diff --git a/cogs/stats.py b/cogs/stats.py
index 4ad8802..e71a912 100644
--- a/cogs/stats.py
+++ b/cogs/stats.py
@@ -18,20 +18,10 @@ from multiprocessing.shared_memory import ShareableList
 from discord.ext import commands
 from bot_bin.stats import BotBinStats
 
-# The resource tracker unlinks shared memory on shutdown and assumes all processes that share memory
-# share a parent python process. But this is not necessarily the case: the user might decide to run
-# each cluster as a systemd unit for example. We don't want a crash of a single cluster to unlink
-# the shared memory segment, so we stub out the resource tracking process here,
-# as there's no built in way to disable it.
-# See https://bugs.python.org/issue38119
-from multiprocessing import resource_tracker
-resource_tracker.ensure_running = lambda: None
-resource_tracker.main = lambda: None
-
 class Stats(BotBinStats):
 	def __init__(self, bot):
 		super().__init__(bot)
-
+		seq = [0] * self.bot.shard_count if self.is_opener() else None
 		# Use our user ID as part of the shm name
 		# to allow running multiple instances of the bot on the same machine.
 		# The shard count is incorporated to prevent the following situation:
@@ -40,32 +30,15 @@ class Stats(BotBinStats):
 		# -	Clusters begin using the old 30-element-long list to store their shard counts,
 		#	but because some clusters that haven't restarted yet are still using the old shlist.
 		shm_name = f'emote-manager-{self.bot.user_id}-{self.bot.shard_count}'
-		if self.is_opener():
-			seq = [0] * self.bot.shard_count
-			try:
-				self.shlist = ShareableList(seq, name=shm_name)
-			except FileExistsError:
-				# The file was probably left open from a previous run of the bot,
-				# so let's re-attach and wipe the old data.
-				self.shlist = ShareableList(name=shm_name)
-				# apparently ShareableLists don't support slicing with None values of `stop`
-				self.shlist[:self.bot.shard_count] = seq
-		else:
-			try:
-				self.shlist = ShareableList(name=shm_name)
-			except FileNotFoundError:
-				# looks like we're the first cluster to start up
-				seq = [0] * self.bot.shard_count
-				self.shlist = ShareableList(seq, name=shm_name)
-
+		self.shlist = ShareableList(seq, name=shm_name)
 		self.count()
 
 	def is_opener(self):
-		"""return whether this is the cluster that should open the shared memory"""
+		"""return whether this is the process that should open the shared memory"""
 		return 0 in self.bot.shard_ids
 
 	def is_reporter(self):
-		"""return whether this is the cluster that should report stats to the bot lists"""
+		"""return whether we should report stats to the bot lists"""
 		return self.bot.shard_count - 1 in self.bot.shard_ids
 
 	def cog_unload(self):
@@ -76,8 +49,7 @@ class Stats(BotBinStats):
 	@commands.Cog.listener()
 	async def on_ready(self):
 		self.count()
-		all_shards_ready = all(self.shlist)
-		if self.is_reporter() and all_shards_ready:
+		if self.is_reporter():
 			await self.send()
 
 	def count(self):