RE: Dan
I'm really with jimbot in not wanting to get drawn into it; I mean, hell, two of the main things I respect and stand up for are being dragged off in two completely different directions.
Do I respect ArmorGames? Well, of course. They've given developers a chance to get rewards for something they normally couldn't expect anything from. Lots of people could argue that they make more than the artists get from ads, but then the people advertising get more than AG do from their products, and people who make games almost invariably aren't going to be up to making money from them without help from sites like AG.
Do I respect copyright? Definately. I make no attempt whatsover to cover up my absolute contempt for people who exploit artists just for extra income, and have no repsect at all for the hard work they put in. And the site's layout? Well, arguable I support copyright more when the victim is some lone author with little influence, than a large, profitable site with thousands of hardline supporters, but it was still a pretty big error of judgement.
Do I doubt Dan's sincerity? Well sure, sometimes. There've been plenty of times where I've thought that behind all of his politeness and aura of respect for developers, he was just playing a very clever game. But LordBling was by no means a very clever thing to do, and for all my paranoia over the intentions of the CEO of a big site, I've seen nothing but him but total honesty in the end, even if he can be a little political much of the time.
Well, in the end, I don't really know what to think. Really I have no idea what Dan or anyone else involved were thinking. I think the best thing by far would be for everyone to just open up and give their interperetations on what happened, otherwise we're just running around in circles trying to find someone to blame for everything.
I'm probably going to go dark for a week or so, anyway. I can't handle all of this conflict :P Wait for my 6666th post or something, then just spend a bit of time offline.