Well, reading this post I have mixed feelings. First of all, thank you for the kind words. It feels good to be back, even if I am still finding my way around after such a long break... and everything else happening in my life..

It is incredibly disheartening to read about this misuse/ abuse of AI, but your frustration is completely justified! I wish we could do something about it...

@weisser-rabe, Please don't beat yourself up too much about not handling the "all-powerful" critic perfectly. Leadership on decentralised platforms is exhausting, especially when you have to deal with all sorts of people.

Well, I don't do mentions... Learnt it the hard way. Lol. Put my foot in my mouth and whatnot. Looking back, I can laugh about the things I did out of ignorance, not understanding the nuances of the platform and all that. But here comes another mention @ladyaryastark! You are doing such a brilliant job. Well, I wasn't even half as good a moderator as you. You have done so much in this capacity, and you really have a way with words!

I read some of the comments, and I just want to say that I have been there. You could say it was much worse in my case. I'm not comparing the two situations here, just sharing my experience. And I agree that, whilst I don't mind constructive criticism either, there's a difference between genuine criticism and criticism that comes from a rather wretched place. At least, that's how I perceived it at the time. I could be wrong, but I still remember trying my level best to accommodate the person and explain how things worked. How stupid of me! I was trying to be a good Samaritan when, in fact, the person was just teasing me and testing my limits. Lol.

The thing is, when you are in the middle of such a situation, you don't always see it for what it is. You keep thinking that perhaps if you explain yourself a little better, choose your words more carefully, or make one more attempt to resolve things, the other person will finally understand. And sometimes, they do. But sometimes, all that effort is wasted because the other person isn't really interested in a resolution. That's something I had to learn the hard way.

What people don't understand is that the moderators especially those like ladyaryastark volunteer their time and energy because they care about a community and want to see it thrive. They won't always get everything right, and disagreements are bound to happen, but that doesn't give anyone the right to make personal attacks or undermine their efforts. Criticism is one thing; making someone regret taking on a responsibility is another.

Anyways... the point is, don't let anyone put you off something you genuinely enjoy. No one is worth that. I hope you don't lose heart. The platform needs people who genuinely care about its communities and the effort that goes into creating original content.