Is issue #4 out yet? Anyone receive it? I've sent 3 emails now to their addresses, and have not received a reply. Their site shows that the issue was mailed out in August.

Thanks for any info,
Kyndig

As I said before, due to certain time restraints, it just has not been sent out yet.

I, for one, was unaware of this as well until just a couple days ago. This information should be updated on the website as to not confuse people. I know that everyone gets busy, but a quick email out to the list of the subscribers would ensure they know why their issue isn't there. :)

Lotius

Agreed. I've seen nothing 'said before', and would reasonably assume that this information would be reflected on the official webpage somewhere. In fact, the webpage specifically states that:

I for one am not very satisfied with the level of service provided by Mud Companion. It is certainly a worthy publication, but it could use one helluva boost in the customer relations department.

I am a subscriber and contributing author to Mud Companion, but would not know myself as either from the amount of response received. I do not intend to renew my subscription without seeing a significant improvement in this area, both in official correspondence and the quasi-official responses such as the one given by you, Ntanel.

I for one won't be renewing regardless. If they're willing to delay this long ( and I had actually forgotten it was overdue until Orion mentioned it ) and not say anything, what's to stop them from deciding to take 6 months per issue from now on? It's a quarterly magazine. That means deadlines. If you can't meet them, you don't deserve to get paid.

oo diss

I have yet to receive my issue either but I emailed the subscriptions department and the information department at least twice if not more times each inquiring about the fourth issue. I waited for a while and still I got no response even letting me know that my email was received. When I do get the magazine I enjoy reading it and as for the delay I mean it’s only in it’s first year and as with anything “shi- happens”. I think I’ll give it another year and see if thing get better. The waiting wouldn’t be so aggravating if you could get a response from customer relations departments or a quicker status update. The latest status update was on the 28th of august saying that it’s back from the printer and will be mailed that week…that was over 6 weeks ago and I’ve received nothing or heard anything. Which leads me to a question if it hasn’t been sent out when is someone going to update that notice on the Website?

-- Astin

In their defense, I will say I've thoroughly enjoyed the first three issues and a teeny inside bit of knowledge tells me that a large part of it is quantity of articles and high standards for each issue that delays mailing. I think my money was well spent though but I'm waiting for issue #4 before I resubscribe.

Hmm, this new one should be around 32 pages? Perhaps Sir Thoric should offer a freebie advertisement for your pet Mu* in the issue you get a story published in, even a short text one. Even I might get off my butt as Neranz has requested and submit an article for that kind of motivation. Quarterly is a royally nasty thing when you depend on volunteer submissions and I certainly don't envy him.

You can get a free advertisement for you MU* by including it in your bio when you write an article. People generally read the bios to see why the author feels they are knowledgable enough to be writing the article.

I will admit I am partially to blame for the lateness of the issue as once again my submission was late.

(On a bit of a side note, I have been thinking about the decreasing amount of time I spend doing anything mud related and have decided to take a sabbatical of sorts from mudding until the children are at least teenagers.)

As far as the comment about not getting paid. No one is getting paid for this. Knowing at least US Postal Rates, I would not be surprised at all if Thoric is loosing money.

I still think The Mud Companion is a great idea. I will continue to subscribe. If you have liked it in the past, help keep it going by submitting articles. That is what it needs to be successful.

Neranz Laverani, Seeker of Knowledge

The point is, Mud Companion has entered into a contractual obligation with its subscribers, which it has failed to meet. Furthermore, the information on its website is misleading at best, or deliberately falsified at worst. How that information is taken is up to theindividual reader and has, in my opinion, been handled well by the subscribers.

Nevertheless, I reiterate: Mud Companion has contracted to provide a service in exchange for a medium (read: money). It has failed to do so.

History can show you many occasions wherein the content was worthy, yet the provider failed to adequately satiate his or her customer base.

I do not believe Mud Companion is at the point of self-defeat - YET. But I do think they are very close to achieving that goal.

I purchased a quarterly subscription, and I want what I purchased.

Failing that, I would like to see the webpage updated with information, and not find it second hand on a seperate discussion forum.

Failing THAT, I would appreciate feedback as a subscriber from the company to which I have subscribed, updating me as to the status of their product.

Failing that, I will not renew my subscription.

Just out of curiosity, how much is a subscription?

A yearly subscription is $10 US. This includes 4 quarterly issues and the shipping & handling cost. Individual issue orders cost more per issue and you have to pay shipping and handling on it as well.

Lot

IMO, TMC is advertising a service they can't provide.

I signed up for TMC in March this year, and have yet to receive a single issue (I asked to be sent the most recent one).

TMC could get in big trouble - accepting money from people, then giving them nothing for it.

Now it's November, and still no change to the page.

I've demanded return of $7.50 through Paypal - $2.50 for the failure to provide my fourth issue for the year, plus $5.00 for the effort. At this point, Mud Companion has failed to meet its obligation to me. I'm also going to mail them a letter asking for my free issue for being published in them.

Here here. I've sent my refund request in as well, though I didn't feel it necessary to ask for an additional $5.00 out of it. $2.50 may not be a whole lot, but it's the principle of it.

I added the $5.00 out of spite. I've sent no fewer than four emails to the company, and have gotten nary a single response. I don't think that, given the fact I have paid for a service, it is unreasonable to expect at least a hither-you-go response, saying anything from "This is your autobot...." to "We're a little busy right now trying to fix the damn mailing of Issue #4, will respond within 7 years to your email..."

I paid for something. I am entitled to either the product or the money. At this point, at -least- three months after it was due (August, which was LATE), I am no longer satisfied with just the product. I want either the product, AND my $2.50 returned, or I want the $2.50 price intrinsic to the goods which have failed to be delivered, plus recompense of $5.00.

I also want my free issue for being published in the magazine. This part is non negotiable, independent of whether I get the above satisfaction or not.

--Robespierre, who has sent mails to people from the middle of the desert, in the shade of a camel, so will accept no excuse

I never recieved my free issue of "The Mud Companion" for purchasing Zmud!

Zugg told me that is is their responsibility to send it to me, and I have not recieved it. (It has been 8 months now)

If Zugg sold you Zmud under the explicit assumption that you'd be receiving an issue of The Mud Companion in exchange for purchasing Zmud, then it is his responsibility to provide it to you. He made money off his promise to you.

--matt

I HAVE CONTACTED BOTH PARTIES AND THEY BOTH BLAME THE OTHER!


whatever. i want my free issue.

Yes, and if Zugg can't get his free issue for him, then it lies with Mud Companion to take the blame for that. If they can't even fulfil what amounts to a corporate request, the company is already doomed. Could be time to start filing complaints with the Canadian equivalent of the Better Business Buerau. Then file appropriate claims with Paypal to have their account frozen since they seem to be unwilling to provide refunds for undelivered issues.

Heya all,

I just received mud companion issue #3. I actually thought I would receive the newest mud companion with the zmud offer, but I don't mind, it's here and it was fun to read.

So Ike if you are still waiting, it might be coming soon.

I am extremely sorry for all the mailing delays.

There have been some serious problems with mailing, and most of them have been monitary.

If you investigate the costs of operating a magazine, you will quickly find that to offer both printing and mailing of glossy cover magazine costs a hell of a lot more than $2.50US.

The costs behind this have to be carried by the advertisers.

If you take at look at the advertising rates (and also keep in mind that many of the current advertisers got large discounts or free ads in exchange for web-based advertising), compared to the number of actual ads printed in the magazine issues you have received, it should be quite clear that things didn't work out as planned.

The MCM incurred thousands of dollars of debt through production and mailing costs, all of which are my personal obligation.

Before I could send out the last batch of magazines, I had to pay down my account with the postal company.

Now before you start ranting about my contractal obligations to provide you with your magazine or refund your partial payment, nowhere on the website or through the signup process were you promised you would receive your issues within a particular timeframe.

All promised issues will be sent, and where back issues are unavailable to complete your promised number of issues in the case that no future issues are published, you will receive a partial refund.

Actually no, it lies entirely with Zugg. Someone who bought Zmud with the expectation (as created by an announcement on Zugg's site) that he would receive something free must be provided with that free something, or Zugg is engaged in fraud. If I purchase a cell phone plan that includes a free cell phone, and don't get that cell phone, it isn't the cell phone manufacturer that I have any legal right to go after. I go after whoever got me to fork over cash in exchange for goods they didn't deliver.

In the end, if Zugg refuses to make good on his obligation (for whatever reason. It's not your problem if his suppliers are having problems. Remember: He sold you something that he hasn't delivered. You paid him money, not The Mud Companion.) then he's obligated to either refund your money or make some other arrangement with you. The MUD Companion didn't promise you anything. It promised Zugg something, and Zugg promised you something.

--matt

This thread has been bothering me for quite some time.

Let me start by saying, these are solely my opinions. If you must attack anyone because of them, I am the person you should attack.

I have always known that The Mud Companion costs more to make that my subscription covered. I could have received free copies because I had an article in every issue. I didn't though, because I felt bad because I knew that Thoric sunk a very large amount of money into the magazine to get it started. I also very strongly suspected that he never made that money back. I never realized the full extent of his losses. To be honest, I never asked, because I didn't really want to know.

Personally, I am very happy when I get something for less than I know its worth. I am ashamed when I get it at a great expense to someone else though. I think the manner in which Thoric and the magazine has been attacked is dispicable.

Everyone seems to want things for free, but they aren't willing to help in any way. All of the mud magazines are dying because people want to read them, but don't want to contribute to them. I can count on one hand the number of unsolicated articles that I received for The Art of Building in its five years of existance. That works out to one article per year. I never received any unsoliciated articles for the Builder's Bazaar section of The Mud Journal. I bet Mish is still having the same problem. I would not be surprised if Imaginary Realities died for similar reasons.

The community seems to be full of people who are willing to criticize, but very few who are willing to do anything constructive. Usually those who are willing get torn to shread by the rest. Calling the mud community an actual community is a stretch. For the most part, it is a bunch of arguing, bickering individuals who put self gratification above the community. Those who do care are eventually driven out by the packs of wolves that now exist.

Stop bickering and blaming. Do something to help rebuild the community. Contribute.

Thank you,
Neranz Laverani, Usually mild-mannered, but irrate as of late

That is the case with many if not most magazines, you know. It's hardly unique to the Mud Companion. It's also the case for mainstream newspapers.

Nearly all publications have to endure being in the red for awhile until they can garner a sufficient readership to attract enough advertising to support it. The ownership of The Mud Companion's "crime" was not in any ill-intention, but simple naivete about the costs of starting a magazine. It sounds to me like he wasn't prepared for the almost guaranteed period of unprofitability.

Regardless however, he did take people's money and hasn't so far delivered on what he took the money for. Whatever his intentions were in putting out the magazine, he did take money in return for a service he hasn't so far provided. It's not really incumbent on the consumer to care what the financial difficulties of the content provider are once the consumer has paid for the content.

Still, it sounds to me like most people are only out a couple bucks, which is not a big deal by any stretch.

--matt

No one is even out any money if you read Thoric's last statement.

There is still the issue that people want good magazines and websites, but don't want to help create them by contributing, then rag on the sites or magazines creators because the sites or magazines aren't timely or don't succeed. Many more people seem willing to take than to give. If everyone takes, nothing can be created. The "community" is devouring itself.

Also, I forgot to add this one:

Click the subscriptions link.

A yearly subscription are issues that will be received in one year. While you don't have to stick to a quarterly schedule with that, you DO have to make sure they get four issues in one year.

Click the Information Link.

This, however, cements you into producing a quarterly magazine.

Also just to make sure, I checked this one. It was the same.



Anyway, I meant to go back into the shadows, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't losing my mind. *wave*

Now that everyone knows what is going on, if it is in your heart to do so... try to give Thoric a little slack.

Take care, all.

You were casually talking about doing an article for another section of TMJ, administrative or roleplaying. I kidnapped you for the Bazaar. (I even tried to get you to write a series of rants for the magazine.) You were solicitated, but I won't tell your wife.

Obviously, you are someone who is willing to contribute to the community. Your websites alone prove this. Going outside of The Mud Companion discussion. Most people are not willing to contribute. They take and criticize but offer nothing valid in return. There are a few good people left, but the community is rotten at the core. Perhaps it always has been. Perhaps I have just been slow to notice it. This thread was the straw for me.

While I applaud the move to try and make a published magazine, I'm glad at this point that I did not subscribe to it. I thought about, read the website, but never saw any snippits of articles that made me want to purchase the subscription. But on the other hand what Thoric tried to do was make money on a hobby. This is not a bad thing. But he did it without a solid business plan. One in which they could see the magazine grow. Or when shown to someone else, they could see it grow.

The main problem with the business plan was that he tried to base it on existing magazines, where the advertisers carried most of the cost. The following is an assumption and I may be wrong, please let me know if it is. The majority of the advertisers were planned to be muds, and mud related resource sites, mud hosts, and possibly MMORPGS. The fault with this strategy is the following: Most muds are not P2P, and cannot afford advertising, most resource sites, barely make enough to keep the server running, mud hosts are probably the most profitable, but the magazine is targetted at administrators that already have servers, and MMORPGS have marketing departments, that probably aren't aware of the magazine.

If I were to subscribe to the magazine, I would be happy to pay $20US for a yearly subscription. As long as the product was relevant to me. I stopped my Subscription to Dragon, because it focused too much on FR, and not world development.

I wrote 8 Unsolicited articles for IR. Yes a couple of them were a day or two late. Behind Selina Kelley (An Editor) I was the most published writer there. I think the reason the IR died was because lack of time on the part of the Editors. And not having as many articles as they really wanted. I give back to the community the way I feel is best for me. I guide my own development, and talk to people who talk to me. The last Mudwide community thing I did was fill out an interview for Orion for his site. I am prolific enough to be found, and hopefully respected enough, all someone has to do is ask. Other then that I sit back, read, reply to comments, and hack away at my own code.

Can you really ask for anything else from a community of hobbyist on the internet?

What I am asking for is for people who do nothing but criticize to contribute instead, to do something constructive with their energy. There is nothing wrong with quietly sitting back coding and stepping up when asked. That is constructive not destructive.

If we want good global resources, we can only have them by contributing. They don't just happen on their own.

Unprofitability isn't as big a problem as incurring loses you aren't able to maintain. Although the bigger problem was lack of community support in general -- extremely disappointing was the lack of response from purchasers of zMUD.

I had expected that a good number of the people who were willing to pay for a MUD client would be willing to pay for a MUD magazine. I was sadly mistaken. Of the thousands of free magazines that got sent out, only a small handful ended up subscribing.


A yearly subscription of a quarterly magazine means that you get four magazines per year. It doesn't guarantee that you will get them on an exact date.

The main reason that most of the issues came out late was because we received the articles and advertisements late. I'm sure we could have put the magazine out on time missing half of its content if that is what would have been preferable to the subscribers.

Technically I could mail out a four page leaflet for issue #5 and #6 and still fulfill my obligation. Nothing guarantees the number of pages or quality of the magazine. Even though I say, "Full color cover", I could scribble on the cover with a crayon and not be breaking any obligations.

Very few people have offered me continual support in this endeavor. The ones that have know who they are, and it should be quite obvious by looking at the magazines.

I had a vision of producing something to unite and liberate the MUD community. To give them their place in history in concrete form.

I certainly didn't do it for money, and you'd have to be insane to think that was any part of it. I did everything I could to make both advertising and subscription prices as rock bottom as possible, and had special discounts for non-profit sites.

I provided an outlet for people in the MUD community to show off their talents, be it coding, building, drawing or anything MUD related. I gave people the chance to get their work in print -- something to show their friends and family.

I wanted it to be professional looking, and impressive enough so that people could feel proud to hand the magazine to someone and say, "This is what I do."


As I said, there was no time guarantee. As for what it said on the website, it said, "Mailing starts next week". That didn't say that mailing would be finished that week.

Most people are only out a few months of receiving their magazine. The magazines will be shipped, and in the case that we don't have enough magazines to fill subscriptions (i.e. we don't make any more issues), I will refund the difference.

Hi. I am a subscriber from Europe. Since I know from my own tabletop club how much problems a fan-magazine can cause and what effort is put in it, I was quite ok waiting.
However, I would have at least expected an answer to my numerous emails to the subscription email. I mean, I am ok waiting, if I know it will come, one day. *eg*

Patience is a virtue!

You're asking for a lot from a community that looks down upon it's own an awful lot.

Administrators look down on players as twinks, cheaters, and headaches. With the of exceptional ones.

Players look at administrators as power freaks, children, and fun stoppers. With the exceptional ones.

In a community that has so much infighting and is disfragmented it becomes difficult to get contributions to the community. It is the exceptional ones that step foward. And there are only a handfull of those. I bet we could make a list that would number a little under 50 of people who are considered, exceptional in our community. And that's in a community of thousands.

What we need are people who try to build a community of exceptionals. There have been tries but no one has been able to do it. I think IR, MCM, TMC, TMS, are all examples of places where these exceptionals come to congregate, and exchange ideas.

Just my thoughts of the matter.

The subscribers contributed by paying their money. In return they have the right to expect to get what they paid for. It's not the responsibility of the consumer to do anything beyond that.

--matt

Thoric, the definition of a quarterly magazine is one that comes out every quarter. Does it mean you'll get it by a specific date? No, does it mean it'll be mailed out approximately every three months? Yes.

To quarter something is to create four equal pieces. To do 3 months, 3 months, 3 months, 7 months (or however long it has been) is not quarterly. You should change it to state that Mud Companion is a MUD magazine, and that a subscription is for four issues, however often they may come out.

Further more, you DID set specific dates by saying that the issues 'will be mailed this week.'

No offense, but you seem to have ignored my posts entirely, aside from the part about it being quarterly.

Nod, that's what I meant by running in the red.

Well, and this is intended only as a constructive comment, not as criticism, but the reason I didn't subscribe to it is because a paper magazine aimed at text MUDs seems out of place, and superfluous. It's not a medium that lends itself well to a glossy magazine, because there's no way to take a screenshot of your imagination, which is the canvas a MUD is painted on. There's also inevitably going to be a lack of quality content. I'm not trying to criticize anyone, but nearly all the articles written about text MUDs in particular (as opposed to virtual spaces in general) come off as somewhat amateurish. That's fine in the sense that most of the people doing the writing are hobbyists, but at the same time, it clashes with your goal of a glossy magazine. I really just think a website is a better medium for the information and target audience.

The reason I didn't advertise in it is because I didn't think it would get sufficient circulation, due to the above reasons. It wasn't about supporting anything to me, but about where to best place our advertising budget.


Sure, I'd agree with that.

Understandable, though from a strictly commerce point of view, the buck stops with you. If the ads and articles aren't ready, it's your fault from the consumer's point of view. (I wasn't a consumer and have nothing against you at all. Fault doesn't have to carry negative ethical implications.)

Yep. You wouldn't look good, but hey, #### happens. If you formed a corporation or limited partnership/LLC to do it, you could simply shut down and not suffer any personal legal liability. Sole propietorships are cheap to declare and maintain, but the risk is greatly increased.


Check out . It's put out by Versus, but only covers graphical MUDs really (though Eternal City is listed on its list of games for some reason, oddly enough).

So I was going to guarantee a loan for someone when I was a bit younger, and went to the bank with my friend to talk to the loan officer. The loan officer wanted to speak to me alone, and once my friend was out of the room, he said to me (and I'll never forget this, as it was sound advice), "Matt, we're in the loan business. We're successful in the loan business. If your friend's credit isn't good enough for us, why is it good enough for you?" I poo-pood his advice saying I knew my friend better than the bank's credit scoring algorithm does and guaranteed the loan. My friend, of course, defaulted about 9 months later, leaving me to pay it or ruin my credit. He didn't do it with any malice. One just can't get blood from a stone, as the saying goes.

In other words, if Versus and Prima, who are very successful at doing printed game-related material, don't see the text MUD market as being able to support a flashy magazine, why did/do you? I mean, I'm not saying that they're automatically right. They may not have considered it (unlikely I'd say. They were just waiting for the online market to get big enough generally to support one), or may simply be slow in taking advantage of an opportunity, giving you the chance to do it first. But more likely, the reason is that they know the market isn't there to support the kind of magazine you want/wanted to do.

Anyway, I wish you luck, but my (unsolicited and therefore possibly rude) advice is to cut your losses now, and perhaps turn your attention towards a website.

--matt

Ugh, sorry about that long superfluous quote from above.

--matt

Well, in a discussion with some others about the idea of a printed magazine, I pointed out why most people don't submit articles. This is a hobbyists magazine, that is true, but there is no real compensation for articles submitted.

The only compensation offered to authors is a free issue. While that's all good and well if the author isn't subscribed to the magazine, but why would one want a free issue of a magazine to which they are more than likely subscribed? If you tack the free issue onto their subscription (which very well may be how it is done, I don't know), that likely helps, some... but it still isn't much. For submitting an article, I get a $2.50 magazine that I'd more than likely have bought anyway?

Offering some sort of compensation for articles printed is the only way to get people sufficiently interested in submitting.


Just my two cents.

Who cares if it is torn apart? The point is to garner enough readership to support itself. If some loudmouths don't like it, tough beans for them. If you can't take attacks on your product, don't start, because they are inevitable. Besides, the angry kids that rant about everything on this site and others are to be ignored. There's no reason to care about their opinions, as they don't represent anyone but themselves, and they are a trivial percentage of people who play MUDs.


And what I gave isn't an attack but constructive criticism. The difference is enormous. It's well and good for you to believe that he should continue to invest thousands of dollars, but it's his money that's being wasted, not yours.

A text MUD magazine might be an excellent concept, but it's not a particularly financially feasible one.

--matt

Two thoughts, simply to satisfy my need to speak my mind:

a: First, no matter what semantic twist you put on it - quarterly issues or four yearly issues, the result is the same: a product was purchased with the understanding that between August 2001 and August 2002 four issues would be received.

b: The angst towards Mud Companion comes, not from the failure of obligations to (a) above, but from the lacadaisical response to genuine questions about the status.

As I said previously (and, by the by Thoric, I think it's great to see you responding to this thread) - all it would have taken to placate me was something as simple as a "Hey, got your mail, and can't respond right now".

Despite the best efforts of the post office, electronic mail remains a free service.

And, while we're on that thought, here's an idea: dual-cast the magazine. That is, publish it in hard copy, but also include a digital version, viewable to paying members. This allows you leeway in distributing the printed copy at your leisure. Heck, you could even hold them in abeyance and do bulk mailing annually. This gives you the medium you wanted for subscribers to show "This is what I do" still, while at the same time allowing for content to be easily distributable to those who are paying.

I'd be willing to pay double the current price for something like that. Providing there was active response to concerns, such as is now occuring on this thread, when they were aired.

I am an avid defender of Game Commando's. Ilya and Natalia were wonderful additions to our community. The gave insight in meaningful ways, they were always open to discussion, and they were just downright nice.

I still remember the day that I found the notice posted on their site. It was a sad day indeed. And to show that I was going to miss them, I purchased a Game Commando's T-Shirt.

But to the topic at hand,
Maybe if MCM went the way of many D20 publishers and offered it in a PDF for 2.50 a magazine, and print for a limited run for 7.50 an issue. The Security on PDF's have increased, and you can expect more readers, as they can see an immediate return for their investment. (Plus they can buy back issues at no extra cost for you the publisher). Having taken a more indepth look at the MCM page, the magazine had a good start, it had some big hitters writing for it, and it had a couple of articles that interested me. But the difference between the first and fourth article astounded me. Yes there was more content, but bygolly give me quality over quantity any day of the week.

Not entirely sure who this was directed at, but to imply that those who are complaining are not contributing in some way is silly. I can't speak for anyone else, but my reasoning for asking for my refund was simply because I got tired of waiting for it and Robbert's post about it jogged my memory again. If I get my issue, so be it. I'll be happy. I howver am NOT taking, I paid for it. It's mine by right of economics if nothing else.

Now, before someone else steps up and says I am just a whining little leech who does nothing, I *DO* contribute, in my own way. I lack the talent or desire to do writing for magazines. So in order to give back, I released my codebase, offer cheap mud hosting, and help Orion with Mud Planet. If that's not enough, I'm not sure what is.

This thread really bothers me since I know the effort that Thoric and Neranz and a bunch of others have put into it. Oh yes, I realize the legal ramifications as so many have quickly pointed out quite logically and correctly, but I also see perhaps too vehemently. To me, perhaps silly of me too, but I see it is as a fledgling publication that caters to what I want to read and would like to see it continue. I received my first issue, looked at the postage cost and immediately thought Thoric was nuts but I admired the stones he had to offer it. *Shrug* my two cents I guess.

I would advise him to "POST UPDATES" to the website perhaps to quell the grousing, or even maybe go to publishing twice a year until he has a stockpile of articles that allow 40 pages quarterly guaranteed (holding a good group in reserve to meet deadlines). Perhaps charging a teeny bit more to at least cover the postage fees would be good too. Heck, his production rate of articles is way better so far than our typical production rate of subordinate builder zones I bet.

I would certainly like my fourth issue as I'm sure all of you would, but I feel I've received my $10 bucks worth already and I'm satisfied I will receive my fourth issue eventually since he says it will happen. If he changes his offer to something he can actually guarantee compliance with I will even resubscribe.

I'm pretty sure all the negative feedback here and dissatisfied customers mailing his website have probably killed his altruistic enterprise, but this is Thoric guys, please cut him some slack? He and his staff are trying and apparently got in over their heads from lack of publishing experience and the "volunteers have real lives" bug.

BTW, thinking about it a bit harder and again mourning GC, I think in retrospect that doing independent MUD reviews is probably one of the best ways to attract all sorts of attacks.

First, from the staff who is not mature enough to handle any kind of criticism in a constructive way. And that's hardly surprising.
After all, when thinking about it, the only objective asset any MUD out there has is its playerbase, and a partially or fully negative review can be percieved as one good way to dent the growth of the pbase. So staff members will often lash out at criticism - after all, it's always easier to shoot the messenger.

And then you have the fanbois, who are of course bound to defend "their MUD".
After all, when you spend several hours a week on a week, it is hard to admit you spend it on stuff not worthy of your attention.

Just look at any unmoderated player reviews: they devolve into flamewars faster than you can type "criticism".

This ends my monthly (or soon quarterly) MUD rant. Thank you for your attention.