An Open Letter to ItsJerryandHarry (2024)

Preface
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I've had an urge to write this for some time, but I kept putting it off. However, in the past 24 hours, that desire has manifested itself once more in an even stronger manner to the extent that I would occasionally think about this throughout the day. This thread may potentially be messy as I am just writing whatever comes into mind without a strict idea or topic, and therefore it will likely be incohesive as well.

I may or may not have ripped the title of this thread off an influential member of the community, albeit he is not as influential as me because he does not have as many posts and likes, which is the one true basis of relevancy in this forum. However, I shall be performing my spin on this thread. Unlike his' which revolves around specific themes and topics, the main purpose of my thread is to merely evoke feelings. With that being said, I hope you guys find some level of nostalgia, joy, or any positive emotions from reading this thread. I also invite you guys to reply with your reflections or takeaways over the past couple of years.

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Dear ItsJerryandHarry Community,

Hello, inactive administrator here, just want to ask how all of you are doing. Me? I'm doing great. My life is doing splendid in all aspects that I deem relevant. Sometimes, life is going so well that I forget that I spent a decent chunk of my early teen years dedicated to the server, which made me take a trip down memory lane.

When I first joined the server, I was barely 12 years old in the 7th grade. I was introduced to this server by an at the time close friend and we primarily played Skyblock. Not too long after, he quit, but I on the other hand, ended up getting emerged into the community. After getting scammed and griefed and whatnot, I eventually got frustrated enough to create a forum account and make a report. Can you guess how the report went? The answer is, that it went horribly. I just placed a wall of text describing the event, I don't think I even got the name of the person, lol. At this time, I also started making a name for myself in Skyblock at the time and got to become pretty close to some of the people within the Australia-Asia timezone.

At some point, I started pondering around more on the forums. I believe this was either during the comeback of Peaceful Survival or Factions. Now, to the newer ones, specifically only those who joined in 2015 or later, you might not know this but I had a pretty bad reputation on the forums at some point. I was known as a post farmer, a rule enforcer, and occasionally, a rude brat. To be honest, I don't blame myself for having acted in such a way at the time. My father was very strict with me and banned me from using social media, so the forums were essentially my very first social media platform. This kept me from keeping in touch with my friends outside of school hours. So as you can imagine, I was addicted to this platform. Not only would I play on the server during my free time, but in almost every single instance I wasn't, I was on the forums. I would be on the forums right before I sleep, and I would be excited to check my 50+ notifications when I would wake up in the morning. Yes, you heard that right. 50+ notifications within a roughly 7-hour time frame.

Eventually, just like most people, I got interested in becoming a staff member. Why? Because it was the in thing. Let's be real here, nobody, and I mean nobody can earnestly say with 100% confidence that they were interested in being staff solely to help people, or at least back in the day. Being staff meant you were a "cool kid", you were part of the clique. I mean, even former Co-Owner, MrDeathWilliam, begged to be staff at some point. That's how much of a deal it was back in the day. Of course, I wanted to aid the community and be a part of the server's task force, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't in it for the clout too.

Take note that a while ago I said that I had a bad reputation at some point because that affected my chances of getting staff. You want to know the main reason I got staff? It was because I was an extremely active player in a dead timezone that lacked staff. Before my promotion, if not mistaken, there were only three individuals who were staff in the Australia-Asia timezone, Paarthurnax/Arthur, Audrey_Is_Here, and Magical (hello if you read this since you still lurk). There was no anti-cheat at the time, and even the supposed deadest timezone had roughly 500+ players online at a minimum. So you can imagine the workload those three had to share. Despite this, several staff were against me being promoted. To those that didn't believe me, screw you guys, I made it to Admin while you were all stuck at Mod. But in all seriousness, I don't blame them. I was pretty immature at the time.

Although I had a bad reputation, I still was a pretty popular member of the community at the time. I think I got over 5+ pages of congratulations comments for becoming a Helper, and I don't think anyone else has ever gotten more than that. Of course, it did not end there. Messages on Skype and both in-game PMs and all chats were rampant at the time too. Being promoted was easily my biggest achievement as a 13-year-old. Quite literally thousands of applicants and I was chosen. I was over the moon. I was a driving force in my time zone and did not disappoint. I'd easily warn and ban tens of people in a day and continue to engage in friendly community relationships. I was so dedicated to the role that I would wake up at 4 AM just to attend 3-hour-long staff meetings even though several people would take minutes and post a compilation of them afterward. Eventually, as years passed, the staff trusted me, and my work was acknowledged, hence my eventual promotion to Admin.

2014-2015 was truly the peak of the ItsJerryandHarry community. Not just in terms of the number of active players, but also in stupidity, and drama. Don't even get me started on drama. There is just too much of that to be able to put in a single thread. But as we all know by now, the server slowly started declining. Several factors influenced this. The steady decline of Minecraft as a result of the shift of the meta games, the lack of support and interest from at-the-time popular influencers, and of course, the vast majority of people simply just growing up. One of my biggest regrets is not having taken more photos, and having deleted a lot of old ones before. If only I realized how sentimental of a person I am early on in life, I am sure I'd be drowning in evidence of these memories.

At this point, I'm the definition of a dinosaur. I've been here for over 10 years now, and nearly 9 of those as a staff member. I am not only the holder of the title of longest-running staff member but am also the longest-running community member as well without having taken any breaks. I've watched people who could be considered at the time legends fade away into existence. I've watched the newcomers, eventually become veterans as well and watch them leave too. I've watched hundreds of staff members come and go, and some quite literally come and go, come and go, come and go, and come and go (I'm looking at you Noah).

A popular question asked during interviews is where you see yourself 5 years from now. And frankly, I believe that the only acceptable answer is "I don't know" followed by a short statement that pretty much says that as long as you get what you expect, they can expect the best from you in return. Similarly, if I were to be asked where I see myself 5 years from now on the server, I cannot answer that question. We don't even know if the server will be up for another 5 years. However, what I can guarantee is that although I may not have the time, energy, and dedication to be as active as I once was, I am still going to leave a small portion of my life open for this community.

This community means a lot to me, and, although 99% of the people who I was close to have completely moved on from here, with some having not logged on in years, I will still work from the shadows and help in moderating the community and running the staff team as a form of gratitude to the people from both the past and present.

To 12-year-old me, thank you for being a complete nutjob, because I am sure I would not be the person I am today. My success in life right now can be accredited to the stupid things I have done in life, and I can confidently say that most of the reckless dumb shit I've said and done was on these platforms.

To everyone, whether we be friends, acquaintances, or strangers whom I have interacted merely out of responsibility or whatever reason, thank you. I am sure that I got to grow tremendously as a person because of you guys.

To wrap this thread up, the parting message I would like to leave with you guys is to really cherish and treasure the moments you had (for those who are inactive and merely lurk every once in a while), or are currently making (obviously for those who are active). Just take some time to look back at where you started, and see how far you've come. It doesn't matter whether or not you were a staff member, whether you only had a few friends or several, whether you were a hub guy or played minigames. Believe it or not, some of our fondest memories at some point were created on this server. Hell, some of you guys have even met up in person and have become real-life friends. Although I don't know any, I wouldn't be surprised if some of you have even become partners with people you have met here.

To each and every person out there, I am proud of who you have become (unless you've become a criminal or something then of course not, lol). I know you have all grown greatly since your first arrival in the community, and while I may not be able to talk to each one of you individually, do know that I am genuinely happy for you and wish nothing but the best for you in life.

Thank you for reading. Take care, and live a good life.

Sincerely,
Netherr​

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Man whoever thought of writing a giant wall of text and calling it an open letter was a genius.


Nice post, Nether. Very thoughtful. I've enjoyed working with you over the past (checks notes, fucking seriously that long?) 7.5 years.

 

Likewise, Scout. If I am to be completely honest, I would have never believed that a 16-year-old American who struggled to spell and use the correct form of a specific word would become a Manager of the server, graduate from a top university with a degree that revolves around hard skills, landed a great job and is now living independently. This only proves my point, that since our beginnings on this server, we have all grown into fine individuals.

Keep striving, I know you'll do even greater things in the coming future.

 

This makes me feel really old. I've gotten to watch so many people grow up. I am so proud of all of you. Even Scout :P

 

Favorite Child!! I miss you!

 

This server definitely had a way of taking toxic kids or people with a "bad image" and turning them into good staff members. There were times some people got promoted that almost made me want to quit, whom later turned out to be some of the best staff we've ever had.

I can! I mean, I was old before the server existed. Honestly, I didn't even want to be staff. Staff wanted me to be staff because of my impact on Agar hackers and then kitpvp, lol. All these years later and I invested an absurd unknown amount of hours just trying to find ways to help players enjoy the server.

 

It brings me joy knowing that a lot of you, both active and lurking members, got a kick of nostalgia and joy from this thread. I genuinely do hope that you guys got the chance to reflect and see how much you've grown as people. Also, to anyone who wants to catch up, do let me know. I can provide some platforms wherein we can chat if you wish to keep the conversation private.

Holy shit, I never expected you to reply. My actual first friend on the server, how are you? I haven't talked to you in literally forever. I forgot for a moment there that we are all friends on Facebook, that truly is shocking. But for real, we should catch up sometime. Do tell your cousin and your sister that I said hello, assuming they still remember me.

That's pretty cool to hear that your time here as a staff member in a way helped you realize your vocation in life. I haven't talked to you in quite some time, but I do hope you're doing alright. Let's catch up sometime.

Maybe I should've specified those 20 and below wanted it for clout, I'm sure you and t3 wanted staff purely to help xd. This is why you're hands down the greatest staff member this server has ever had, and I don't think anyone can deny or contest that.