Anti-Sean said:
I didn't see their gnome comments directed at you a while back as being mean spirited or intended to insult you at all; it seemed to me like light-hearted & playful recognition of your involvement in the community. I can think of plenty of DDM fans who would have been glad to get a shout-out like that from the developers.
While they later assured us that the "Take that, K", wasn't directed at me, but at some D&D NPT from some old module or something (some mad gnome who wanted to take over the world or something), it did not seem playful to me at all.
Such a shout-out might be nice, but instead of jokes like that, I would have liked an answer to my question(s). I didn't ask for gnome figures just once, and I wasn't the only one to ask. As far as I know it was the only issue that took over a year (and some nasty spelling) to get an answer.
So next time, they can make some playful jokes as much as they want - as soon as they give me an answer to my questions (not that we didn't even get "sorry, can't answer that").
Often, the difference between some playful teasing and insulting someone is how you treat him otherwise and in what state he is when you address him. If you're ignoring his questions except to make jokes of it, and if he's already somewhat angry at you for not answering him, you can guess that your "playful jokes" are more likely to be taken as ridicule and insults.