"Without Much Utility"?

Probably not that much. I don't know who Mike Siggins is, so while I'm sure the fact that he was interviewed by Tom Vasel means his opinion should count for something, to me it's absolutely drowned by the many new members we constantly get who say things like "I'm so glad to have found this place, this site is great!"

Moreover, it's hard to interpret what it is Siggins is complaining about. Saying our site doesn't say or offer much is not only an unsupported assertion (and therefore worthless), but it's transparently bogus, and there really isn't enough content in his comments to even suggest he's really spent any time at all in our site. Certainly, he's never posted in the forums in any noticeable way.

There is one sense in which I could see some legitimacy to Siggin's complaint, and it's, as we all know, the bandwidth of substantive posts to "frivolous" posts is good but not great. There is still a lot of useless posting of the "how do I sell this?" or "check out this theme!" variety, and as the archives fill up, these useless posts are like clogs in the arteries. Not much we can do about it, though.

Personally, I find Siggins' remark ignorant and irritating, but the only thing I worry about is the little bit of bad press it represents. Happily, I think we get enough good press that I doubt it will hurt us. I thank you for bringing it to our attention, but personally, I'm not too worried about it. How did you take it?

-Jeff

I agree with Jeff that it seems Mr. Siggins hasn't spent any time here if he thinks we have nothing to offer each other. I think his comment may have been taken out of context or simply incorrectly. I believe his point was that playing games is something that's best done face to face.

I wonder if he commented on BSW at all, and I suspect he's not a fan. I bet if he plays M:tG he would do so "irl" and not on MTGO. I see where he's coming from, and I agree with him, but his comment basically says something else- maybe he doesn't realise that we're not playing games here, or testing them.

If I'm wrong about his intention, then his comment is simply uninformed and irrevelvant, and it's unfortunate for us and this site that it appears in a public interview. If I'm right, then he's certainly entitled to that opinion- and I share it with him- but that's not really what his quote means; which is also unfortunate for us.

Finally though, I might as well point out that "no publicity is bad publicity". So the guy made a comment that's sort of an insult to this website. Maybe a few people will come check out the website to see what it's about, and if they do, maybe some of them will find it's just the thing for them. Those that don't, well- they weren't coming here before anyway. So as long as they don't hack the site and stuff, we don't lose anything.

- Seth