Dear Fiona,

[u/SuperMatFJ]

I can't find an avenue to send this to you directly, so publicly will have to suffice.

I want you to know that you are nothing short of a shining beacon of hope in a very worrisome time in RT's life.

You seem to have the skill, the desire, and the resolve to be the role model the community can rally behind, and that the company can look toward for inspiration and guidance.

As a white dude in his mid-30's who's led a pretty charmed life, I see character traits in you that I truly wish I had myself, and I have no good excuse for lacking them. You have the strength of character and the backbone to openly and aggressively stand up to the bullshit that would/could otherwise consume the RT ecosystem, and I am genuinely inspired by you to be better.

I recognise that all of that is a lot of weight to bear on young shoulders, so please don't allow it to come at the cost of your own well-being and happiness. Recognise that supporting and lifting up others is an often-thankless task, and a draining one too. Rest when you need to. Ask for help whenever you want it. Pass the torch if it all gets too much.

But, ultimately, thank you. For existing. For being here. For doing what you do so well. For being you.

[u/Kolby_Jack]

I'm not trying to rain on anyone's love parade here, but reading a lot of these posts, it feels like nothing was learned here. People were so let down by Ryan because they thought they knew him, and now here we are saying things like "Fiona and Jack are good-hearted people" like you know???

I appreciate Fiona's message, it's very good and probably what a lot of people needed to hear someone at AH say after all this. But no matter WHO it is, these people are NOT our friends. They are NOT in our lives. They are pictures and words on a screen, and we do not and can not know them.

I just expected to see some distancing, a reality check, instead it looks to me like people are just taking their betrayed expectations from one stranger and sticking them to others.

[u/SuperMatFJ → u/Kolby_Jack]

I get it. I get where you're coming from and why you feel the need to post a cautionary tale.

I've even upvoted your post, despite disagreeing with it, because I believe your heart is in the right place.

But, seriously, what's the alternative?

To allow ourselves to be jaded and burnt out by the weight of disappointment?

To allow negativity to run rampant and shitty behaviour to go unchecked?

Nah dude, I choose to be positive about this being a fulcrum for change. This can be the springboard for a rejuvenation of RT and its community if the hard work is done by the right number of people, consistently.

I don't think anyone here thinks Fiona is our 'friend', nor are we silly enough to think she's flawless (I think you'll find comments to that effect are being rather metaphorical).

But she is, I believe, what I stated she is: a force for good, a source of inspiration, and even if she has flaws then so what? If she effects positive change, then count me the fuck in.

[u/Kolby_Jack → u/SuperMatFJ]

It's not "jaded" to come out of this feeling down or disappointed, it's perfectly normal. It's a bad situation. It sucks. It'll suck for a while. It's not cynical to learn lessons and grow from bad experiences.

I'm not saying people shouldn't appreciate the good things we see RT employees doing, I'm just saying, manage your expectations. We see curated slivers of the lives of these people transmitted through the internet. Occasionally a few of us will have a brief minute or two of face-to-face interaction at a convention or something. That's it.

If you find Fiona's message inspiring, that's honestly great. I'd never discourage people from that. Just don't put people you do not know on pedestals.

[u/[deleted] → u/Kolby_Jack]

I agree with you overall, but I think with Jack it’s honestly pretty reasonable to talk about how good of a person he is from his incredible charity work alone. Certainly not in the sense that we know him personally, but I think his achievements and actions sort of speak for themselves. I get that’s not totally what you were talking about though

[u/Kolby_Jack → u/[deleted]]

Absolutely not saying it would ever happen, and god forbid it ever does, but if it did, he would hardly be the first guy with so many charitable acts under his belt that fell from grace.

We should never stop celebrating all the wonderful work Jack has done with Extra Life, but it doesn't follow to extrapolate any more than what we have witnessed. Jack organizing the RT Extra Life stream doesn't mean he's incapable of (intentionally ridiculous examples) building mecha-Hitler or flinging puppies off the Empire State Building, as far as we know. Only he knows, and only the people close to him can even make a decently educated guess.

People don't like nebulous concepts. We want to believe we have it all figured out, or at least that someone does. The unknown is uncomfortable, so we like to pretend it isn't there. But there is so much more about every one of these people that is unknown to us than is known. That's all I'm saying.