Okay, that's it, I've bitten my tongue and put up with this abuse for far too long, I'm not putting up with it any more. Congratulations, you've finally managed to push me to the point that I'm going to put my foot down.
As others have said, the patience level of many of us is basically at an end. We have been dealing with non-stop drama, and the resulting damage it has been doing to the UI community, since 20 March (the date of the introduction of Blizzard's
UI AddOn Dev Policy). That’s over two full months of this. Is it any wonder people are tired of it all? Since 20 March we have had people come into our forums (not just here on WoWI) telling us that we (authors, sites, et al) are greedy jerks who don’t deserve any respect, let alone compensation, that everything we do is worthless and we should be
privileged to be
allowed to give our hard work to anyone that wants it, with absolutely no regard for ourselves or for the things we need to make our “work” easier to do so you have what you
deserve (generic usage of you, not individual-specific), etc., etc., etc.
You come here as yet another person telling authors that they have to change their way of doing things, that the way they want to do things isn't "good enough" for you. That their wanting to have control over what license they use isn't acceptable, that their wanting to control where and how they distribute their mods isn't acceptable. That the hosting sites they want to use because those sites have the targeted tools they need doesn't matter. That the communities and relationships, familiarity and confidence and trust they have built up with each other and with the hosting sites doesn't matter. I've watched authors drop thousands of hours into writing, debugging, improving and maintaining their addons. But that doesn't matter. You completely ignore the things they have said, dismissing them for this reason or that. I'm sorry, but walking in here like that isn't going to encourage anyone to want to do anything for you.
And yes, I say “we” and "us" because you want to bet your bottom dollar that I consider myself part of the greater WoW UI community, not just this site. While I may not code addons for WoW myself (although I have for other games), and whether you choose to accept it or not, I have been a very big part of making the WoW UI community what it is. I’ve been here since Day 1, since the original F&F alpha. I have put hours upon hours upon thousands of hours into the community; arranging Beta Keys for all AddOn authors so they can make sure their mods are ready whenever a new expansion comes out so you don't have to go even one day without your mods that you are oh so entitled to; spending my own personal $$ to get hard, physical, proof of people illegally selling mods; making the authors aware of such; getting eBay and PayPal accounts shut down because of such; making authors aware of other sites that are distributing their mods without their permission; helping them write C&Ds and DMCA take-down orders; getting site info for those take down notices; setting up activities (above and beyond the ones Blizzard has in place) for the UI community as a whole (not just authors) at BlizzCon each and every year there has been one, getting hotel group rates for the entire community at BlizzCon, making restaurant arrangements for community-wide dinners, all from another country, etc., including for a year when I wasn't even going to be there for the things I was setting up for everyone else (if it hadn't been for the generosity of others, and they had to brow beat me into accepting it); spending my own personal $$ on swag to give away at BlizzCon; running IRC channels; running in-game guilds; running this site along with the rest of our sites; helping out on other sites; helping support other sites; helping in other sites' IRC channels; paying for the hosting of other sites; helping on forums not my own; continually helping develop new tools for authors; continually making our site better for everyone to use; giving users somewhere to get safe downloads; providing multiple ways for users to converse with authors; running contests for the entire community (not just authors); spending my own personal $$ on prizes for those contests; being up for anywhere from 24-72 hrs with
maybe (if I’m lucky) 2-4 hrs sleep at a stretch
for a week or more during a major patch to make sure the site is up and running; helping field questions on multiple forums about what is updated where; spending our own personal $$ on servers and bandwidth and domains and …
I have spent the last 8 years basically raising my daughter as a single parent because things are so bad financially for me and my husband that he has been living in another COUNTRY from us, because there is no work in his field that he can get here. At best we get to see him maybe, MAYBE, four (4) times in a year, if that. The last couple years, it's only been once. I have had one (1) two-week vacation in the last eight years. There have been times when our sites and our communities have been my lifeline, giving me a way to have contact with other people, helping me keep my sanity and giving me something to feel good about myself for because I am physically incapable of holding a "traditional" job ever since a very serious car accident a number of years ago. I put in anywhere from 16 hours on a slow day to 22 hours+ during a major patch/expansion on our sites.
Dolby has been holding down two jobs to make ends meet. He spends just as many hours working (between the sites and his other job) as I do.
Every other "staff" member on the site is a volunteer, spending their own free time (on their lunch hours, breaks, around school work, when they're at home in the evenings and around all their other obligations), and giving freely of their knowledge and skills to help make the community better for everyone that wants to make use of it. We would LOVE to be able to pay all of them. They deserve it so much. We (Dolby and I) have offered to personally pay them at least something each month out of our own pockets, and they have all refused. If the sites ever start making an actual profit instead of a loss, we will be fighting to get them paid too. We're trying to figure out some way we can offer something to our authors, as well. Hard to do when you're running in the red, though.
I have had my community (those that actually consider them part of a community, not just some random end user that couldn't care less) begging me to ban people, lock threads, censor posts. I have sat here and had myself, Dolby, our site and our (all volunteer) staff verbally abused, figuratively spit on, belittled and condemned. I have put up with more flaming directed at us than we would ever allow directed at any other user on the site. I've allowed it because I feel people have a right to have their own opinion and the right to state that opinion, whether I agree with them or not, to the point that I actually allow them
more latitude than I do those that I agree with. The amount of libel that has been directed at us would get you banned if you directed it at another user here, and very possibly into a court of law if you tried it in any other community. But because it's been directed at us, I've been leaving it. And now one of you has the nerve to call us rapists?!? Well, guess what. Now? Now I am pissed. How DARE you? Do you even have the faintest idea just how completely offensive that is? Not only to us, but to anyone who has ever actually been raped. That ... omg, I just don't even have the words to express to you how angry I am right now.
Would you like me to continue? I really think at this point I deserve the right to be a little bit defensive and fed up with it all when someone basically tells me I’m slime and should go diaf, that all I am doing is sitting around on my @ss all day raking in the money off someone else’s work while not doing anything myself, that I'm taking advantage of them and f'ing them over, that I'm trying to restrict what site people use, that I'm only in it for the money, that my site is crap. I've been called a liar, a thief, a cheat, a parasite, a fraud and a rapist. I've been told I don't care about anyone but myself and my own bottom dollar, that I'm deliberately out to ruin it for everyone else, that I just want to f over the end users. That I have no right to take steps to protect myself and my site, so that the site can still be here for you to use, etc., etc., etc.
Meanwhile, I have been doing this since 2002 (EQI) and starting up WoWI in April 2004 during the initial F&FA. For the mathematically challenged, that is 7 years I’ve been doing this, 5 for WoW. I finally started getting something that
might (at a stretch) be considered a "salary" last January. Yes, you read that right. I have been doing this for 7 years but have only started getting "salary" for any of it in the last year. Even with that, most people would consider my "salary" a joke and no way they'd put in the hours, or care, that I do for that low an amount. And yes, during those six years when I wasn't getting salary for any of this, I was spending my own personal money on stuff for the sites. I'm still spending my own personal money for stuff on the sites. So is Dolby.
I haven't told you any of this because I'm "trying to paint myself like the poor hard-done-by good guy". I haven't said any of it because I want pity or sympathy. I'm not looking for a pat on the back, either. I have said it because I am sick to death of people coming here and treating us like crap. We do not deserve what has been dished out over the last couple months. I've said it because: a) We are real people, too; and b) we have done, are doing, and will continue to do more for this community than you will ever know. What have you done for the community lately?
So I say again, congratulations guys, you've finally managed to make me completely lose my temper. No more. I am not putting up with any more. I am not allowing my staff to be abused any more. I am not subjecting my community to it any more. No more will you come here and flame my staff, my community, my authors and my site. I'm not allowing it any longer. You
will treat everyone with respect and courtesy. You
will follow our
site rules . If you don't like the way things are done here, feel free to go elsewhere. Any further posts that are as abusive as what we've put up with in the last couple months will get you banned. Period. There are no more warnings after this. Keep it up and you're gone.
To my staff and my community – I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I've made you all put up with this for as long as I have. I'm sorry that my attempts to be …. fair? … to those that don't agree with us has meant that you have had to be subjected to all of this for so long. That you've had to deal with either reading the abuse, or being the direct target of it. I'm sorry that I haven't defended you the way I should have, and that I haven't put my foot down long before this.
*If you feel like this post was directed at you, then the chances are good that it probably
was, in fact, directed at you. If you don't think it was directed at you, it probably wasn't.
The reason why I am a moderator on this site is because I love it so much. This site kept me playing WoW, and was more of a community and resource to me than they will ever know. It's been a wonderful support network since I'm living away from family and friends, and I've loved getting to know you guys. Even during my break from WoW now, I'm still here. 
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