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Rangiku
I want to start off by saying thank you for getting back to me, and that due to your initial criticism of my post I amended my previous statement to better reflect my views and emotions surrounding the situation.
I see what you're saying, and for the most part I agree. People haven't been offering much criticism in FRD, and I definitely don't believe that whining without offering solutions will do much more than cause issues. But it's not necessarily wrong or inappropriate to post reactions to the main discussion thread; I'd say it's worse to flood FRD and Suggestions with these unhelplful rants, as people who like an update are unable to ignore the backlash.
But there are those who do offer valid criticisms of this update and how it was handled who are being shut down too. It's not selfish or shortsighted to ask for some sort of communication before a major update to a classic set of apparel, even if it's nothing more than a reminder on the Site Status section on the front page. I doubt such a thing would be necessary for things like Coli updates, familiar updates, or other things that don't affect dragon appearances, but dressing your dragons is a core part of the game; I'd like to get some notice if there's going to be major changes to how my dragon looks.
As far as my interpretation of your response to me, when I saw my comment associated with phrases like "ridiculously ungrateful", "lose faith in online communities", and just a general sentiment of 'this community behaves awful and no one seems to care about the work put in', I felt I was being used as an example of something I didn't stand for to begin with. For so many updates the pushback against and shutdown of any form of criticism or frustration (mean or not) has gotten just as tiring as I'm sure all the salt has for you. This, along with the perceived condescending tone of your post (which I'm sure now wasn't your intention), put me on the defensive.
As an artist, like I stated previously, and as a general fan of this game, I was confused and a little hurt that my words were seemingly interpreted as and used to transition into a rant about how ungrateful the FR community is and how little they supposedly care about the artists and staff. Even if it was just that part of my initial post that you disagreed with, the fact that I would have never even known that you rebutted my post had I not checked back left a bad taste in my mouth. I don't want to be a part of the problem, and am completely open to having people call me out on my mistakes so I can amend them, which is partly why I took your response in such a negative way.
I'm not the only one who interpreted the situation in this way, as someone did reach out to me after I posted and felt the same way, but I do sincerely apologize for misinterpreting your post in this manner. I was wrong in assuming. You know what they say, "when you assume..."
I hope that my response to you didn't come off as mean or petty, as I tried my hardest to approach it with as much grace as I could possibly muster at 2:30am. I wanted to PM you initially, which in hindsight I should have probably done, but at the time I felt it could be seen as harassment so I opted to ping you here. It was not my intention to put you on the hot seat, but to let you know my thoughts as someone who's on the other side of the argument while simultaneously defending my stance and amending inappropriate statements. If you feel otherwise, though, I'm sorry and I hope we can move forward without hard feelings.
If you'd like to continue any sort of discussion about this or something else, my PMs are always open. Otherwise, let's agree to disagree and move on. What's done is done, as you said. We both love Flight Rising and care for its long-term success, which is really all that matters!
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