Yeah, that projection is part of his charming personality, don'cha know? He tends to apply his opinions in a way that makes it seem like everyone shares it. Ergo, because he somehow couldn't comprehend "don't attempt to commercialize a fanmade project", he believes no one else will and feels obligated to give "advice". So yes, he expects people will commit the same mistakes he did.
The thing is, this sentiment is not foreign to western fan circles. Western fanwriters and fanartists understand the unspoken rule that the line between cute homage and potential legal threat that needs to be quashed lies on the commercialization. Only the most zealous of rights holders have gone after groups for merely referencing their IP, and there's been more than a few examples where fans have secured licenses to IPs for making fanworks usually with the stipulation that any money over x gets royalties or that they can't sell it for more than cost. Most are more than willing to work with fangroups, to the point of even donating their own tools or expertise to help out. He really is in the minority of minorities to think that just because ZUN didn't directly state he couldn't do it, he was free to do whatever he wanted with it. Everyone else who's a fancreator in any fandom understands fully the importance of creative control staying with the actual creator, along with the legal rights that go along with it.
The whole point of a fanwork is to make it for the love of the fandom, not to cash in on the members of that fandom. FSS immediately shifted his motives to the latter when he pushed for crowdfunding. Whether it was before or after he saw the money come in, only he could tell us, but regardless his actions afterwards made it clear it stopped being a fanwork after that. Nobody begrudges people who want to make a bit of profit, or at least cover the costs of their time and effort to make fanworks. As someone who now spends the vast majority of their con income in the artists alley, I find greater joy in supporting independent artists who make fanart and stuff of the things I love than buying commercialized crap. Most of my plushies are fan plushies, and I have tons of prints I've purchased (and need to frame and hang up :[).
Nobody was trying to tell him he couldn't monetize his project, just that he couldn't commercialize it. ZUN has legit concerns about digital distribution and whether he retains IP rights or not, and it doesn't help that the laws tend to be very vague on that. Plus doujins are meant to be a do everything yourself affair, including the point of sale, and it feels... scummy... to resort to crowdfunding to support an idea before a product is even made. We shouldn't do that to our own, and that's what hurt the most.
It was the amount of "minor" insulting that got me. Calling him an idiot, copious use of swearwords by actual authorities here, and the general "you're going to fail and this project is bullshit" downer statements shoved onto him. Not like "go die in a fire you fucking scum of the earth, I will find you and kill you" stuff that happens elsewhere on the internet. But whatever.
People are free to give criticism, and I agree I find more of the debbie downer type comments not useful, but at the same time people should be free to voice their opinions on it. As far as the harsh language though, that didn't come out until it became obvious that he was being a knucklehead. Tensions were high for legitimate reasons, he was doing a lot of potential harm to not only himself, but the WTC in general with his actions, and when he stopped listening to reason, and ignored pleas and more polite methods, harsher things tend to come out.
That being said, I've looked over the posts and 1) several mods actively monitored the thread and stepped in when things were getting truly hairy, and 2) the only actual swearwords I've found were from Edible in a PM to him and to be frank at that point I would have said the same thing. As far as the staff response to the situation I'm not sure how it could have been any more calm and professional than it was. I'm a very polite person unless you've actively annoyed me to the point where I have to punish you directly. Don't expect kid gloves at that point.
Also staff members are just as much members of the community as everyone else, and unless they're specifically acting in an official fashion (aka actually moderating), what they say is their own opinions, and I'm not in the business of regulating what people can and can't say. Hell, I wouldn't be admin if I suddenly had to watch every little thing I said lest it get construed as an official MotK stance (doesn't stop people from doing that, but I digress...). This is a volunteer op. None of us get paid to do this. We run the community as members of the community for the community, and while we tend to put on hats such as moderator or ambassador, we also are still members of this community.
