There's been a lot of controversy on the banner recently.

I'd like to start by thanking those of you who appreciated and supported the banners I was working on at the beginning. I'm honored to have served as the initial banner creator. And it was a lot of fun making them. I was sad to lose it. But it was bought fair and square.

Second, I'd like to congratulate /u/scott_lew_is on a fair purchase of the banner and on some great memes and a classier look for the last week. He's gotten some backlash for promoting a project with the banner, but from what I can see it looks like the project is in good faith and his genuine desire is to create things to improve the community. I understand the fear of setting a precedent for advertisers taking over our banner, and I think that's a real concern we should consider, but again I think what /u/scott_lew_is did was in good faith, and he shouldn't be receiving some of the treatment I've been seeing (though I think it's fine and healthy to express disapproval kindly if you don't like a banner for whatever reason). I hope that /u/scott_lew_is will continue working on new versions of the banner while he still has ownership. Don't let those who express that they dislike it to discourage you. Take their feedback into account, but there are plenty of people who have also said they like your banners better than mine. And there were plenty of people who expressed distaste for my banners while I was creating them. Everyone's not going to be happy no matter who the banner creator is. Some people liked the goofy, overly-memed banners, but some people found them distasteful and embarrassing.

Third, I'd like to state my desire to step away from banner creation for the near future. I really enjoyed creating the banners and I really appreciate some attempts I've seen to raise enough donuts for me to continue doing banners longer term. I think in the future having the community vote on a banner curator and providing the needed donuts to support the curator is going to be the best approach. However, I think it may be too early for that. I would rather take a wait and see approach for now. I want to see what happens to the banner on the open market. I'm curious what other ideas people in the community have. That is why I'm formally announcing my desire to step away from the banner for now. Let's see what others can do! After some time and seeing how the banner evolves, we may want to designate a banner curator, but for now it's too early. I'm probably not the best choice among the many talented individuals in this community.

Fourth, I'd like to take this time to tell everyone to chill about the polls. I've seen people taking the existence of a poll itself as an attack on a person. It's not. It's a poll that the community can use to come to a common consensus. It's really amazing that we have this ability. /u/carlslarson created a poll to provide enough donuts for me to manage the banner, and you guys voted against it. That's the way it should work! Use polls as an opportunity to show your support or opposition to a specific proposal, but don't direct anger toward the poll creators. They're giving the community an opportunity to have a voice.

I'd like to close by suggesting that, for now, rather than giving a large endowment to make a particular person a semi-permanent banner owner, let's have polls to give smaller amounts of donuts just to show appreciation for people who create banners we like and to help offset some of the cost of holding the banner when we like it. As I said before, a larger endowment to make someone a more permanent banner curator over time may be needed in the future, but for now let's just see how things develop and show appreciation for the ones we like with smaller amounts, maybe multiple times as the same curator adds new banners, while still allowing the banner to transition to new people over time. To kick it off, I'd like to start with a poll to show appreciation for our current banner curator: https://new.reddit.com/r/ethtrader/comments/ae8ggy/grant_30000_donuts_in_appreciation_of_the_banner/