User talk:Solo toady

10 years
Wow... just like that, seemingly in the blink of an eye, 10 whole years have passed. I can't even believe it myself. I'm not entirely sure why I'm writing this letter, but I guess I'm going to, as I figure it may be something interesting for others to read. I highly doubt anyone remembers me - not that I'm phased by this, my stay here was very brief, so it's not like I expect to be remembered. I also imagine a lot of users who were active back in 2011 have probably since moved on.

I'm not sure if there is any other way I can verify that I am the individual who used the "Solo toady" account. I tried logging in, and I've tried using the passwords I would have used back then, but I can't seem to log in. Maybe my account was disabled due to being inactive for so long, or maybe my login credentials were scrapped. I'm not sure. But I can assure you, I am the "Solo toady" who edited on this Wiki 10 years ago.

I know what you're thinking - "what kind of weird username is that?" I sometimes ask myself this question when I think of myself retrospectively. I was a 13-year-old at the time I signed up with that username. As I'm writing this, I am 23 years old. When I look back at the few edits I made back in 2011, I wouldn't say they were terrible, but I can understand how they may not have fitted in accordance with Wiki etiquette and style. My 13-year-old self had a hard time understanding why some of my edits were being reverted on a whim, and I remember finding it frustrating. I look back on it now, however, and find my own misunderstanding a little amusing. In general I don't think I was particularly... bright back then. I was very immature (I still am, maybe just not so much now), and I often look back at my younger self and either laugh or physically recoil at how I could ever have such an embarrassing sense of humour and thought. I laughed at things and thought of things back then that I would never find funny or even agree with today.

I believe I also owe an apology to User:UltraMario3000, who I had a bit of an edit war with (here, here, and here). I don't know if you will ever see this message, but I hope you're doing well these days.

For the rest of this message I'll just be rambling on about things not really centred around my involvement with the Wiki, but rather, more generalised observances and my thoughts on things now compared to 10 years ago.

I feel like life is a lot different now compared to back in 2011. It's freaky how much has changed in a relatively short amount of time. And when I say life is a lot different, I mean both my own life and life in general - the world, society, culture, etc. Perhaps there's a bit of inherent bias and nostalgia at play here, but I really feel like 2008 to 2012 was a golden era, especially on the Internet. Everything seemed so much simpler back then, and I tend to reminisce over this simplicity quite often. I often wish I could temporarily go back in time and relive a good day from one of those years. It's entertaining to think back to all of the things that were popular and fun back then, and where many other people were at that time.

The Nintendo Wii was one of the most commercially successful consoles at the time. Super Smash Bros. Brawl was the latest Smash game and one of the best games around - I remember so many of my peers talking about it with great enthusiasm. Content creators on YouTube were just starting to get really popular, and the Internet itself was starting to grow tremendously at a rate much faster than ever before. The Internet was becoming so much busier and thriving with more users each and every day, as more people around the world were gaining stable access to the Internet. The Internet was already pretty big around the time I started using it (2008), but nowadays it truly feels like it has grown more than tenfold, and it's just so huge and immense now.

It's very nice to know that this Wiki is still standing strong, and is still and always has been a greatly valuable depot rich with as much information as possible pertaining to the Mario franchise. I have to thank the many contributors who have put in countless hours of hard work towards maintaining the Wiki, upholding and preserving its value, almost entirely through nothing other than volunteering, and the charity of many. The dedication put into this site is a truly commendable effort.

With regards to my own life, I can think of other things I could talk about, but I think I've written a fair bit here, so I might leave it here for now. I have thought I may stick around for a bit, and perhaps I could do a Q&A of sorts if anyone is curious and wants to throw some questions my way. I'm up for answering almost anything. Maybe I'll make some contributions to the site if I see anything that needs fixing. I promise my edits won't be so badly-written as the ones I made as a 13-year-old.

And lastly, I know this is going to come off as shameless self-promotion, but I do have a YouTube channel if anyone's interested. I rarely upload anything, but its there if anyone wants to check it out. I only upload footage of ancient-old PC games, really loud harsh noise music that I make (which I would not recommend listening to at high volume), and other random stuff. My YouTube channel can be viewed here.

It's good to be back. --Solo (talk) 07:37, July 7, 2021 (EDT)