Does it mean success when you start getting hate mail?

Obviously you can’t please everyone all the time and, at some point, some of those people might start sending you what equates to hate mail. After close to 10,000 people using XboxFriends, I’ve received what is basically hate mail and I have to tell you it’s very disheartening. I don’t make any money off of XboxFriends. It takes a lot of work and there’s been quite a bit of support from others ranging from words of encouragement (or “suggestions” for improvements), stating that it’s better than any alternative and services and support Server Intellect for hosting. I’ve been willing to make whatever reasonable changes requested of me to improve the overall service being provided. I’ve added forums for communications. I’ve made it so you can go to the website to view a gamer profile. In every step of the way I review what I’m doing against the privacy agreement surrounding your gamer tag. I don’t believe I’m doing anything illegal (or immoral); but low and behold, someone has to come along and accuse me of doing so and is attacking my personal character. Sure, it’s a 1 in 10,000 voice, but it’s always the negative voices that stick in your head. It’s human nature (or at least my experience of such) to hear the negative louder than the positive.

What makes this worse is this guy is completely unwilling to offer any suggestions or willing to discuss changes that could accommodate his concerns. He’s made up his mind and there’s apparently nothing I can do.

I suppose this just means that XboxFriends has reached a certain level of success for these type of guys to come out of the woodwork.

It’s days like this that I really have some sympathy for companies like Microsoft; at least they are getting paid to put up with this sort of crap. ;-)