Let's see if I can try to salvage this situation, since I can see it's teetering on the edge. I happened to reply immediately after 30flame's latest post, but it is not a reply to anyone in particular. This just happens to be where it landed in the thread.

Warning! This is going to be long.

First off, I'd like to speak for myself (and no one else). I am a person, a human being with feelings, just like everyone else here. I like to be treated fairly, just like everyone else here. When I'm falsely accused of something like arguing with someone in the SB, it hurts me just as much as when any of you feel mistreated. I did not argue with anyone in the SB, and in fact, I defended spinnything and extended an apology for what took place prior to my entering the SB and seeing what was happening. I think it's important to set the record straight there.

Second, I'd like to say that we (LDW) are not ogres, the enemy, or anything of the sort. We're also not a large, faceless company that has the resources to provide myriad interesting things for their communities to have fun with. LDW is Arthur and Carla. They are the people who work their tails off to make games, provide the forums, juggle all of the logistics involved with keeping things going while trying to have some semblance of family life with their infant son. It's their money that has to pay the people (contractors) who help make the games a reality, pay for these forums and all of the other servers that provide the public face of LDW, just to name a few things. If anyone thinks that keeping a game company going is easy, I can tell you that it's not. We work harder, and longer hours, than most of you would imagine. We are affected by this down economy, too. As Arthur has said publicly, pricing pressures in the casual game arena have had a significant impact on the 'value' of new game releases. We're having to do more with less, and that doesn't give us the luxury to do everything we'd like to do, exactly as we'd like.

Maybe if I shared with all of you a little history, it will help you understand how we got here. Those of you who honestly want to reach a place of understanding might appreciate knowing, and might even have a little compassion for our situation. I hope so. I shared this with Gamey and the other moderators a couple of months ago, but I think it might help everyone in the community. Here we go:

For the first couple of years of the forums' existence, there was nothing here but discussion about our games - Palm, then Pocket PC, and finally Windows and Mac desktop games. No Shout Box, no Off-Topic discussions - only specific game forums (and not very many of those). The Guides section came about a couple of months after Fish Tycoon Windows was released.

Once the Shout Box arrived with the first forum software upgrade in late 2006, before many of you arrived here, the entire character of the forums changed, and so did the workload associated with managing them. Over the course of the next 12 months, we considered lots of different ways to make the forums fun and appealing, and we implemented some of them. As you all know, we made mistakes along the way, sometimes having to put restrictions on, or even reverse, earlier decisions. The Forum Games and signature images are just two examples of that kind of thing.

We revisited our forum strategy in early 2008, looking to get some help with the 'fun and appealing' aspects of the LDW forums. Carla wanted, and I quote, "to see if there is a way to improve the situation in the forums and maybe add some fun to them. We all know how busy we all are and we would need a volunteer to help us with the contest, polls, tournaments stuff to keep the community busy, entertained and focused."

I recommended Gamey and Eyeshigh, and Arthur and Carla took it from there.

I think it would have worked, if the 'focused' part of that strategy had not failed. We wanted forum activity focused around LDW games - polls, contests, and LDW-themed forums games, such as those cool games in the Official Forum Games section. Instead, the Shout Box became the center of activity here, which put a tremendous load on moderators and admins. We simply cannot operate a chat room, IM service, or social media network with the scarce resources we have.

You also should understand that we sometimes bite off more than we can handle, given the extremely limited resources (people and money) available to LDW. Arthur, Carla and I are always overextended, and things are always falling through the cracks. It was entirely LDW's fault that the 'focus' part failed, since we simply didn't have the time, resources, or money to fuel the fun in a way that fit our stated strategy. It started well, but we simply couldn't continue to devote the necessary resources and energy to keeping it going. The contests dwindled and died out, and everyone became very frustrated. We do understand the impact of that. We never intended to 'give and take away.' I hope you can all believe that. We were simply consumed with the amount of work - we still are. This is a direct quote from one of our internal emails last year, that might help you understand that we do understand:

The economic downturn started growing worse about that time, too, putting additional pressure on everything.

I'd like all of you to think for a second about this scenario…
Picture your family, however big or small it is, and try to envision your family running all the stuff that you see this handful of people doing. Some of you might be interested in seeing another SB saga here that really illustrates the kind of thing that has made the moderators a bit 'jumpy' in the past. We have tried to lighten up recently, but there are mistakes still or occasions that make us have to jump in. Another very recent example is one where a newbie was asking for game help and was ignored by people having an ongoing discussion about Hawaiian words. Although we didn't intervene in that situation, it sends an equally bad message to people about LDW and the forums, don't you think?

Anyway, I've rambled long enough. If you feel that our shortcomings and failings are reason for boycotts, slings and arrows, then so be it. I would ask that further posts in this thread be civil and stated in a manner that is consistent with how you would like to be treated by others. That goes for moderators and members alike. And try to remember that you're talking directly to Arthur, Carla, me, and the rest of the real people who try to keep LDW and these forums going.

Thanks.