User blog:Crazy sam10/5 years of Call of Duty Wiki

I figured since I've been here 5 years (and 1 day since I'm writing this a bit late) it was time I did one of those anniversary blogs. Now, I'm certain I'll write out a good bit about ups and downs I've had here, after all, 5 years is a good time for a lot of things to happen, but aside from anecdotes I'll try not to name too many people for the sake of naming them. As I said, 5 years is a long time, and I've meet a lot of good users over that time, some of which no longer edit here, and if I were to name every user that I think has been a help to me, I really do risk forgetting someone because their name wasn't at the top of my head, so I will try and avoid those, because I'd rather people know that pretty much everyone I've met since eidting here has had an impact, and no single people need me to give them a shout out.

5 years back
As stated above, my first edit to the Wiki was 18th October 2009. I had undid an IP vandal and then got blamed for it by mistake, and it was also the day I uploaded my first file (not named or licensed correctly, but I can get away with that because the image policy wasn't great back then). Prior to that I had been on the Fallout Wiki, then known as The Vault where I had already gained Admin rights, and had a good handle on how to use them. While I would still make the odd edit from time to time, and looking though my old contributions shows I was moderately active, these were really only minor things before I feel I actually became fully active.

Chat system and first user rights
When the chat system came up, I spent most of the first few months in the Vault chat, which at the time was active enough to not really warrant me to do much else. But after a while Callofduty4 would start joining chat and not doing much, to which I started joking about ensuring to always try and say hello as well as make jokes about him always watching. This would eventually lead to me joining the CoD chat for the first time, and for a while I was pretty quiet, but would always keep an eye on things. After so long I'd realise the time zone I was awake in was a time when the chat had very few mods. So, I managed to convince Callofduty4 to give me chat mod rights, and after that is when I really feel I started to transition from the Fallout Wiki to here.

Rise of MLP and first sysop attempt
Well, even though it say "rise of MLP", I didn't hear about MLP until quite late, in fact one of my first encounters with it was though Cod4's avatar in Fallout wiki (and given how things were on the Fallout Wiki back then, if anyone had spoke about it they'd have likely been laughed off the site, and then Fallout 3 would've been blamed or something). So, eventually I gave the first few episodes a go, and found it relatively good (first episode was naff, but it was doing nothing more than introducing the characters and setting up the next episode), from that I managed to find it far easier to integrate into the CoD wiki, since people would be talking about something quite nice, in a generally civil way (nice change from "FALLOUT 3 ISN'T A GAME, BURN DOWN BETHESDA FOR MAKING THE SERIES WELL KNOWN AGAIN"). In time I believe Smuff said in passing that I should run for Admin since I had the rights on Fallout wiki, which I did. Of course, it was a bit too early, and it didn't pass (but still got a few supports, so I must have been something right at the time). After that, it more or less drove me to get more involved and prep for a 2nd go.

During this period is also when I met JPanzerj/Verantha. Which is a major reason why I find my 5 years here amazing. Many people already know why I consider this important, so I'm not going against my "No shout outs" rule, she is actually an anecdote to something really great happening.

2nd Sysop attempt + IMAGE POLICY GUIDELINES
Admittedly, between my 1st sysop attempt and the 2nd a good bit of time passed, but I can't think of much that I consider major to myself. Chances are during that time something happened to Cakemix and Sp3c, but I never knew either of them that much, so it never affected me. I think I may have earnt UOTM as well after giving the Pack-a-Punch page a make over by adding transparency to the images (aside from the ones where the person took the screenshot WHILE FIRING THE WEAPON, WHEN DID THAT SEEM LIKE A GOOD IDEA?). Now, there's actually a little secret behind the writing of my 2nd RfA, but I'll let Callofduty4 reveal it if he wants to/remembers, but I got nominated for my 2nd RfA by Cod4, which due to an over whelming success was one of the few RfAs to get an early close. And one of the first things I did with Sysop tools, was delete an ugly image. Sometime after that, and once again with a load of minor events in-between I made the forum to overhaul our image policy guideline which we've stuck to ever since, and has since made file maintenance much easier.

b'crat rights + today
A good bit of time passed between I got my Sysop rights and my B'crat rights. There was the odd time where I felt like leaving after some occasions, normally talked into coming back by another user, as well as my own desire to not fully give up on the wiki stopped me leaving completely. Amazingly, I actually made my RfB slightly out of anger, feeling like it wouldn't pass and posting it just to prove it wouldn't, which of course didn't fail and I've been using the rights ever since. Some time after that I also managed to get Checkuser rights. I reckon that more or less pulls me up to today really.

Ending
As I said, I have many people I would name if I were the one to do so. There has been plenty of users I've known, some of them have remained more or less the same over the last few years. Some I knew some time ago, some I still do. Some of them changed from being a trouble maker to a valued user, some used to be anons that did enough that they made an account. I suppose the best I can say is I give a thank you to everyone that's known me, and I've known. I'm hoping some of the older users happen to still visit and see this and leave a message, because I do miss a lot of our older users.

Anyway, it's not been a perfect 5 years (+1 day) there's been some downs. But I've managed to go this long, so I'd certainly say it's been a great 5 years, and I hope to continue editing and staying in the community for as long as I can.