As a gamer and a fan of EN World, I share everyone's dismay that Morrus has been treated so shabbily. This site has always played an important role for me, not just as a source of news and information about the game I love, but also as an miraculously friendly, civil, and decent community of people who share the love. It's tragic that there's another side to that, although if I'd thought about it I should have known this would be the case and that it might relate to publishers, as publishers are one of the main interfaces the site must have with commercial activity. Money & commerce is usually one of the biggest problems for any utopian community, a category in which I think EN World rightfully belongs.
As a publisher, I feel like words alone won't do. There are ways everyone at EN World can support this community, like donating and posting messages that encourage and show gratitude for the people who make it possible. Publishers do more to create problems for Morrus; how can we do more in return, taking advantage of our unique role?
One way Morrus's rant mentions is linking to EN World via our websites. It's true that no one publisher's site matches the volume of traffic that EN World refers to us, but every bit counts, so it's something all of us should do.*
Another way would be to mention or thank EN World in our products. This would be especially valuable for print products, since these might reach people who aren't aware of the Web's greatest resources. Behemoth3 already has a "B3 Recommends" in our Horde Books (which is an active hyperlink in the PDF edition); EN World should have been mentioned there all along, and I'll fix the mistake in the next set of books.**
Other ideas about how publishers can make unique contributions?
- Tavis
* Full disclosure: while the B3 links page gives a link to EN World, it's not up on our site yet; will remind Nat the webmaster about it now!
** I very consciously don't want to use this as a self-promotional opportunity. Morrus is right; you don't need any more stuff.
