Given the fact that I commonly disappear for weeks or months at a time and play this place very casually on and off, plus the fact that I've literally just made this account now to make a post, I don't think the following words/opinion hold much weight, but the point of this thread is, ostensibly, for everyone to weigh in.
I came here roughly five years ago, if my memory serves me correctly. I came here because at the time there wasn't really anywhere that I wanted to roleplay on that seemed as easy to get into as this place did at the time. I had really only played on places like Unbound Travels or Aphelion or whatever the hell that server that came after BestRP was called. Those places served as my introduction to roleplaying, and coming to Virgo is what made me a better roleplayer in general. That's besides the point. When I first came here, I made an effort to learn/remember who the staff was so that if I ever had something to complain/report, I would have an idea about who to ask/bring the concern to. It was probably a year or more before I even learned you existed as a member of staff, Ace. Maybe you were active back then and I just never played at the same time that you did, but your existence was a foreign concept to me at that point in time, which, I'd have to say, is probably not a good thing to say about someone who held the rank of host. Admittedly, I wasn't even on the Discord for this server until maybe a year and a half or more of playing here as various characters that I've forgotten the names of by now, it was only when I started playing as Anri Astora that I kind of got the train of thought in my head that I should be involved with the politics, or at least keep in the know, since I loved it here so much.
Since I decided to start keeping myself at least marginally educated on what's going on, I ended up making a lot of friends, like Resh, Duke, Dragor and Slingblade. I love the four of them greatly, since they've been amazing friends to me for the longest time, even if I'm not the best at sticking around and staying in touch with them. Duke, Dragor and Slingblade I love especially, so seeing the three of them step down, and Duke go on indefinite hiatus is somewhat distressing to me as a person. The thing is, the three of them seem to really, really care about the community, they seem to be greatly invested in the server. I mean, this is something to be expected really, but Dragor was going out of their way to poll the community on things while they were loremaster, and I was very, very excited for the changes they were gonna bring about, so seeing them step down from loremaster, and being told, or at least having it insinuated, that it was because of you, was disappointing. Meanwhile, I can't remember the last time I saw Ace go to poll people about anything, or take and use community input. In fact, the biggest thing I remember about him recently was him making a huge apology about having demoted Dragor a number of times that, frankly, read as frighteningly hollow, like the kind of apology you'd make to a sibling when your parent forced you to do it and you weren't really sorry at all. And then there was your last grandiose apology before today's. Honestly, the apology today seems to be just more of the same from your last, if more long winded and more filled with hopeful words that I don't think a lot of anyone believes.
Reading through this thread has been somewhat apalling to me, and makes me more than a little sad that all of this could have happened with so little transparency to the greater playerbase. Its not like we couldn't tell something was up, but it was like being a kid in your room while your parents argued in another room, and you couldn't quite make out what they were yelling at each other through the walls. I think my problem with you is that its hard to believe that you're sincere when you apologize for what you've done. I'd compare it to the boy who cried wolf. Its something that's been said so many times that it loses it's meaning. Its mundane, it carries no weight, its a horse that's been beaten to death a few too many times. It takes effort to change your ways, but from what I'm seeing and hearing, it almost seems like you've put more effort into remaining stagnant and staying the same way that you were and are than you have into actually giving the old college try of turning things around. There is no shame in admitting you've done something wrong. There IS shame in repeating your wrongdoings ad infinitum and apologizing for them over and over again like a skipping record. Sometimes the best course of action is to take defeat with grace and admit when you're out of your depth, something that should have been done before you lost good people that were just trying to help the server, and doing a much better job of it than its "absentee father."
I'll leave it at that, since I already know I'm just regurgitating more of what everyone else is saying with my own wordy spin on it. I hope things get much better much quicker.