I just want to talk a bit about how much this expedition has done for me, in more ways than you might think. Before the DW2 sign up thread popped up in my Google feed, I had rarely interacted with other players in Elite, or online at all. I joined the FleetComm Discord, and started chatting with other players. I helped people build ships, I got help designing my own, and I even repaired some other players. Shortly after the expedition took off, Dr. Kaii put up a post in #announcements saying to tick the message if you were interested in helping out the Admins/Moderators on the server. Shortly after the tick, I became one of the DW2 helpers.
In all honesty, my parents have always said the internet is a terrible place, and in some places it is coughredditcough. I think the point it really clicked that there are places that strangers can be nice, even just over text or voice, was when I joined a PS4 voice party(the first time I had been on a public voice chat) and someone I had never even seen on discord, never heard of, whose online name I didn’t know immediately said, “Hey Nate, welcome to the stream….” I’ll remember that for many years to come.
After some time I started interacting more with the fleet mechanics, soon to become the hull seals. When people started talking about becoming our own organization after dw2, someone said it “looks like the leadership will probably be something like Alex, Drebin, Rixxan, Pool Noodle, and Nate….” I hadn’t expected anything like that at all, but now I’m a member of the blubber bob and part of the Hull Seals lead organizers.
Overall, this experience has been one of the most important I’ve ever been a part of. I’ve interacted online, set goals, committed time, been a part of something with over 13,000 other people, and, dare I say, made new friends. My thanks all of the organizers for creating this journey that has truly affected me, a few who know who they are.
Sincerely,
MiddleNate
