Yes @jarvie I do want the project to succeed... For many people. And I will answer some of those questions that you asked. The reason I went "public" is because I was done going private. I had messaged them many times and received some communication back, but also was ignored many times too. Basically they gave me the impression that they were going to do things their way and had a roadmap and didn't care about my thoughts.

That is fine, they can do as they wish. But when they put in a process that takes money from something me (and many of the people I care about), and makes us pay a fee to have at it, the they crossed the line. I didn't feel that talking to them directly would solve anything since they blew me off essentially with ever OTHER suggestion/complaint. Basically I feel they said "ok little boy we're listening, now go over in the other room and play with your toys while the grownups do the serious work". Aggy has in his mind "tainted me" as a person who cares about the little guy (which I say he "taints", but to me its a fucking compliment). But sadly, he doesn't even use me to find out what the "little guy" would think. It took me about 15 min to figure out why this was bad and if he would've asked ahead of time I would've told him.

And Matt doesn't get involved. He lets Aggy do this part. Its sad in part because if one isn't doing their job its obvious (developers you can see the bugs), but the other can hide behind excuses. This is a weakness that they will have to fix going forward if they want to have a thriving enterprise. Obviously if they would listen to the feedback from those that like them and agree, and also from those that don't they could learn faster.

But anyways, I of course was sending a signal because I do truly think its the worst thing they've done. It is flat out taking the pool away from those that don't pay the fee. And btw, you were on the call where Aggy first said it would be 70%, I don't know if you remember but I do. I can understand them shifting it lower as they have tons of infrastructure to build, but I will NEVER agree with making people pay to have access to the money they should already have access to.

One last thing, I was literally telling @cryptkeeper17 24 hrs ago how awesome this was going to be in the future... We usually spend 30 min or so on the phone discussing things like SM a couple times a week. So this is something that caught me off guard for sure.

I do want to see it work and I do want to help them. But if they don't bother to listen to me or any of the people that have made comments on this post or talk to the people that have left, then they will find that their universe of people will shrink until the get the magic marketing potion (which I'm kidding, as that is always a hit/miss endeavor).

I have a simple proposal...if you want to broker a deal...

1. have them stop putting any money into any tourneys from the "pool" that require money to play. IE, don't rob those funds.

2. have them make all pool money tourneys free (but make them only able to be played based on your ranking in the quest seasons... ie if your diamond level there, you can play only diamond level in the tourneys... bronze = bronze etc.. Reason: that will stop the 8000 people playing for free and getting a handout bullshit argument that they are using to justify the robbery of the pool to paid status.

3. issue an apology like they did with the Alpha pack numbers when KS came out and he wanted to double count them. He needs to show that he "gets it"... I don't give a shit if I'm ever mentioned in it, but honestly he insulted a ton of people by saying they weren't "serious" if they didn't want to pay the 5 steem fee. (not to mention he's proposing locking them out if they don't pay too).

The bottom line is of course I want to see them do well... I don't even know how much I have but I know its at least $10k. But way more importantly is I will live my life ok for as long as I live, I'm set. What you find out in that situation is that you care about what you care about. I have grown to care about the community, the @clove71's the @jarvie's the @crystalhuman's and of course many many more I'm not mentioning...(including our guild Team Possible that has my friends that are active every day since KS started). So because I care, then I'm always happy to help, but that help doesn't always come from cheerleading or telling people what they want to hear. This was a wrong policy and will severely hurt their reputation and credibility for a long time. It was dinged for sure and won't be forgotten quickly, but at least they could do the right thing and fix it once they realize it. Its one thing to fuck up, but a smart man will figure it out, apologize, and move forward. I hope they do that for sure!