... that their contribution now has to be paid for.
That doesn't seem to be the problem. It's early in still I guess and maybe all is not resolved, but the problem seems to be that the guides (which I and most others would gladly pay some kind of fee) are now just gone and unavailable. Hard to make any money that way if that was the original goal. I wouldn't mind Clay making pretty good coin off the guides. They are superb. But making them disappear does no good for anyone. If done in anger or spite or something, which may not be the case at all - I'm just exampling, then technically that act isn't any good for the "offender" either.
I'm guessing there is a fair bit of complexity to the path that led here. I don't really want or need to know all the details. But IF the guides have been scattered to the ether, then it's just a disappointing shame. Yea I know, they are available through back-door sources, so it's not really gone actually. And I'm working on assembling the collection for my own use anyway.
Strange how these seemingly goofy events pops up so often in the hobby. At least the pinball history books will contain drama and political intrigue. I wonder if the needlepoint or bobblehead collectors have such sagas in their communities.
