Why Did I Even Bother..?

Hey Gang,

I was going to try to be cheery today. I really was. I was in the middle of an amazing break. Spring break started, and hanging with my friends and learning in school was a real blast. I get on the bus with a newly received Air Head from my friend Melissa (thanks Melissa!) and I was talking to someone who I'm not really friends with but was really nice! I'm on my iPhone, checking my emails when I see this from Professor Greyrose:

"For your site to be listed on our official fansites list, you must provide something to the community that is currently not being covered by other sites. Be unique in what you offer and your site will have a better chance of appearing in the list.

Please read the following requirements before you submit your site:

1. It is important that your site mainly contain content about Wizard101.
2. Your site needs to be updated weekly at a minimum and your updates must be dated.
3. Your site cannot contain content, advertising or links to content that violate the Wizard101 Terms of Use.
4. Fansite owners must be over the age of 18, or have permission from their parent or guardian.
5. Fansite owners must be currently active Members of Wizard101.
6. Fansite submissions received after 31 December 2009 that have a free hosting platform such as blogspot.com, wordpress.com, webs.com,pbworks.com, etc will be rejected without review. If a community member wants to have an official fansite, we ask they show the commitment to the community by purchasing a domain and hosting service.
7. Facebook Fan pages will not be considered for inclusion. The only official Wizard101 Facebook page is located at http://www.facebook.com/wizard101

Since your fansite does not meet the qualifications above (specifically #5 and #6), we cannot list it in our Fansites and Blogs section of the Wizard101.com website.

You may want to send your website to The Friendly Necromancer's MMO Blogger's Club at http://thefriendlynecromancer.blogspot.com/

Inclusion of your fansite on our list is entirely at our discretion. Submissions for the same website will only be reviewed once every 30 days and repeated submissions within that period will not be reviewed or responded to by us.

~Professor Greyrose"

Do you have any idea how mad I was when I saw this? Or not even mad as much as disappointed and upset.

RANT TIME STARTS NOW:

Well, this is what I ultimately sent them back:

"Dear GreyRose,

I'm very thankful that you have looked over my blog, but there were a few things that you got wrong and that I'm confused about:

1. I did pay for my own domain name. I bought it off of blogger, and if you type in www.thepyromancersdigest.com, you will see that it's a purchased site.

2. Are you saying that I have to have a subscription to Wizard101 to be an official fansite? If so, that's not completely far, as I still pay money for the game like subscribers do (I have actually been trying to pay for crowns, but my American express gift card isn't working on the site and billing support decided not to answer my email that was sent back to them). If you want me to subscribe, then I'll try my best, but I still think that as long as I pay the money it shouldn't matter.

3. My site offers many of my own creative ideas, which I find to be unique about it. I'm constantly thinking of my own ideas, and I encourage my readers to talk about their ideas and their opinions of my own. I'm sure many of the wizards in the community would stand by me in saying that it offers something unique.

I appreciate you looking I've this and I would be thankful if you responded soon. I don't mean to sound mean or rude, but I feel like you're not giving me a fair shot. Thanks again,

Luke GoldHorn"

I just don't get why they turned it down.

First off, let me start off by saying that I totally misinterrpreted the "Member of Wizard101" part, if by member they mean subscriber. They really should clear that up. And even still, to make it so that subscribers can only make fansites is just totally unfair. I mean, I could see not letting people who don't pay money for Wizard101 make an official fan site, but to not let Crowns player make fan sites? I still pay money for the game; is my money not good enough? I can live with longer timers and less room in my FL and Bag, but to deprive me of not being an Official Fan Site? That's just ... wrong.

And it's not like I'm not trying to buy crowns. I've had these useless AmEx Gift Cards lying around my desk that haven't been working. When I first contacted support about it, they were really nice and progressive about it; heck, they gave me 2,500 Crowns for putting up with the problem. But at one point, they just never replied back to me. That made me really upset. It also took this a while to go through as well. I had to send a problem ticket in just to get it reviewed. Then to be denied when one qualification that they listed wasn't met was? That's pure insanity.

And yes, I understand that KingsIsle has lots of customers to serve besides me. But they've just angered me lately because of all this cuts they've been pulling off on me. And if they want to limit the number of fansites on their listing, by all means; do it (however, it's not a wise move). But at least post on the fansite page saying that they're not accepting any more at the moment.

And then the whole "not creative enough" part really got under my skin. As you saw in my reply email, I'm fairly certain that other member of the community, big and small, would say that my blog is unique and interesting. In fact, I think almost every blog is unique and interesting. Sure, me and Johnny Smith both may post about our ideas on what KI could add to the game, but if we both doing so in our own manner and write about different original ideas, then it's still unique in my eyes.

I've just lost hope in everything KingsIsle at the moment. Hopefully I'll feel better soon. Happy Easter Break!

P.D.