Years ago, I lived on the forums on WC. Not just WC but on forums all over the place. There was a joke once that if you said my name 3 times on a forum, I would magically appear and havoc would ensue.

So why did I stop?  Too busy? That's some of it. But a bigger reason is that I tend to not always be..the most politically correct guy around.

Or to put it another way, recently I got hooked on a new show after having multiple, independent people tell me I am just like a specific fictional character -- Dr. House on the TV show House. Not that it's a perfect fit (I don't think anyone would say I'm unethical) but I can be pretty cranky.

I'd say I'm more of a cross between Rearden from Atlas Shrugged and House. But it's still the same difference. I'm an evil, blood-thirsty capitalist. I've been an evil, blood-thirsty capitalist from day 1.  When the first skinning sites opened, I was there. 

Here's an article I wrote on the subject:

https://www.wincustomize.com/Articles.aspx?SID=1&AID=136943

Another reason I was gone is that I felt WC2K5 kind of sucked.  The ugly light blue look. The way the site was poorly organized or crashing or just plain slow. I just didn't like it.

And too many of the people hanging out were boring or at least boorish and elitist. I saw people being snide and rude to new users as if applying little bitmaps to your user interface is somehow an intuitive thing. So I stayed away.

I also didn't like how ratings were done. T-man and I argued about this. If you watch House, T-man is like Dr. Wilson (i.e. super nice).  I'm not nice. I don't think most of you should be allowed to rate skins. I originally had it that only other skinners could rate skins. But it got changed so that subscribers could also rate which really bugged me. But once a feature is given, it's hard to take it away.  But with WC2K7, we changed that.  Now ratings are weighted. So non-skinners who have subscriptions can rate but if a skinner votes, it counts for a lot more in determining the overall rating.  If someone hates that, you can start your own thread and complain there. Like I said, if I were total emperor and could turn back time, only skinners would be allowed to rate things at all. If I work hard on a skin, I don't want some random guy giving me a 1 and wrecking my rating.

Getting back to WC2K7...I really like it. If they can get IIS to quit crashing randomly (which is why sometimes it's really really fast and other times you sit there waiting 30 seconds) it'll be totally awesome.  I love the bread-crumbs.  I find it easy to navigate and much easier to write articles.

But we need to do more. We need to start following up on the Stardock failures of 2006. Admitting you have a problem is only the first step after all.

So anyway, my question to you guys is, is WC better off with the main administrator face being the volunteers along with Jafo and Zoomba who are nice? Or do you think it would work out if I started to increase my presence again even though I'm kind of a jerk that should be locked up in a lab coding stuff rather than telling users that I don't want them to ever purchase our software again?  

You can tell me the truth. I'm already in the fetal postiion.