User blog comment:TheMG/To the people complaining about the new look/@comment-227331-20101030085104

Bit of a history lesson for you: we didn't used to be so sarcastic. We started being sarcastic once we realized that they weren't going to come to a compromise. You seem to like analogies about silverware, so here, have an analogy about pets.

Say you've got a dog, a friendly, puppy that for the most part hasn't minded having you profiting off of what they do. Why don't they mind? Because you've been a decent host, and your annoying traits can be dealt with (or adblock'd away). Then one day you decide to change things! Your neighbor got a fancy doghouse that worked for him, so you got that same doghouse. You don't want your guests coming over and seeing a shabby yard, so you take some of the dog's old (but well-used and functional) toys away. You even redo the back yard so it looks nicer.

Your dog is understandably confused.

Where the hell are it's things? Why did you take them away? The dog didn't do anything wrong, so why is it being punished? The old yard worked for that dog. The dog was more efficient with that yard, it did more things and performed better at it's job when it had that yard to romp around in. Now there's petunias on both sides and a lawn gnome on the right. Screw that lawn gnome, it doesn't do any good! Naturally it makes worried noises and shows you that no, really, this backyard is pretty but it's not working. "If you wanted to make a nice front lawn", says the dog via a vaguely judging look "Then go pretty up the front lawn more".

But what does the dog know? so you only tweak a few things and when the dog starts howling at night you close your window and tell it to shut up. But your dog is not just one of those rock-headed breeds, it's a working breed for a reason.

So now starts the rebellious stage for your dog. It tries to escape and take it's remaining toys with it, you punish the dog and fill the spot where it tried to dig under the fence. It makes noise at all hours of the night, you smack it across the face and try to muzzle it. It digs in the petunias, knocks down the doghouse, and defecates on the gnome, you thrash that dog and make it a house rule that there's no digging/defecating/exc unless it's in a tiny spot where nobody looks. Then finally after it all, you try to tell the dog about new changes to the backyard, but first you keep it's muzzle on, and then the second time you hit it with the newspaper as soon as it gives you a dirty look about the backyard's changes.

What on earth do you think that dog's going to do? Sure it might learn to deal with it, but after this much conflict one of two things are going to happen.

1) That dog's going to pass on. Sure you'll get a new puppy, but it'll be untrained and it won't be as good as the old dog. (note, when the changes to Monaco happened, there was a massive plunge in users and it was only just getting back to a stable level when they announced Oasis)

2)The dog will get flat out dangerous. It will look for an opportunity and attack when there's an opening. It's single-minded goal will be to tear you limb from limb, disregarding the consequences. These are the days where more people have access to viruses and ways to ddos a server. Even if the ye olde internet hate machine doesn't think it's worth their time to go after Wikia, other people might, and it's frighting to consider just how vulnerable your data really is on the internet. If you've read my stuff then you know I don't support illegal ways of dealing with this company, but there are a lot of legal ones, and one day, someone's going to get disgruntled enough that they're going to try it.

And if they do, I can only hope that they go for the legal option.