User:LegoStefan24/Edit by Edit

=Edit by Edit: The story of my journey on the My LEGO Network Wiki=

Hello there! My name is LegoStefan24 (I’m more commonly known as Stefan or LS24). This is the story of the wiki during my existence here. You can read parts of it, or the entire thing, but under one condition, you have to make one useful edit to this wiki after reading this memoir. Thank you for your contribution. :D

Preface
This memoir contains the names of users, stores, and events that you may not be familiar with. I am sorry that I cannot have you experience the wiki as it was during this time, or before this time. I only hope that you will read this and make a useful edit to the wiki, a useful edit to make the legacy of all the active users of the past live on. Who knows? You could be the next me, the next 18tanzc, the next user to fix this wiki.

The Beginning (August 2011-February 2012)
My adventure started on August 12th, 2011. I originally came here with one goal, and one goal only: To obtain a Rough Sapphire and leave. I tried some of the personal stores that I found, and everyone was closed. About to give up, I stumbled upon one of the only users left. His name was 18tanzc. His friendly help led me to stay. I had found a friend on the wiki and was here to stay for a while. The click/click deals got bigger and the friendship grew closer. The only thing, however, was that there was nothing to do on the wiki other than clean up spam edits. 18tanzc and I slowly started to fix the wiki up. The wiki started to grow slowly and recover.

The Three Editors (February 2012)
Six months into my journey, a new user, named Codyn329 joined the wiki. Cody was different because, unlike all the other users, he stayed on the wiki. The wiki, with the help of me, Cody, and 18tanzc, grew and started to become more active. Suddenly, the activity spurt died. The only users around were Me, Cody, 18tanzc, and a few anonymous users. The work we had done to bring the wiki back had only caused activity on the wiki for a short time. But, we didn’t give up there. We kept working to make the wiki a better place.

Vandalism Takes a Toll (March 2012)
One day, I signed on to the wiki horrified to see countless pages vandalized by multiple users. Since 18tanzc, Cody, and I weren’t admins, we could do nothing to prevent the vandalism. All we could do was revert edits and watch other pages get destroyed. After about a week, the only active admin, Awesome3000 (A3K) signed on and restored the wiki to normal. The Wiki remained inactive for some more time and 18tanzc applied for adminship. After receiving the admin rights, the wiki slowly began to grow again. Departure of a Friend he came back quickly :P (October 2012-April 2013) After bringing up the idea in October 2012, In February 2013, 18tanzc confirmed that he would be retiring. This moment was a change because the first friend I had made would be leaving the wiki. Knowing that he would be gone made me sad to know that the wiki would never be the same without him. The loss of 18tanzc was extremely upsetting because he was most of the life of this wiki, and the wiki had finally started to grow and become more active again.

Request for Adminship (March 2013-April 2013)
At that point, after much thought, I decided to file a Request for Adminship. This decision was based upon the fact that 18tanzc and A3K were the only active admins left on the wiki. With 18tanzc retiring, I found it appropriate to file a request. The Request passed with seven (eight if the ip vote counted) supporting votes and no opposing votes.

Being an Admin (April 2013-May 2013)
Being an admin made me feel that I had finally accomplished a major goal on the wiki. I knew that I would strive to be the best admin possible. I felt that, by being an admin, I could show that this wiki would be the best that it could be. However, right when I became an admin, the activity completely stopped. There was an average of 1 edit a day, by an anonymous user. The wiki was dead. I felt that the wiki had no hope left, but I still tried to bring the activity back. In an attempt to increase activity on the wiki, Cody and I decided to redesign the wiki. 18tanzc soon began to help out as well, leading to the design we have today.

The actual departure of a Friend (July 2013)
18tanzc came back and said that he was permanently retiring (again). On his last day, Cody, 18tanzc and I had a final chat. Of course this had to be when my computer decided to crash -.-. But when I got back, 18tanzc had already left. But there was a message from Cody. It said:

Hey. 18tanzc wanted to leave you a message, so here are his exact words: D:

"You guys.... I will miss so much. And if you guys do happen to miss me too, there is always my email which you can get hold of me at. I want both you and cody to promise me something When the day comes when MLN does update if it ever will (BIF IF) [Probably was supposed to say BIG IF] Please, please email me." - 18tanzc

Codyn329 (talk) 02:18, July 11, 2013 (UTC)

Another Decline (August 2013-December 2013)
Wiki activity remained minimal and left very little for me to do. Other than a couple users, and the occasional visit by 18tanzc, the wiki kinda died out. Even Cody stopped visiting regularly. Users came and left after short periods of time, like usual…I wondered why the wiki had kept dying.

The Activity Skyrocket! (January 2014-May 2014)
The activity suddenly began to skyrocket with edits from users. 3 Users joined the wiki at the same time, and in return, other active users with nothing to do had found ways to edit more!

Another Sharp Decline... (June 2014-(November 2014)
Once again, the wiki took a sharp decline in amounts of active users and edits…This time, however, it doesn't seem to be recovering. I can only hope that I’m mistaken by saying that…

Looking ahead
I’ve been on this wiki for over three years and have seen it decline, explode with users, and decline again…I’ve spent countless hours, reverting vandalism, fixing typos, taking store orders, purchasing items, building stores for other users, and making users happy. Some of the most dedicated users of the past have retired and been completely forgotten, but their impact on this wiki has not been. Without the dedication of the past, the wiki would’ve never had this much information. My goal as a User here was to make this wiki known and successful. Has that been accomplished? I guess to some degree it has been. I have created a store that allows the few stray visitors to receive the items that they need. I feel that even that is an improvement. In retrospect however, I feel like this wiki was pretty much dead from the minute I joined up until now. I will always wonder why every user disappeared at the same time, and I will probably never know, but what I do know is that I have tried my best to replicate the friendliness and activeness of the users of the past, and I feel that I have been successful in that… I have reached a point in my life where I can no longer be an active user on this wiki, but that doesn’t mean that I’m retiring. I can never truly retire from this wiki as it has been a significant part of my life. I may be inactive for long periods of time, but I will always find my way back to the wiki. See you around the network, Friend…

22:01, November 22, 2014 (UTC)

Projects I have Completed
Opening a Store (February 2012-Present) I decided to open a store to help users like myself find items while on their own journey in MLN. Through The RedBrick Marketplace, I hoped that, in the process, I would make some new friends, and make a few users want to stay on the wiki. Since February 27th, 2012, I have taken over 120 orders, and expanded The RedBrick Marketplace to 2 other divisions: The BlueBrick Business Builder, which enables users to build stores of their own, and the YellowBrick Bargain Center, which was meant to serve as a replacement for the original MLN Wiki trading post that had died out before I even joined the wiki. Theme Redesign The wiki’s theme when I got here was green, green, and more green. I think it was meant to match the MLN color scheme, but MLN also uses blue in its main color scheme. 18tanzc, Cody, and I decided to work at the theme, and we eventually settled on MLN Green with a Blue bar at the top to look like MLN. We also enabled a chat and updated some stuff in the Wikia.css file.

Notable Mentions
 18tanzc  18tanzc, well, I need to say thanks…for everything. That first Rough Sapphire that I needed, the click/click deals, helping me open my own store, and giving me support though everything I, we, did on this wiki. You were the one to welcome me to the wiki and were the only reason that I stayed. You inspired me to stay on the wiki, you inspired me to welcome other users here, you inspired me to edit articles and contribute, you inspired me to open my own store, you inspired me to be an admin, and you inspired me to be the user that I currently am. (To a few of you newer users reading this, you won’t understand how great of a user 18tanzc was and will be, should he ever return.) 18tanzc, you will always mean something to me. Whenever I happen to visit this wiki in the future, I will remember you. :)

Awesome3000 (A3K)
If you ever read this xD…So I never knew you very well, but I commend you for sticking with this wiki even though it had died out, and for helping me along the way, teaching me simple rules of this wiki that no one else was really able to teach. Thank you for that. I wish I had gotten to know you better.

Codyn329
Hmm, Cody, I don’t know exactly where to start…you came here after me, and I can only hope that I’ve had an impact on you that is comparable to the impact 18tanzc had on me. I know you haven’t been around that much recently, but I still want to thank you for everything on this wiki!

Razgriz Ghost and Asathegreat7
I commend you guys for sticking around, even though no one else comes here anymore. I really hope that you guys stick around, and meybe revive the wiki in the future. Thank you for being here and making constructive edits to the wiki!