that is non-technical nature, I am limiting my involvement to consultation only. I will only be directly involved in such matters during certain emergency situations, and will back out if it becomes a protacted project. This will not affect my overall activity level.

This means that I am not going to lead any non-technical projects; anything requiring me to run or follow-up on items cannot have me at the head. Consultation, however, is fine, and encouraged. I can spend a few hours here and there answering questions from staff, reviewing drafts, or discussing plans or staff matters regardless of topic. However I will not follow up at all, I am only going to consult if I am explicitly asked to, and not be otherwise involved.

There is one unsolved issue, which is my current position as the Disciplinary Team captain. For now, I will move myself to the Vice Captain spot, leaving the Captain slot empty. (This makes me currently Acting Captain of the team, so the short term situation does not change.) I will help the incoming captain with policy issues, applying queued fixed, and other matters, but this will be a hand-off. The goal is for me to help them find a replacement Vice Captain and depart that position.

(Currently there is not a clear replacement for captain of the Disciplinary Team.)

Anyways, this is just a notice that I'm taking a month-long break from active staff duty for personal/mental health reasons. I will still be reachable in emergencies or if information specific to me is required, and plan to invest more time in Wikijump development.

I have handed off relevant duties temporarily, but if there are concerns or issues, feel free to reach out to myself or administration. Please do not ping me in-channel, if you need to get my attention, send a PM.

I will return to activity on May 1st, 2022.