I enjoy solo staffing a lot more than I thought I would, honestly.

After being part of multiple large staff teams where even admins had to get approval from multiple people so nobody felt like they were left out or excluded and naturally only logged in once or twice a week. This tended to make the process feel as much like going through the DMV as possible, so it's been really nice for me to just see an idea somewhere else or watch a storytelling structure type video and be able to just add it in.

It also avoids us having to keep legacy systems/ways of doing things that are later found to be awful in order to avoid hurting feelings. I made everything, and if I determine at any point that the way my site does things is awful I can change it immediately to some other thing I think will work better. There is absolutely no reason why application/beginner's guide language should stay the same, for example, if it's not serving its purpose.

Basically I get the freedom to improve my site as I see fit without worrying about the social aspect of someone saying that they worked hard on a system/idea that ended up sucking that they want to cling to. Now it's me who worked hard on a system/idea that ended up sucking and I've worked very hard over the years to not tie my self-worth to the things that I make. I make bad decisions like I make bad posts -- it happens and sometimes I think I know better when I really don't. But I'm also not married to that bad decision when I realize I was an idiot and it can be done much better and more simply.

One of my least favorite parts of large staff teams in the past was the OOC politicking. If someone didn't like the answer one staffer gave, they asked all of them individually until they got the answer they wanted and then ran with it with that single approval despite 1-5 people saying no before that. With smaller staff teams that is much more condensed to members realizing if the staffer says no that actually means no.

Sometimes that means that what they want is something the site cannot accommodate, and that's great! I link them to other RWBY sites that I know can accommodate them. I have no interest in villains or full grown huntsman, for example, which are valid things that someone might want to roleplay in a RWBY game that I chose not to include to make sure everyone can RP with each other. Which is another thing that solo staffing lets me do -- direct people to other sites I know of that may fit their expressed interests without being regarded as a 'traitor' or whatever.

Wanna play in a pokemon setting? Check out Hoenn! Want a VRMMO? Check out Endorrain!

Like I keep up on sites that pop out way outside my genre because of their presence on here because I like seeing the things that particular sites do really well so I can see what smarter people do to solve the problems that I have. If I have a confidence based off of my impressions here or elsewhere that the members/staff of a site are solid, I have zero problem recommending them and a lot of people I recommend tend to stay in the sites I direct them to for months I've noticed. I don't consider that to be a failure on my part, because frankly a hot dog stand can't really do a lot when confronted with a vegetarian or someone who hates hot dogs -- they can only point to the best vegetarian place that they know. If you're looking for hot dogs, we got some great ones, but if you're not we can't really provide anything for you. Someone looking for ice cream at your hot dog stand being directed to an ice cream shop is not you betraying your site or being a bad admin, it's you actually helping build the animanga community and leaving a positive impression on someone who will then remember your site possibly when your niche is mentioned again by someone in their circle.

In contrast, lying and saying you have ice cream and then giving them the hot dog they expressed they did not want will just make them angry and hate you forever. I have enough people who have sworn to hate me for all eternity from my early teenage years on forum RP, and I really don't need or desire more. When I have a few months of free time and decide to join another site for a bit, I tend to enjoy the `Hey welcome to our site!` vibe a lot more than the 4 people in weird black hoods and robes muttering about how the day of reckoning is at hand. That was cool when I was 12 and edgy and thought anybody knowing me for any reason was good, but less so now when I go to places to chill out and do character concepts I can't use on my own site for whatever reason.