As we sit back and let this all play out, it seems to us that this drama is a symptom of a greater problem.
Tapas needs to take some time to invest in its staff-community relationship.
Yes we can understand creators getting upset about this language in the ToS. We flipped out weeks ago when it was first announced, went through the various phases of grief, and then decided to just live with it for the time being. As we pointed out, Tapas would have to subpoena our records to try to enforce such language and there's no way they would invest the time and resources in doing that. A big thanks as well to @elixiadragmire and @Louistrations for commiserating with us during that time.
Ultimately we decided it was a paper tiger. A paper tiger that has been since removed, regardless of intent.
Anyhow, as we mentioned above, this "blow out" are signs of a deeper issue.
If the patient comes in with facial pain you just don't assume there's an abscess and render a root canal or extract a tooth. What if it is a sinus infection? Trigeminal Neuralgia? Periodontal disease? No, you diagnose the problem and render appropriate treatment.
The patient is obviously in pain. Staff needs to get out the stethoscope and take a listen.
Staff has been incredibly busy. They've been balls to the wall hard on getting the open book publishing feature going for months now. It's time they consider taking a day off and just connect with the community. The CEO used to have video "State of the Union" speeches. There used to be a weekly podcast. By not investing in having an ongoing connection with the community, things have become this fragmented and have reached this level of distrust.
Staff should really take a beat to pause and do something were everyone can come to the table, voice their concerns, and feel like they are being heard. The Forums are intensely time inefficient. Instead they should consider doing some sort of open video forum where the CEO gets up, takes questions passed from Michael, Jessica, and Gabby monitored by a live feed and has an open dialogue with the community on where things are going and what improvements for the better need consideration.
A little bit of dialogue will do a massive amount of goodwill for all.