This is the fifth and last post in the "Story time with Parz" series, to read all posts visit forums.stonebound.net/history.
When I started this place I had no idea it would last as long as it has. In the time Stonebound has been up - I’ve built and sold a business. I got married and most importantly my wife and I welcomed to the world a beautiful baby girl. Stonebound has been rewarding for me individually for may reasons. As cheese balls as it is, I like knowing in some small part I’ve thrown some positive energy into the fray.
The last couple of months the amount of money I've had to pay to keep this boat a-float has been dropping. Folks have donated via Patreon and some via PayPal. Some of the people who have given money have asked not to be acknowledged so i’m not going to list them here.
But I will say this, Honestly - thank you, it really does help and we appreciate the acknowledgement.
A few weeks ago, I was driving to Michigan to spend time with my in-laws. The drive takes 7 hours so I had lots of time to think. Thinking about Stonebound and the history of stories and people I've met along the way I was left with the need to say thank you. Thank you to the person who has made all of this possible.
One constant you may have noticed in these stories is that phit has been involved every step of the way. Many people have come and gone - but phit has been here from the start, plugging away, working to improve this community.
I’ve had the privilege of getting to know phit. I’ve had many debates with him over the years and one of the many things I have come to admire about his character is how honest he is. He tells you what he thinks. Not enough people these days say it as they see it. He's been great as my friend and even better to Stonebound as the glue that holds it all together.
Thank you phit for making all of this possible 
When you see him in discord or on the server - Join me in thanking him. He’s a humble guy who works really hard let him know it matters.
Today I’m announcing phit is now the co-owner of Stonebound. This may not mean much to you, but it’s the only thing I have left to give to a guy - who has given all of us so much. It also means that when I decide to walk away completely from Stonebound - it will live on.
I want to thank the retired staff, as well as the active Staff; Graphika, simibubi and maskj003. They volunteer time and effort to make sure Stonebound keeps on keepin on.
Moving forward we have our eyes on upgrading the server. We have reached the capacity of what can be done with this hardware and phit is already working on the preparations. At this point - the timeline in unclear, Donations have always been optional but if you care to help links are on stonebound.net.
So that's it! You made it to the end of the series. Thanks for indulging me and looking past my third grade spelling and grammar errors.
I may not play on Stonebound much anymore. But I think you can see from the stories i’ve shared in this series - it’s been fun for me. I hope you find the same fun while playing here.
Until next time,
parz
This is the fourth post in the "Story time with Parz" series, to read all posts visit forums.stonebound.net/history.
Minecraft communities take a lot of work. They need to constantly re-launch modpacks or at the very least - reset the world. You have to serve your core players as well as bring in new players to keep the server active and fun. This takes effort, time and most importantly leadership.
A perfect storm of circumstances took place after the first major cycle of Stonebound. Siigari was out and Stonebound didn't have a public pack online. We found ourselves without a head admin - and Stonebound was slowing slipping away. Months passed and our players moved on to different communities.
At the time I was playing a ton of Counter Strike. I'm talking about Aim maps - learning unique smoke throws the whole nine. Twitch (a leadership member of Stonebound) and I would spend hours playing. We had a 'team' and would play with and I was convinced Id go pro someday!
The Minecraft bug bit Twitch again. He was offered an admin position with another community. That prompted us to talk about a Stonebound comeback. What did we like about the first go? What would we change? It wasn't long before Twitch brought Alleluid into the mix. We would run things with a leadership committee.. The group expanded. Everyone having input on the direction and decisions. In the situation we found ourselves in it worked well. Stonebound was back.
Lots of folks joined us during this time - Twitch and Alleluid saved Stonebound and before I move on I want to thank both of them. Thanks fellas!
For a while things were great, the first pack based on Resonant Rise was put together by Alleluid and Twitch looked promising. A lot of the old players returned, but we were struggling to attract new players. The modding community had shifted and there were more servers than ever, running popular packs and people just weren't looking for customized packs
Over time the leadership structure started to hurt our progress. Everyone having equal input on all topics- translates into long never ending conversations. Talking with Twitch today thinking back about this time - he called it "Functional but chaotic". Something had to change.
phit was involved with Stonebound in one way or another from the start. Stonebound 2.0 - he was who we called when we had server issues. He’s the most technical person on the team. I made the decision to offer him the head admin role. He said.. No. Like a lot. I think the only reason he said yes - was so I would stop asking.
He would hold 100% decision making power on everything. We would have advisers or 'cabinet members’ instead of co-leaders.
This meant our conversations would become fruitful. phit was able to make decisions after hearing points of view. It also meant he could move forward on things without getting consensus or having to bring every issue to the group.
We hit new highs, running stock FTB packs. First with the then new Infinity and later its expert variants, especially Skyblock giving us more applications and players than ever before.
We take for granted the resources and features we have today. The website, fourms, application process, a donation system. The current version of the Stonebound logo and color scheme. Each modpack is connected from a chat standpoint. We have a world hub that lets you hang out while the server restarts. This isn't to mention the countless back-end optimizations and scripts that are used every day.
Stonebound has been changing from the start. Its morphed into something almost unrecognizable from it’s early days. We don’t have phit - without Twitch and Alleluid. We don’t have Twitch and Alleluid without Siigari.
And without you - we don't have Stonebound
Last post tomorrow,
parz