Hey guys, I have some very important news to share. There is no easy way of saying this so we’ll jump straight in with the bad news. I have given up my part ownership of Footballmanagerstory. Due to work commitments and my personal life I cannot continue to run the site with Johnny. This decision means I will no longer write stories and comment or moderate in the forum. The strain of these responsibilities has become too much and I need to take a break and sit back a little. That is the bad part over with, so before I move on to more positive news let me do a few shout outs.
I’d like to start by saying thanks to everyone who has commented and followed my stories over the last two years. It’s been a truly brilliant journey and one I wouldn’t swap for anything. So many of you have commented that I couldn’t possibly talk about everyone, but believe me when I say I know and am grateful to all of you. Now on to a few very special shout outs.
Everyone who has written for me: I want to say thank you so much to everyone who has written for allthatisfootballmanager and footballmanagerstory. You guys were and are what makes both sites tick and I am grateful to all of you for your time and effort.
Ana Garcia: A special little lady who has captured the imagination of our little community. Ana first joined me at Allthatisfootballmanager while still writing on this site and I have loved working with her. You are a great lass Ana and I will always follow your stories…thank you so much for everything you did on my old site and on FMS.
Lye: Always hanging around my posts with a friendly comment. We’ve exchanged comments for a while now and I always look forward to hearing from you, despite taking more of a back seat I’ll continue to follow you mate. :)
Laxeyman: The first comment I ever received was from you, you have followed my every post over the last few years and I never felt alone even when I received just one comment per post. :) Thank you so much for following me mate.
Kevin: You my friend are a top lad and someone I have grown very fond of. Our email conversations will not end and I expect regular updates on how lifes going. ;)
Sears: What can I say, only four months after starting my journey I found you on the net and we never looked back. You were my first writer and we’ve enjoyed the journey together as mates. Thank you for your friendship and commitment over the last few years, you made all of this easier and more enjoyable.
Johnny Karp: LEGEND, the don of Football Manager and a true example to all of us. You have helped me from day one, I started not knowing what a blog was and you helped me with some simple questions. You then recommended I start an official site and that took off. After some hosting issues you offered me the opportunity to merge with FMS. Basically every step I have taken has stemmed from you and you have moulded me into the blogger I am today. Having said all that, the thing I value the most is our friendship. We share the same interests, similar opinions and a very similar way of thinking. I am forever indebted to you and the site, which takes me onto the good news. ;)
I AM NOT LEAVING FOOTBALLMANAGERSTORY!!! That’s right my friends, I am still staying with FMS and writing for Johnny. The easiest way to explain what I will and will not be doing is in bullet points.
- The reason I felt like I needed to give up my part ownership is because I will not be writing any stories for the foreseeable future, this also means all voting on who I’ll manage in FM 2012 is cancelled. For those who are interested, Malaga won the poll with 134 votes. Norwich were just 10 votes behind in second. Anyway that is now irrelevant as writing about my saves has taken the most amount of time. I need to take more time for myself and the only way to do this is stop writing about my games.
- I will still be around the site and reading everyone’s stories. I may not comment on every single post but I will read them all.
- I will no longer be around the forum, unfortunately commenting and reading through the forum took up 25% of my time. When I find time I will catch up on what you’re up to but please don’t be offended if I fail to comment.
- I will remain in charge of the scouting network. Now this is quite exacting for me. With FM 2012’s release I have a lot of ideas and want to take the scouting network up a level. Due to the fact that I can write and maintain that extension when I like makes this pretty easy and not so demanding.
- I will continue to write on the main site with my tactics, tips and guides. So don’t think I’m abandoning you, as I’ll continue to share everything I know and this will probably be every two weeks or even more regular.
To summarise, I have loved been such a big part of this site but it’s time for me to take a back seat. I will be around the site every other day, writing posts and commenting. But I need to have rid of the responsibilities including regular posts for the sake of my personal life. I have grown very fond of our community and feel so attached to this site. Writing this post and making this decision hasn’t come easy, in fact I’ve been putting this off for a long time and almost changed my mind tonight after an 11th hour effort by Kevin via email! :) There is always the chance that I will join Johnny as a site owner again, but at the moment I just can’t keep up with everything and need to step back. As I’ve previously mentioned, please don’t think I’m disappearing as you’ll see a lot of me, just not so much in the forum nor with my stories.
So let me reiterate, I am not leaving Footballmanagerstory. I may not be writing stories but I’ll be writing a lot of other posts and be seen around the site and scouting network more than a fly around…well you get the idea. :) :) Please feel free to ask any questions below and this is certainly not he last time you’ll read me writing this sentence…not by a long shot.
Thanks
Darren
