The deeper you get into churning and MS, the more you start to recognize usernames and avatars and begin to realize just how small the population of churners is. Each community has inevitable overlap with others, and there’s just a finite universe of people willing to keep up with a hobby that is so meticulous – especially when it has been so brutal lately. 

Because it’s a close knit community and there’s a high level of anonymity outside of meetups, the actions associated with your pseudonym and pfp are really all people have to go off of when deciding whether to entrust you with something sensitive or not. The result of anonymity is that the behavior and opinions associated with your avatar become your reputation. 

Sometimes, trust can be a little bit hard to find as a result of so many differing opinions. A play dying or someone being shut down often leads to some passionate arguing over who bears responsibility. 

In this current state of the hobby, there’s paranoia that every single longtime play could end at any second. And who can blame us? With so many things falling by the wayside, your reputation and the trust that others place in you is more important than ever.

The genesis of this post was an argument that happened in a private group that many of you reading are also in. But this is only one example of this happening fairly recently, and I don’t need to rehash the original argument, except to say that this one was a little bit unique as far as churning arguments go – the court of public opinion was fairly unanimous on one side.  

Being on the losing end of a disagreement is never a good feeling. But when you’re outnumbered 100 to 1 in a group of people from a wide variety of backgrounds, it’s safe to say that it might be worth trying to understand the opposite perspective. That goes double when the consideration being argued over is small. 

Everybody makes mistakes, and one shouldn’t define you in any community. But how you react to a mistake can certainly leave a permanent stain on your reputation. Sometimes, the dollar value of what you’re arguing over pales in comparison to the trust you’ve lost by digging yourself deeper into a hole. 

In a small community of long memories and harder to find plays, the last thing I’d want to do is burn it down over something inconsequential (or something not inconsequential, for that matter). But hey, everybody is different – just don’t be surprised when you lose your seat at the table as a result. 

To quote renowned poet Fred Durst, drama makes the world go around. But if you find yourself at the center of it, it’s probably better to take the L and squash it vs. quadrupling down.  

As an aside, my condolences to the churners feeding families of 18k that just took a significant haircut. My location precludes me from hitting this one, but I’ll be pouring one out for you 🫗. I hope you got the slightest consolation prize in 5090s and Dunkin balances. 

Ndeewo!

Pictured: the positive affirmation Fred Durst has for churners dusting themselves off and heading back to the SCO