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Free means something very specific to most MUDers and gamers. My point(which you missed), is that some MUDs with perk-systems do not announce the way that they work, and most new players are likely unaware of just how exactly important the perk-system is.
I stand by my shareware to freeware analogy. When independent gamers hear the word 'free', it rings a bell. When they hear the word 'trial' or 'shareware', etc, that rings a seperate bell. If a shareware program were to announce itself as freeware, I would consider that shady and misleading. The same goes for commercial MUDs advertising themselves as free, when make profit off of selling perks that are required to be competitive within a game.
My point doesn't involve a nit-picky defining of the words 'commercial' and 'free'. It is over what is obvious misleading advertising. You can bend the english language to serve your argument by attacking definitions - but at the end of the day, it comes down to common sense. Pay-for-Perk MUDs are not free in the same way that totally free MUDs are, and should not purposefully use the same advertising phrases to purposefully mislead players to make them think that they are.
And as Valg says, having a color code on the list would be very helpful to players using this site to find MUDs. It would let them see clearly which MUDs were what degree of "free".
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