After giving it some thought, I've decided to take an indefinite hiatus from creating and publishing JanitorAI characters.

Over the past several months, I've put a considerable amount of time and effort into developing my characters, experimenting with different concepts, and refining my approach to bot creation.

It's been a genuinely interesting creative experience, and I'm quite proud of some of the things I've made.

However, lately I've found it increasingly difficult to justify the time and effort involved. The changing landscape of JanitorAI, difficulties with discoverability, and my own diminishing motivation have all played a part.

I don't want to keep creating simply for the sake of maintaining activity, especially when the process starts feeling more like an obligation than something I genuinely enjoy.

I've now released all of my remaining works in progress, rather than leaving them unfinished indefinitely. With those concepts finally published, I feel this is a reasonable point to step away.

This isn't necessarily goodbye.

I haven't completely lost interest in creating, and I may find myself wanting to make something new in the future. But I don't know when, or even if, I'll return to publishing regularly.

I'd rather leave that open than make promises I might not keep.

To everyone who has interacted with my characters, left feedback, or supported my work in any way: thank you. Even if the numbers haven't always been what I hoped for, I appreciate knowing that people have found something worthwhile in my creations.

For now, I'm laying down the sword.

— 4Catharsis