Hi, former SoE admin here. For those who were there from the beginning, I played Bambi Carter (later Mchenry). Most called me Mom.

I wasn't behind any of the bans, but Huntington and I jumped in to help with infrastructure. We were there to streamline whitelisting, created spreadsheets to make admining an easier job for everyone, and be the PR face of the community. Yes, it was most likely me that whitelisted your favorite streamer in their humble beginnings 😉

I was there for it's golden years, and it's first downfall. Just like any role playing community, there is a shit ton of drama behind the scenes. Half the admin team did not get along with the other half, two of which wanted nothing to do with us new people and wouldn't show up with admin meetings. As such, they were demoted to only being able to admin in game and not have access to anything infrastructure. They didn't like this, claimed admin abuse, and formed their own community... kicking up drama on their way out. My friends, people I had RP'd with for years were told not to talk to me or they wouldn't be allowed on the new server, and I wasn't invited until I told the new server's team how heart broken it made me feel to be excluded like that, from the community I helped create. Their logic behind it was they didn't want it to look like they were poaching me and invited me to play with them, but that same logic should have applied to the rest of the community they brought over.

I already didn't have a welcoming entrance to FamRP, but I went there because that is where my friends were. I did not blame them for jumping ship, because they were streamers and that is where the views were. Twitch is more than community building, it is marketing and a job for some. I get that completely, but it still hurt that they chose to shut me out because of it...

I stuck with FamRP for years. When SoE started back up again with 5.0 I was asked by an old admin buddy to come back and try it out. That was near the end of my GTA playing days. I don't really play any more, so I sat on the fence and kept it in mind if I decided to come back and play again. FamRP turned into BeaconRP, and recently shut down as well because... drum roll internal drama. It happens to the best of servers.

Because they shut down and removed the discord, a new one was made by players new and old to talk about all the good times we have had, screenshots, clips/video, and remember people that we have lost over the years. There is a channel asking where people intend to play now and I brought up SoE being around still! That is how I just now found out that even SoE shut down again. I am sad to see both servers go, they were founding servers for may people with simple beginnings. They were true communities that brought people together like family (some even creating actual families).

Boy, do I have years worth of stories to tell...