A Note From Me About Waterwolf

I've been thinking a lot about what I actually want Waterwolf to be, and I think it's time I just say it plainly.

I care deeply about this place and the people in it, but I'm tired of spending so much of myself on things that don't build anything.

I'm ready to put old battles down.

That's not surrender. That's clarity.

There are better uses for my time and energy. Building something. Learning something. Helping someone with some ridiculous project. Sitting around working together. Or just settling in and watching a movie.

I don't want anyone worrying about whether they're allowed to be friends with someone here.

Be friends. Be curious. Treat people like people.

Waterwolf has always been a curious place. I don't want to single someone out because the popular opinion says I'm supposed to. I don't want to shun somebody because somebody else told me they're bad. When there's conflict, I would rather ask questions, research what happened, and look for objective answers before I throw the sword.

Different groups, different interests, different beliefs, different politics, different ideologies. I don't require you to agree with everyone here. I ask that you recognize that there is a person underneath all of those labels and affiliations, and that person deserves a fair shot.

I'll still defend people if they're genuinely being targeted, segregated, harassed, or torn down. Kindness doesn't require me to stand by while someone is being treated unfairly.

But I don't want to spend my life hunting for enemies.

I want friends.

And sometimes that means I genuinely don't want anything from you.

I don't need every relationship here to be transactional. I don't need you to build something for me. I don't need a performance. I don't need a long explanation about why you're important or why you deserve to be here.

Sometimes all I could possibly want from someone is:

"Hey, do you want to watch a movie?"

That's it.

Ask for access to the server. Find something in the database. Download it. Put it on. Sit down and watch the damn movie.

Put some music on.

Show me the dumb little thing you're tinkering with.

Work on your thing while I work on mine.

Or just sit there.

Presence counts.

And I should probably confess something here.

Part of the reason I haven't been around the Discord calls as much as some people would like is because I know what sometimes happens when I join.

The room fills up.

And that can be wonderful. I know my presence can bring a lot of people together, and there's something really beautiful about that.

But sometimes it turns into a competition for attention.

People start explaining what they've accomplished, what they know, what they've done, why they're important, or telling some bombastic story about something they did back in 1982.

And eventually it becomes a giant talking point of nothing.

It overwhelms me.

I never asked anyone to prove their value to me.

Sometimes I just want to work.

Sometimes I want a call where somebody's stream is playing music in the background, a few people are building completely different things, somebody occasionally says something stupid that makes everyone laugh, and then we go quiet again.

That's still community.

You don't have to fill every silence.

You don't have to constantly prove that you're interesting.

You can just be here.

---

Agency

This place is intentionally light on bureaucracy.

There are dozens of communities out there with significantly more structure, layers of management, approval processes, committees, titles, and rules about who is allowed to do what.

That's fine for them.

That's intentionally not what I've built here.

That doesn't mean Waterwolf is disorganized. At least I certainly try not to be.

It means I value agency.

Probably more than almost anything else.

I know I'm perceived as the person in charge of this dumpster full of raccoons, but I don't actually control any of you, and I don't want to.

I've deliberately distributed power throughout this community.

If I've trusted you with some of that power, use it.

I am not asking you to come to me for permission.

If you want to make an event, make an event.

If you want to help run somebody else's event, obviously talk to that person and coordinate with them.

But if you have your own idea?

There is not a goddamn thing stopping you.

We already have people doing exactly this.

There are people who take responsibility for Wednesday adventures. There are people who make game nights happen. There are people I know I can trust to grab something and simply handle it.

I want more of that.

Not more people reporting to me.

Not more people asking me whether they can turn left or right.

Not more people waiting for me to breathe life into something.

Agency.

And agency isn't always easy.

You might have an incredible idea and discover that getting it off the ground is difficult.

Good.

Ask questions.

Figure out how it works.

Learn something.

Find the people you need.

Ask for the resources you need.

There is a very real possibility that somebody here already has the exact tool, asset, knowledge, connection, world, system, or resource that would make your idea incredible.

But you have to ask.

You can't check out a tool if you never walk up to the tool shed and ask for it.

I don't expect you to know everything.

I do expect some tenacity if you've decided that something matters to you.

And if you take something on, follow through.

If you tell everyone, "I'm doing this," then do it.

If you attach your name to a project and declare that you're going to accomplish it, I am going to trust you to make an honest attempt at accomplishing it.

If life happens, that's fine.

Say something.

Hand it off.

Ask for help.

There is no shame in realizing that you don't have the time or energy for something anymore.

But an idea cannot be held hostage forever by somebody who claimed it and then stopped doing anything with it.

Eventually, someone else gets the ball.

Quiet follow-through means infinitely more to me than a title or a speech about how important you are.

And I've learned something else over the years.

When I stop putting energy into Waterwolf, sometimes Waterwolf becomes a ghost town.

I don't want that.

I don't want to be the only person holding the light switch.

The solution isn't more bureaucracy.

The solution isn't me becoming everyone's boss.

The solution isn't me demanding productivity from my friends.

The solution is agency.

See something missing? Maybe you can make it.

Have an idea? Try it.

Want a movie night? Start one.

Want to take everyone on some ridiculous adventure? Go.

Want to build something astronomical that makes everyone around us wonder how the hell we pulled it off?

Come build it with me.

But I will never force you to.

I'm not your boss.

I'm not your fearless leader.

I'm not going to pressure you into being creative because I decided you should be.

I'm quietly asking:

Would you like to be creative with me?

And if the answer is no tonight?

That's okay.

Pull up a chair.

---

The Wolf

There's another thing that's been on my mind.

There was a time when the Waterwolf logo was absolutely everywhere.

People put that wolf on everything like they were spreading butter on toast.

Avatars. Worlds. Projects. Random things people made.

And in the early days, I had some small rules about how the logo was used and how people represented themselves in this space.

Over time, I've realized something.

I don't need to tell people to put the wolf anywhere.

I want people to want to put it somewhere.

That's completely different.

I want someone to look at that mark and think:

"That's a place I like being part of."

"That represents something good to me."

And when somebody chooses on their own to put that wolf on an avatar, in a world, on something they built, or somewhere completely ridiculous, I notice.

I might never say anything.

But I notice.

And it makes me incredibly happy.

Because that's voluntary.

That's pride.

That's somebody making their own little mark and saying, "Yeah. I'm part of this."

Nobody owes me that.

If you don't want the wolf on your avatar, don't put it there.

If you don't want it in your world, don't put it there.

I'm never going to pressure somebody into advertising this community for me.

But I also never want anyone feeling ashamed or afraid to use it.

There were people who worked very hard to make others feel like that mark was something they weren't allowed to associate with. Narratives were built around it. People researched whatever they could find, interpreted things however they wanted, and sometimes successfully damaged people's trust in what that symbol represented.

I'm not interested in continuing that battle.

I just want people to feel free again.

If the wolf means something good to you, you're allowed to show it.

---

What Comes Next

I look around VRChat today and I see something genuinely beautiful.

There are so many options.

So many communities.

So many worlds.

So many events.

So many creators.

So many completely different things to do on any given night that nobody could possibly experience all of them.

That's incredible.

We don't have to live in a world where a handful of groups need five or ten instances under their control for the space to be healthy.

Someone else's room being full doesn't make ours smaller.

Someone else creating something incredible doesn't take anything away from what we're creating.

Their success does not require our failure.

There doesn't need to be one empire.

There can be thousands of rooms.

I think the thing that poisons that beautiful ecosystem more than anything is when we decide that someone else's existence threatens our own.

Old grudges.

Clout.

Exclusivity.

The idea that somebody isn't allowed to associate with those people because our people don't like them.

I'm tired of it.

I would rather build.

---

And through everything I've said here, I keep coming back to one thing.

Kindness.

There is a legacy to this place built on genuine kindness.

I know there are people outside Waterwolf who will laugh at that sentence, challenge it, weaponize it, or tell a completely different story.

I can't control that.

But the people who are actually here know what I'm talking about.

You've seen it.

You've lived it.

It's somebody helping another person without needing recognition for it.

It's the ridiculous late-night conversations.

It's somebody quietly teaching another person how to make something.

It's somebody checking in.

It's sitting in a call without needing to fill every second with noise.

It's giving somebody a fair shot when everyone else already decided who that person was supposed to be.

It's friendship.

That's what I want to protect.

Not an image.

Not an empire.

Not an old score.

People.

So that's where my heart is.

Sword down.

Doors open.

I'm done spending my energy on old battles.

If you want a chair, pull one up.

If you want a movie, put one on.

If you want to make something, make it.

If you need a tool, ask for it.

If you don't know how to do something, learn.

If you take something on, carry it.

If you can't carry it anymore, hand it to somebody who can.

You don't need to prove your value to me.

You don't need to perform for me.

You don't need my permission to make this place more alive.

Just be real.

Be curious.

Be kind.

And if you've got that spark in you...

Come build something incredible with me.

I'm happy you're here.