Well, everyone, Oppose wins 11-3. It's been a week, so the vote's over.Â
Obviously, I'm not very happy about this, and the same can probably be said for every votemaker when their vote loses. But this is different.Â
I really tried and believed in this vote, and the community's ability to correctly decide on things. It's been almost four months since the original vote, and it still tears me up how despite all the good reasons, explanations, and logic given for why Monster Steven should've been added, the community made its choice and the vote ultimately lost. Â
It was the first time I lost faith and respect for the community and not the staff. Stuff like "the New Year, New Wiki" and "Comments" threads did put in a dent in how I viewed the staff, but they actually made the right choice here. Edit wars about Monster Steven were popping up a lot, so they decided to it put to the community and let them decide on the matter. That's a very admirable thing for staff to do. But, it very badly backfired.Â
Even though that wasn't a great experience of mine with the community, I thought "it's been four months, maybe people's opinions have changed" and "my votes recently have been doing well, maybe this will follow suit". The fact that Monster Steven wasn't included on Steven's article despite all the good reasons why was still something I didn't appreciate, so I came up with the most logical and simple reason possible, one people theoretically can't argue with: Every other description on Steven's "appearance" section has an infobox image, so the Monster Steven description should have one too. On top of that, I debunked the arguments used in the previous vote that were against MS's inclusion, so as to add more validity to my vote.Â
And, yet, it still lost. And even at that, the opposes didn't even give any arguments against the reasons I gave, they were all just about how the vote has already been done before and how the vote length isn't up to me. It's almost like if the vote hadn't already been done, the vote would've been more likely to succeed. It was pretty detrimental to my vote, and people focused on that instead of the vote now and what was said there. I'm thankful to Rainbow and Emily for supporting, but just like the first vote, it wasn't enough.Â
I think this situation parallels the situation of the original vote in a lot of ways, and not just because they were both about Monster Steven being added to Steven's infobox. It's the circumstances around the vote and the outcomes. The staff agreed that Monster Steven should be on Steven's article, but they decided to put faith in the community and let them decide whether or not it should be added. It didn't work out, and even though they wanted to have the image in the article, the community decided it, and they just had to accept it, which they did. They learned a lesson, and so have I. Â
Here it is:Â
Sometimes, you give something your all. You're really passionate about it, and you try your best to give good reasons for why it should be. But, it ultimately doesn't work out, and you wind up very upset about the outcome. "How could this have happened?" or "I tried my best!". The world flipped you off, and it sucks. Seriously.Â
But, nobody wants to hear someone constantly complaining about how the world did them wrong and how everything is so unfair. Sob stories aren't fun to hear, especially in certain instances. Â
There will always be things you just can't change or do, even if you try your best. You can either accept it and move on with your life or just complain about it forever.Â
The correct choice is obvious, and that's what everyone should strive for when bad things beyond your control happen. And always remember that among the bad things out of your control that will inevitably happen, there will always be good things that can and will happen at the same time. There’s a balance, and there will always be.Â
At the end of the day, it's a PNG on a website about a kartoon. That's not to say you can't care about it, but at some point, you start to wonder "is it really worth spending so much time with counter-productive negativity?". Â
I'll never be okay with Monster Steven not being on Steven's article, but I have to accept this is what the community decided, and there isn't much I can do about that. Instead of persistently trying to change people's minds about one thing without success, change what I can, and help where I'm needed.Â
Who knows? Maybe one day, a wiki user will come along and decide that Monster Steven makes sense to be on Steven's article, and whoever they are, they make a vote and the community at that point agree, and it gets added. Or Monster Steven will just never be on Steven's article for the entire history of the Steven Universe Wiki. All I know is, I won't be the one trying to add it or complaining about it. That's not me. Not anymore.Â
Thanks to everyone for voting and I hope to see you all soon!Â