Do I belong here?

[Epic_SkyPilot]

Ironic really. You are here in the ORE community asking for attention while some of the ORE community is on /r/redstone asking for attention. Edit: you said that it isn't a post for attention, and I agree. It is a post where you consider options to get the attention you want/need elsewhere. I will address what I perceive to be the root problems. Take it as some guy on the internet offering his opinion...

Our needs and desires change as we grow and learn. Take me for example. I hit the school server hard. I learned a lot and got somewhat comfortable with the advanced redstone process. At least enough to understand the process. Now though, I am so busy with projects at the University that I don't think I have time to go deeper (as far as in-game computer circuits). Nor do I have a desire to do so. I tinker with them on my downtime to keep my mind fresh on the subject, but it isn't like it used to be.

Even the brilliant folk on this server that push redstone technology to its limits realize that someone has to be super committed and passionate about advanced redstone to operate on their level and not burn out. From my observation the ORE community is a place for those people to work together on their shared passion. To their credit, they also provide resources and a small system for others to learn redstone logic if they want, but the primary focus is to serve the advanced redstone "cream of the crop".

You are great with redstone logic. I have appreciated your help on the school server. I believe your problem is that your motive behind advanced redstone does not come directly from a love and passion for it. Repeatedly I have seen you beg for recognition in this community. These observations have told me 2 things. First, you have a sharp mind and do well at processing things on a technical level. Second, you haven't found your real passion yet.

From my perspective, at this point in time, you are here in this community trying to be noticed and recognized but are not getting the attention you want/need. This frustrates you and so you are considering leaving. With this, I have three points of general advice, and then a little advice directly for you. Remember these are my opinions, take them with a grain of salt.

The first thing you should understand is that doing something for attention is dangerous. It sets you up for disappointment. Now, attention is great when you get it, but it shouldn't be the driving motive that pushes you forward in any particular industry. You are likely to have a sad and unfulfilled life if attention is your leading motive. It just isn't a good idea. This brings me to the next important point.

Second, go out and find your real passion. Find a type of work or hobby that you love doing even when zero people will see what you did! Your brain is wired a certain way and you need to find work that fits it.

Third, if you are concerned that finding your passion may not bring you the attention you need, know this... it wont matter as much. If you find something you are truly wired to do, you wont need the attention nearly as bad. Also, because you found your real passion you will accelerate at it. People within your industry will notice your excellence. Recognition will come as delicious desert instead of the main course. Meals are always better if they come with desert aren't they?

Now, let's discuss the importance of recognizing your field of study. While recognition will come, will it always be the size of a superstar? Nope. Fields of study have different size audiences. Take Elon Musk for example. Within the private space industry, he is arguably the best. But, some people at NASA don't care for him. Also, he is no where near as recognized as Miley Cyrus or Will Smith by the general population. Is this bad? NO!!!! While in college he identified his 3 passions and has excelled in all three of them. It is safe to assume he is happy and feels very proud of what he is doing, even if people don't praise him (which they weren't).

Or, look at some people in this community. They are over on reddit basically begging /r/redstone for recognition of the elite things they are doing. In my opinion, the problem is that they are asking for credit from the wrong audience. It appears that they wish they could have Sethbling's popularity. They never will. Why? Because Sethbling has a different audience. He is not advanced-redstone-logic. He is Mapmaking, Exploits, and Command Blocks. His audience happens to be much larger than the advanced-redstone-audience. If they want his recognition and level of success in the general minecraft community by using advances redtone logic, they are in for a big let-down. Which brings me to my last point.

If your true passion doesn't get you the size of attention (or money) you desire, you must ask yourself which is more important. Doing what you deeply love, or doing something else to meet other emotional/physical needs (you need to eat to survive)? That question I believe is the key to your happiness. There is no right answer and compromise is often the best solution. And as time goes on, your desires and needs change.. changing the answer to the question.

I can tell you this though. From my perspective, if you choose to leave ORE, you wont find happiness in another redstone server. To be blunt, I don't think you will find lasting satisfaction in redstone at all. Perhaps I am wrong, but to me it seems that your technical brain is wired for some other difficult subject.

If I were you I would try to figure out what it is. IMO you could waste a lot of time in redstone and never be satisfied fully, or you can jump from subject to subject until you find the one that fits you perfectly. I will add that advanced redstone is a passion for itself. There really isn't any money to gain from it.

Too long, too philosophical, and might be completely off, but it might help. Good luck.

Well before I start my long reply to all you said, let me get a few things straight. This is why I put that disclaimer in the first 2 lines, because I knew this would happen.

I am NOT looking for attention/recognition, and frankly it's pretty disrespectful when you immediately replay insisting I am right after you read it, especially since I blatantly stated that that's not what I'm doing

And you do have much advice to offer, and I appreciate all of it. However, it is misdirected because your perception of my motives is incorrect. I actually do YouTube and hardly anyone on this server knows my channel, but I have just under 500 subscribers. I don't advertise constantly on here like many other members do. Attention is nice, but I that's not what I'm after, so quit making assumptions.

I'm not going to ignite an old flame, so just remember that this problem is behind me and everyone else, but last month I had a lot of problems on this server. Mainly cut's doing, but what really got to me was the fact that I brought it to the attention of the staff and little action was taken. He was finally banned, but only because he got into his normal disrespectful, spam the chat phase and everyone got sick of him.

You can disagree all you want, but those problems caused me alot of grief, and I grew sick of it and started seeking a staff position. It was NOT for power, and it was NOT for attention. I simply wanted the ability to moderate some events here on the server because they were affecting many members, including myself.

This whole thread wasn't me seeking attention, like you're so confident it does (refer to the beginning of the whole post.) This whole thread, actually, is me trying to figure out what this server has to offer in the future. It was gotten a little better recently, but that means nothing because problems here are getting worse and worse as the weeks go by.

And to put it simply, you are DEAD wrong about me and my passion for redstone. It's a major hobby and passion of mine, and actually that's the only reason why I've still stuck around all this time. You gave me advice, now let me give you some.

Don't always be so certain you know what other people's motives are. In this case, you're 100% wrong, but there's no convincing you. You'll think what you want regardless of what anybody says.

Now to my next point, where you, throughout much of your post, stated that I "seek recognition." I'm assuming that you got that from the bit I said about doing big projects I'm proud of, and getting little recognition for it. If that's the case, then you misunderstood my tone. It happens constantly through text, but I'll elaborate. I didn't mean recognition as in 10 thousand views on youtube, or the whole community praising what I did. What I was trying to portray was the fact that some of the projects I do are absolutely amazing to me, but everyone else seems to think differently.

What I was getting at with that is I just feel I'm different than everyone else on this server, and that's one of the reasons why. I find a certain build of mine outstanding, and others see it as a big piece of clay resembling tangled headphones. I'm not angry because I don't get praise for it, I get disheartened because it makes me feel like my idea of redstone building is different from others among this community.

I have refrained from being hostile, but you must understand how much this reply of yours infuriates me. You really need to be more careful in the future to not be so bold with what you assume about other people. If that's not something you were taught as a child, then it should of been something you picked up on as a human.

Before I go ranting with embedded hostility, I'll cut that part short and just say I had to get it off my chest, because I did. I appreciate your reply, but you're judgement of me and my intentions is clouded. I'm not seeking attention, or recognition, praise, anything like that. I had my little fiasco with the staff thing, and I'll admit I was seeking attention in that situation, but not for the reasons you think.

I wanted to get attention to make my problems on this server known, along with others. And as it turned out, they got recognized from other sources and I was left with lingering problems as a result. They're mostly gone with cut banned, but I have just distanced myself from the build server because I honestly can't take it there anymore.

I said pretty much what I wanted to say, but I do have to point out how your post has evidence that you're assuming to know my entire life story, when you've only known me through the internet for a month, at most.

You're assuming I don't know what career choices I want to make, I have problems getting ambition, and many other things you just assume you know about me because your mindset is you're right about anything you say to me.

Actually, I have an entire plan set out for my life. Right after I graduate, I'm joining the military for a 4 year term, and coming back when I'm 22. From there, I'm going to school in New Zealand for computer sciences and engineering, similar to what you're doing. I plan to live there all my life too, and with the positions they'll have opening up in these coming years I'll be able to make good money, with not too much work that I enjoy doing.

I want to live through my hobbies. Snowboarding, soccer, skydiving, swimming, and many other activities I enjoy doing. I'm not an adrenaline junky, but I don't wish to live my life wholly through my career, no matter how much I enjoy it. My career will be the backbone of my life. It'll be my tool to allow me to do the things I really do enjoy doing.

So basically you're not on target with your assumption that I really don't enjoy redstone. It's almost all I do when I'm on my computer, and I really enjoy it as a hobby. It teaches me too, otherwise I wouldn't be seeking doing this type of stuff as a career. Remember that from now on. I belong in a redstone community, I really enjoy taking part in it and I'm just second guessing whether this one is right for me.

And I must point out: You do NOT know me, stop pretending like you do. If we can end the disrespect at that, I'd be very appreciative. If not, I'll treat you like the asshole you were to me. Intentional or not, you disrespected me today and I handled it better than I thought I would. But that needed to be said. I hope you have a nice day, and take everything I said here to heart, I meant all of it.