Exactly the first thought I had. I started into MUDs back in '98 (high school) with CarnageMUD and even worked with some of the immorts there on a VB-based MUD. We poured so many hours into that and the project eventually fell apart because we figured, "who's into MUDs these days?" When WoW hit, I felt vindicated. Then, just a few months ago, my brother tells me he's playing this text-based online game called Mob Boss or something.
I gotta think one of the keys here is that our MUDs were fantasy-based and these more successful MUDs are crime-based.
Are you sure? I don't know if this applies in the world of startups, but in the broad world of "business", having a pigheaded belief in your own talent is almost necessary.
I don't see why it wouldn't be an asset for a startup founder to be brimming with confidence in his own product.
I wonder how much those spammers make per bogus listing. If it's more than what legit advertisers make per listing then charging per listing will only drive out the good guys or, at best, do nothing. If it's not, charge somewhere in the middle and, voila, problem solved.
I guess the reality is, you can only have a spamerless site when all your users are more lucrative than spammers.
Anyway, even if it would result in higher profits, CL would not be interested. Because they're not interested in driving up their profits.
I gotta think one of the keys here is that our MUDs were fantasy-based and these more successful MUDs are crime-based.