User blog:Amine S. Gherensi/My Opinions on the Community After Being Here For Almost 5 Years

Hi; for those of you who don't know, I'm TheCreator901. I started mapping all the way back in 2014 (14th November is a day I look forward too every year since it is my 'mapping career's' anniversary). I was one of the last of the old fags and not only the first Algerian mapper, but also the first African mapper. Though I have been a mapper of note in the community for several years, I never made any ground breaking series and to this day I have yet to breach 180 subscribers. Probably my greatest accomplishment youtube wise is having some influence on Dylan's World decision to enter the AFOE genre.

My greatest achievement instead would be the creation of the Konig des Menschen mapping series which has outlived my community activity and I give my most sincere thanks to those who have kept the series going after my depature (TheSteampunkTotero, Sidewinder291102, Batran99 and even old comrades like Luka and Ethan). I am happy that before my departure, I left something that others have been enjoying for two years now. You can say that KdM was my gift to the Mapping Community.

So that's enough about me. Why am I writing this blog? I can't even remember the last time I've written one. When I was first introduced to mapping, I had started High School at around the same time and a few months later I made my own channel, TheCreator901. I was proud of it and eventhough my videos were terrible in hindsight, I loved it. Just the making of slides and coming up with a story (granted there was no plot) was fun. Then I'd put all the slides together in MovieMaker and pop out a video. We laugh at kids who make 10 subscriber specials and other videos of the sort but when I reached my first milestone (10 subs) I was proud. I had achieved something and this was great for an 11 year old me.

I was involved with the community too and slowly but surely, I became a figure that was recognizable and not just there in the background. I made some fun relationships with users I can still remember but no longer have contact with (SunnyKhan, Kebab Master Lel, Ceplio and many others). As time passed, many left the community and many new people joined with Mat being the one that comes to my mind first. I too discovered Monsoonjr's MC server and HappynHungry's too (he was a fun guy!) and that was just great. I joined the community a few years after MervueMeringue made the first ever mapping video back in 2009 IIRC and even after the initial faction conflicts and Trio. There was, however, a sense of community. We were all super small youtubers who got hyped when he got another 100 subscribers because we didn't do it for the subs but rather because we loved history and many of us enjoyed making the actual videos. It's funny how our videos were never realistic and most still aren't but that was the fun of it. We first just were messing about with slides but then the creative amongst us sat down and thought of ways to improve and actual plots were written and we had developed a culture.

We had our heroes like MervueMeringue and then we had our martyrs like Goldenrebel. We too had villains like Trio and respected figures like Batran, MOAP and Voidviper. Though there were often fallouts between us (I can't remember me and Fedex didn't have the smoothest relationship), the community generally stuck together. And that was the beauty of it. We had our own little culture with jokes that we recognized (good ol' Jabril) and stories that we could reminisce because we participated in them. Just the live chat was fun enough as we just generally messed about because we were young and dumb. Now, the only reason why this was possible, however, was because we were a small community and we recognized this; in fact, our absolute lack of importance as a community kept us somewhat humble I'd say. Nobody got arrogant because they had 500 subscribers, instead they were happy. The most respected mappers too weren't always necessarily the ones who had the most subscribers. But after NickHdMapping left, I started noticing a change within the community.

We were getting more exposure and as time passed on, it just became a competition of who could get the most votes. It was no longer fun because toxicity became commonplace as people starting battling for the top position. Culturally, you could say the community blossomed. Stuff like MIFF and MappingVision exploded during this period but the common culture that we created started to die out as the oldfags grew and left and the newfags became the dominant group within the communities 'demography'. All the mappers who reached no. 1 since NickHdMapping have been newfags IIRC and there is nothing wrong with this. It is natural for communities to change. Countries and nations change generation by generation and the Mapping community is a super mini micro 'country' and it is only natural that when the first generation of mappers (the oldfags) 'died out', they get replaced by the next generation (the newfags). There still are vestiges of the oldfags with the most prominent examples to mind being Batran, Voidviper, Ethan and for a while, me. However, the culture of the community has been heavily influenced by the mass of newfags that have flooded into the community which is great because the community's getting more splotlight but it came at the cost of that strong communal feeling that once existed. And that's why I stopped being active. I didn't realize it at the time but now I understand why.

There was something which held us oldfags together and that thing has been lost. I'm willing to bet money on it being the common culture we created since the newfags aren't aware of it and when you have invested yourself in 'learning' a community's culture, you develop a connection to it. Like I said before, we had a 'mythology' which included Mervue, Jabril and many others. We started off with the proto-Mapping of Mervue and developed on it the same way a people develop overtime improving on their technology, social structures and etc. Sadly the newfags don't have that. They entered a community already built but they didn't 'enrich' themselves in the Mapping culture.

I know I'm overthinking things but this is genuinely what I believe. It's not a criticism of the newfags by the way. Though I dislike the competition which now exists, I do respect the newfags for achieving numbers us oldfags couldn't even dream of. I looked at the Top 10 mappers today and I saw the list. At the top is Bace Bulgarian Mapper with a whopping 47,735. Congratulations Bace, I've never heard of you but you've done well. Next is Bluza, somebody else I've never heard of but once again, congratulations. Then we have Romanian Mapping; now I've heard of him and though I too congratulate him, I unfortunately now connect him in my mind with the toxicity of the 'race to the top' which existed before I stopped being active. Then we have King of the Mapping; never heard of him either but congrats. Then we have Japanese Mapping, what I said about Romanian applies here too. Then there is Sixh who I don't know but congrats and then we have VoidViper and Serbian Mapping. I remember both of these and VoidViper is one of the greatest mappers of all time imo so its nice to see him in the top 10.

It's also good to see Serbian because I genuinely enjoyed his work. Then there is CheeseWafflz Mapping whose name I recognize and then there is CGG502. I have no clue who you are but good on you, you've made it into the top 10. As I go down the list, I see more and more names that I recognize and many of them are no longer active due to what ever reason. Nick HD Mapping (he got me so hyped with that last video, lil bugger), Dylan's World, Freezepond, Eradiate (Christ, I loved his series), CraftOVideo, Fedex, Ethan, Mindria, Algerian Mapper (I was so happy when I found out a second Algerian had joined), JMathias, Atlas (I was called Atlasium at the time he became a thing. He was so promising yet he quit quick; at least that is if he's who I think he is), Exordium (still remember him as Mat though), Asdf (ah, creator of Pylion), Galack, Agatha (a female mapper; those are rare), Aen, ΙΧΩΡ, Shining Orange, HappynHungry, The Arab Mappers! and then Monsoonjr who I am proudly tied with at 169 subscribers in 562nd place though the wikia hasn't updated me so I'm in 583rd place with 156 subs.

At the very bottom of the list is Sake Mapper with 3 subs in 1105th place and when I see him, I see myself back in 2014 as an 11 year old hyped because I got my mother to subscribe to me. It is something of great pride to yourself and I'm sure many of the smaller channels do it because they enjoy it but many of the larger ones I feel have lost a bit of that sense but it is only natural so keep doing what you're doing.

So now that I've spoken a bit about just my experiences with the development of the community (to be fair its a bit of a ramble but its 3:44 am and I'm not tired so to hell with it), I'll just talk about a few things that I've noticed.

Trio is apparently back. If that's the case, that's a fun legacy from the times even before I started mapping. It's funny how he's become a mainstream part of mythology (albeit its only Mapperdonian mythology). Another 'mythological figure' is Goldenrebel who we all thought died from cancer and we held him in very high regard. Apparently turns out he's still alive and is TheOneLeggedFascist. The evidence put forward is convincing and it is indeed saddening. He was after all, one of biggest inspirations. That reminds me, who were my initial inspirations? They were: Batran, Golden, MOAP, Disturbed Fan and Zukasratavarius.

On a happier note, MervueMeringue was on Mappercast and that makes me happy because he's essentially the 'god' of Mapperdonian 'mythology.

So what do I hope for the Mapping Community? Well, I hope it continues to improve both community-wise but also quality wise since when you compare the videos of today, they are fantastic when compared to what the community started off with. Though some older videos have managed to hold up (MOAP's graphics were beautiful and Eradiate's story-telling was spot on), the newfags are definetly good mappers. I still do like to watch a truly classical series once a year though because of its nostalgia. Back to what I'd like to see. I'd like to see the newfags build upon the already existing mythology and culture and add new 'heroes' and stories. Looking back, there have been three eras as of yet in my opinion. The initial phase of oldfags from whom most of our 'mythology' comes from. They are the 'ancients' of the wikia and very, very few of them are still sticking around with the most prominent being Batran.

There then is the second phase of oldfags which is when I come into play. The most prominent of us I'd say is Voidviper. We maintained the mythology of our 'predecessors' and started to succeed them as they began to quit and become inactive. But then we were succeeded by the newfags. Now, we inherited our community culture from the very first mappers but the newfags fail to inherit much of it from us and we didn't create as strong a 'mythology' as the initial mappers did so we passed on very little to the newfags. Now, I'm not that well aware of the culture that they do have but one thing for sure is that it is nowhere near as strong as it was for both first and second phase oldfags. Thus, if there is anything to take from my blog, it is that to have a strong community, you need to have a strong culture and 'mythology'. The same rule applies to actual countries and nations because it is just how things are.

So I'm going to finish now because I've been rambling a lot. But I have a few final words. Why is it that I decided now was the time to write all this? I've been inactive for a long time after all. When I joined the mapping community, I had also joined high school and as I grew in high school, I grew in the community too. We shared stories on Skype and I'm not going to lie, the community helped me through the past five years which have been a hard struggle for me. Yet now I've finished high school and in just a few days I will get the results of my GCSEs so I am anxious though I have high hopes (last year I did my Religious Education and ICT GCSE and respectively got a 9 (equivalent to an A**) and a 7 (equivalent to an A) and ICT was a topic I was predicted a 1 for just a month before the exam (you need a 5 to pass so a 1 is just absolutely terrible). Why is this important? It's important because I have grown in the past half a decade and now I'm soon to move on to college and as I look back, the community played a big role in my growing up as I'm sure it has on many other mappers though they may not even know it.

Now, I've migrated to the Althist Forums (ironic since when I first joined the AFOE community, I say the AltHist community as rivals and bad) where I am very, very active. My username's Richard Drummond, hit me up.

TheCreator901