A few years ago I ran across the phrase "rigtard" in the poker community to describe people who think online poker is rigged and continue to play. They go around to message boards and blogs and rant and rave about how the game is rigged (because they can't win) but they continue to keep playing. Somehow the word rigtard seemed so fitting.

So when I saw someone from one of the largest SEO (search engine marketing) sites use the phrase "freetard" I was fairly intrigued. It may have been coincidence or maybe Buddha was involved in some way but I ran across this reference shortly after this site's relaunch.

This is what one of the most respected SEO websites has to say:

Freetards ACT like they have paid you and want the benefits of your services without paying a cent.

And I think we've seen some of that since the relaunch. People who have been members on TF for 3 - 7 years, never purchased a Premium Membership, never posted a single journal/blog post, never made a comment in the message boards all of a sudden coming out of nowhere to express their dislike of the new TF.

Now, it's not that I'm so sensitive that I can't take some negative feedback. In fact, I've tried to address people's concerns whenever they've pointed out something. In fact, just last night someone suggested that putting the ability to rate a blog post at the bottom of the blog post rather than at the top would make it easier since you're already at the end of the post when you're ready to post. Bam! Ten minutes later their was a voting option at the end of each blog post.

And I can understand that some things might be confusing. Where we can, we're trying to un-confuse things via better messaging, putting things where people are most likely to look, etc.

But some things simply needed to change. Way back in the early 2000's most of the internet agreed that "Blog" was a better name than "Journal". The fact that TF stuck with Journals despite everyone else calling them Blogs is just one example of why this newest update was not just about installing some new software. It was in many ways a bringing TF from a 2003 mindset into a 2011 mindset.

Of course that's going to throw some people off. It's going to frustrate a few people who are used to things being a certain way. But that's expected. And Rob, myself, and the Moderators are doing everything we can to help answer those questions. In chat, via PM, on the message boards, in forums, and even face to face over a few beers.

But what I don't get are the freetards. There seems to be a correlation between the more someone has gotten out of the site for free and the level of profanity, threats, and rudeness. Some of the feedback we get from freetards is quite amazing. Their sense of entitlement seems to know no bounds.