Today, I am officially announcing the closure of the Vector project.
Some of those following this project may not be all that surprised. Ever since I stepped down as administrator of the OptiFine Discord server, it has become increasingly apparent that I no longer have much interest in serious bot development. For a long time, I kept convincing myself that "I'll come back to this project eventually", but... given the vast amount of long pauses with no communication, the startling lack of progress, and overall nothing significant happening for almost 2 years... It's time that I faced the truth. For myself, and for those who are still waiting for this project to come to fruition.
For those out of the loop, I originally created Vector under the name of "OptiBot" with the goal of supporting a then sprouting community. I think I can say with good confidence that I achieved that goal. Having a massive, 40,000+ member server without something like OptiBot would've been impossible, especially without the moderation tools Discord now has natively. OptiBot had a time and place. It had a purpose. A rather specific purpose, which I think was fulfilled. Nowadays, the original OptiBot has shut down in favor of a similarly named bot with a completely new backend, maintained by @ZenithRogue.
When I left OptiFine, I wanted to keep working on OptiBot. I still loved working on it, and I decided I wanted to bring it to more communities outside of OptiFine. I had all sorts of plans. I wanted to finally put together all the strange and amazing ideas I had for new features and updates, everything I had in the backlog for OptiBot at the time and more. Since "OptiBot" was intended for OptiFine, I figured a rebranding was in order. Thus, Vector was born from the ashes of OptiBot.
Today in 2022, Discord has evolved considerably since OptiBot/Vector's inception. Like I mentioned before, many crucial features offered by bots like mine have been added as part of the app itself. Even outside of built-in tools, in the vast ecosystem populated by other bots and bot developers (who more than likely have much better experience with development than I), it's difficult to find a particular role that Vector has to fill that couldn't otherwise be filled by things that are likely much greater than what I'd have to offer. This, on top of clearly not having the time, patience, and motivation, is why I feel I must shelve this project for good.
What's Next?
Shortly after this announcement goes live, I will be archiving this repository. If anyone wishes to continue where I left off, please feel free to fork it. For those interested, I have also made the original OptiBot repository public (but still archived), which includes almost every version of the bot since it's initial creation. You can check that out here: https://github.com/JackDotJS/OptiBot
Other than that, I do have one last thing I would maybe like to possibly make... One of OptiBot/Vector's most unique features as a standalone bot. More on that at a later date.
The End
This journey has been long, rough, and... rather quiet in the end, I suppose. Regardless, I believe it was well worth it. Working on these types of projects taught me a lot about programming and problem-solving. For me, It's really sparked further interest in computer science as a whole. Even if this particular project isn't really a part of my goals anymore, it's roots are still incredibly important to me. I will never forget it.
Thank you, everyone. Especially to all those who have helped throughout the years, even in the slightest.
An Important Announcement
Today, I am officially announcing the closure of the Vector project.
Some of those following this project may not be all that surprised. Ever since I stepped down as administrator of the OptiFine Discord server, it has become increasingly apparent that I no longer have much interest in serious bot development. For a long time, I kept convincing myself that "I'll come back to this project eventually", but... given the vast amount of long pauses with no communication, the startling lack of progress, and overall nothing significant happening for almost 2 years... It's time that I faced the truth. For myself, and for those who are still waiting for this project to come to fruition.
For those out of the loop, I originally created Vector under the name of "OptiBot" with the goal of supporting a then sprouting community. I think I can say with good confidence that I achieved that goal. Having a massive, 40,000+ member server without something like OptiBot would've been impossible, especially without the moderation tools Discord now has natively. OptiBot had a time and place. It had a purpose. A rather specific purpose, which I think was fulfilled. Nowadays, the original OptiBot has shut down in favor of a similarly named bot with a completely new backend, maintained by @ZenithRogue.
When I left OptiFine, I wanted to keep working on OptiBot. I still loved working on it, and I decided I wanted to bring it to more communities outside of OptiFine. I had all sorts of plans. I wanted to finally put together all the strange and amazing ideas I had for new features and updates, everything I had in the backlog for OptiBot at the time and more. Since "OptiBot" was intended for OptiFine, I figured a rebranding was in order. Thus, Vector was born from the ashes of OptiBot.
Today in 2022, Discord has evolved considerably since OptiBot/Vector's inception. Like I mentioned before, many crucial features offered by bots like mine have been added as part of the app itself. Even outside of built-in tools, in the vast ecosystem populated by other bots and bot developers (who more than likely have much better experience with development than I), it's difficult to find a particular role that Vector has to fill that couldn't otherwise be filled by things that are likely much greater than what I'd have to offer. This, on top of clearly not having the time, patience, and motivation, is why I feel I must shelve this project for good.
What's Next?
Shortly after this announcement goes live, I will be archiving this repository. If anyone wishes to continue where I left off, please feel free to fork it. For those interested, I have also made the original OptiBot repository public (but still archived), which includes almost every version of the bot since it's initial creation. You can check that out here: https://github.com/JackDotJS/OptiBot
Other than that, I do have one last thing I would maybe like to possibly make... One of OptiBot/Vector's most unique features as a standalone bot. More on that at a later date.
The End
This journey has been long, rough, and... rather quiet in the end, I suppose. Regardless, I believe it was well worth it. Working on these types of projects taught me a lot about programming and problem-solving. For me, It's really sparked further interest in computer science as a whole. Even if this particular project isn't really a part of my goals anymore, it's roots are still incredibly important to me. I will never forget it.
Thank you, everyone. Especially to all those who have helped throughout the years, even in the slightest.
Cheers. 🍻