Yesterday Reddit sent me this notification that I'd been a user for 14 years now. So back in 2011 I started my Rixx Javix account. I was probably on Reddit before then, under a different account - long since forgotten. I must have been, I remember posting and reading posts about other games before I started playing Eve Online. But, again, lost to time.
I've had a complicated relationship with r/Eve since the very beginning. For someone who comes from the Advertising and Marketing world, Reddit represents the largest platform available to reach an audience. In those early days I tended to use it simply as a platform to reach more players - posting about events, blog posts, and artwork. The Eve community was a different place back then. Like any community it has evolved and changed over the past two decades. People come and go, things change, and even fundamental issues evolve. When I stared playing Eve in 2008 it was considered a scandal if anyone made money off of gaming. Now everyone does. Things change. (There are a million examples of this.)
Even today I can post on Reddit and immediately expect a few haters to pop up and accuse me of all sorts of troubling things. I live rent free in the feeble minds of a few players, seemingly forever. But this is nothing compared to the time I was openly doxx'd (twice) and had every personal detail shared on-line on Reddit. Luckily my friends took quick action and removed those attempts quickly and the long-term damage was, thankfully, minimal. Indeed those responsible have long since left the game or been banned for their actions. Enough said about that.
A truly love/hate relationship. I will continue to read, continue to post from time to time, and continue to laugh when someone gets angry about something. Especially when they have no idea what they are saying. It is rather amusing.
Reddit is amusing. If you can remove yourself a bit from the muck, it can also serve as a solid temperature gauge in which to grab hold of our community pulse. So it remains helpful in that regard. And it still remains about the only way to communicate with a large portion of the Eve player base. So that has not changed.
The question you have to ask yourself is this, is it worth taking the risk?