koda

[A personal message from an Admin of SKZCBGuide] I wish I had some magical wand I could wave to fix the voting flaws in our fandom. I wish I could understand why such a large fandom doesn't care about voting the way we used to. I wish I had an explanation for why we struggle so much to move as one for Stray Kids. Having been part of this fandom for as long as I have, I can see where things started to fall apart. I can see some of the reasons why our monster voters left the fandom or stopped giving so much of themselves. I can see how disconnected many STAYs have become from fandom work, and I can see where much of the fandom's attention and priorities tend to be. We can fill stadiums with 50,000 people almost anywhere in the world, yet we struggle to get 10,000 people to open an app and vote once a day, even when it takes less than a minute. And that's a difficult reality to accept. The truth is, being part of a fandom is supposed to be about supporting a group we all love. That support comes in many forms, and not everyone will agree on how someone else chooses to show theirs. Nor should anyone be expected to dedicate the same amount of time, money, or energy to being a fan. We can blame solos and akgaes. We can blame fanbases for not being united. We can blame those who seem more interested in the attention they receive from being associated with Stray Kids than actually supporting them. We can blame the so-called "lazy STAYs." We can spend hours arguing about what makes someone a "real STAY." We can point fingers at the divisions within our fandom, the constant disagreements, the unnecessary competition, and the endless arguments over who does more and who cares more. But ultimately, none of that changes the fact that we are losing something that once made this fandom incredibly powerful: our ability to come together for a common goal. And I don't believe the solution is to shame people into voting. I don't believe attacking STAYs who don't participate will suddenly make them want to participate. I don't believe fanbases fighting publicly will inspire confidence in the people who look to us for guidance. And I certainly don't believe that constantly reminding everyone of what we're failing to accomplish will magically fix the problem. Somewhere along the way, supporting Stray Kids through organized fandom efforts started feeling less like something we do together and more like an obligation, a competition, or another reason to fight with one another. We have STAYs who are exhausted from years of carrying the same responsibilities. We have newer STAYs who may not understand why voting matters or how much work goes into it. We have people who genuinely want to help but don't know where to begin. And we have others who have simply lost the motivation they once had. Those are not all the same problem, and they cannot all be solved the same way. As fanbase admins, we also have to acknowledge that we are not above criticism. We have a responsibility to educate, organize, communicate, and make participation as accessible as possible. We should be building trust, not demanding it. Encouraging participation, not creating guilt. Working toward cooperation, not competing for recognition. But fanbases cannot do everything alone. We can spend countless hours preparing guides, translating instructions, verifying information, organizing voting efforts, and making resources available. We can sacrifice our free time, our sleep, and sometimes our own enjoyment of being fans. What we cannot do is manufacture the desire to participate. That has to come from within the fandom itself. And perhaps that's the conversation we should be having more often. Not who deserves to call themselves a STAY. Not who is doing enough. Not which fanbase is to blame. But how do we make STAYs want to come together again? How do we rebuild the excitement, the sense of community, and the collective determination that once made even the most difficult goals feel achievable? Because Stray Kids haven't stopped working hard. They haven't stopped giving us reasons to be proud of them. And the fandom certainly hasn't stopped growing. What seems to be missing is the connection between loving Stray Kids individually and wanting to accomplish something for them collectively. And no, voting is not the only measure of support. It never has been, and it never should be. But voting is one of the few opportunities where our collective participation can directly influence an outcome for Stray Kids. We don't need every STAY to become a monster voter. We don't need everyone to run multiple accounts, spend money, or dedicate hours of their day. We need more STAYs to understand that a small contribution, when multiplied across millions of people, can accomplish extraordinary things. Ten thousand people carrying an entire voting effort will eventually burn out. But hundreds of thousands of people contributing just a little? That changes everything. I don't have all the answers. After years of doing this work, I wish I did. But I do know that we cannot keep approaching the same problems in the same ways and expect different results. We need less finger-pointing and more understanding. Less competition and more cooperation. Less guilt and more encouragement. And most importantly, we need to remember why we started doing any of this in the first place. Stray Kids. Eight incredibly hardworking individuals who brought all of us together. We may never agree on everything. We may never have a perfectly united fandom. And we certainly cannot force millions of individuals to share the same priorities. But we can choose to stop allowing our differences to overshadow the one thing we all have in common. Our love for Stray Kids. I don't expect every STAY to do everything. I just wish more of us would realize what we could accomplish if everyone did something. — Admin