In the five days since my Rule number 10 post there has been a lot of discussion happening in regards to the user agreement change.

To be fair there was a lot of talk happening before my post, but it was mostly talking at each other and not to each other. I had thought of not posting about this issue and just quietly withdrawing from the community. This had two fatal flaws to it:

1. Eventually people would notice that I was no longer flying the flag of 9rules and want to know what was up.
2. If things kept going the way they were, this would only get more out of hand and do more damage to the community, which I happen to still care about.

With these two things in mind, I decided to draft an entry that brought light to the things that really disturbed me about the change and the way it happened and hopefully did it in a way that wasn't bashing or overly condescending. I really believe that I accomplished my goal, but I know that some others don't.

Scrivs Response

I must admit I didn't know what to expect from Scrivs response. I was hoping that he would come out swinging (as he did) but keep it civil (as he also did) so that we could have some actual dialog about what was happening. I had intended to respond to him via the comments of the original post, but I found things getting a bit too long for that, so here we are at entry number 2

So, first off let's get some stuff out of the way. Scrivs you know me man, I am a huge Rundeezy fanboy and always will be; I am a pretty big Paul Scrivens fanboi as well. The fact that you actually had the nerve to start 9rules when and how you did is nothing short of mind bending. Long story short, mad love and props all around.

So with that out of the way, lets get to the heart of the matter shall we. You are absolutely right that I have been disconnected with the larger community that is 9rules. When I joined there was no expectation for anything above being a productive member of the community. I tried my best to be that, with varying degrees of success.

When my time started to be less and less free, coupled with my aforementioned problems with the forums, I decided the best way I could help the network and community that was growing up around it was through getting my name out there more, and by extension the name of the network.

As evidenced by my last interview, I think I was accomplishing my goal. This isn't an excuse or an attempt at justification for my absence from any 9rules social aspects. It is a fact.

The real problem

As I see it, we have two problems here:

1. I was concerned with what I viewed then, and still do now, as an attempt to create community in an artificial way. I get that you don't agree with me which is cool, doesn't make me any less concerned though.
2. The reason for the change that was communicated in the email was absurd to me. What makes matters worse is that after reading your various comments and blog posts, your reasons don't jive with what was given in the email.

I don't have even a hint of an objection to the change if it was geared toward bringing 9rules closer to the idea you had when you started out. This is your ship man, you sail it whatever way you think is best. But I have a thousand objections when the reason given is that "members don't think its fair that content weight isn't based on community participation".

Again, I understand you probably don't agree with me... and again it doesn't make me any less concerned. No matter what, at the end of the day I would have had to bow out of 9rules, even had this been handled in a way that left my world filled with rainbows and ponies. I just don't have the time right now to dedicate to interacting with the community in any meaningful way.

I know you are probably about ready to scream from having to have these conversations, but if you have a little more energy it would be great if someone from 9rules HQ could respond.