To add to this:
The proff is mostly a behind the scenes kinda guy. He does a lot of work and doesn't share his progress with anyone. Only a very small group of people know what he is actually up to.
I just happen to be one of those people that know what's going on, I don't know everything, but I'll share what I do know that doesn't give away any of his secrets that have not yet been revealed, or in case of his administrative access, I'll not talk about what the general public can't see normally.
There is a good deal of his work I can not talk about, as he has not made it public, or in some cases scrapped the whole project and couldnt make the deadline, such as the annual frontend day major updates to the software.
The higher level staff (myself and the admins) are the only ones aware of his work as an administrator, but does a good amouny of work to keep this site going smoothly for the users, such as pulling files lost in the server, for reupload, and other such work for the site I won't share due it it being part of the moderation logs.
Proff also goes out of his way to keep the mod report up to date, along with having to manually update the mods for frontend at every patch.
Now for the part you're probably more interested in. His work on frontend and actual mod contribution.
Proff does not have much time to work or contibute anything to the community but still slowly works away at things very small piece by very small piece, however does not wish to share until he has completely finished results to show you all.
For example, the ask the professor thing he posted earlier. I'm the first question asked for that... Proff and I first discussed that almost a year ago, maybe longer? And only recently did that see the light of day.
Also the various AI and major frontend updates and additions, i've known for equally long amounts of time before they were released to the public.
He does a large amount of work to complete these projects, and usually goes out of his way to also publish a video to go along with the updates, and these videos are in 3D, manually edited to have the mouth match his speech, and all the movement done in the videos is actually done with motion capture and special equipment and software. This takes an especially long time.to complete when you have such little free time due to multiple jobs and money concerns.
Proff does indeed do quite a lot of work. But his contribution is basically zero, because he chooses not to share his wotk until it's complete and can really make an entrance with it.
The point of the donations is to try and help him get by the money concerns, and if enough, even be able to quit one of his multiple jobs. Which would allow him the time required to change his work into results. But with his current situation and jobs, which I do know about but will not share. I know first hand how difficult it can be, especially when you're so passionate about what you've made, but can't even work on it anymore.
It can be both mentally and physically exhausting.
Proff isn't the kind of person to really show off or talk about things. And hopefully he isn't upset that I am sharing this last piece, but he got a bunch of negative comments and thumbs down on posts and videos, and he's taking it to heart. It's very off putting, and even upsetting. He's having a pretty bad time with it. it took a lot for him to even make this patreon because of that (among other reasons) and that has been something we've discussed many times now. And many of you will never have experienced such a thing, but I've been there as well, it can be extremely difficult, not only mentally, but that can physically manifest as well. Personally, stress, and anxiety, have nearly stopped my heart and I was hospitalized for a month, and it took doctors 9 months and many hospital trips, before they even realized it was stress/anxiety.
I can't tell you how proff is dealing with it. But I can tell you that multiple jobs, a real rough time for money, and all the negativity... It can be far more difficult than I can describe.
And with all that. I hope I've just answered all the questions, and touched on all the subjects I've seen people talking about. Plus give a little insight into what he's doing.
And proff, if I said anything you don't like, you've got the same ability to edit posts that I do. Just delete anything you dont like.
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