Goldman Sachs meets Demand Media

I have been playing games on a web site called Grab.com for almost 3 years. I liked it well enough to go "gold", which with a $20 fee yearly, gives me extra benefits such as being able to post more pictures, the occasion to test beta games, & other little perks. Grab has recently been purchased by Richard Rosenblatt and Demand Media, and what used to be a wonderful game site is now an inferior product, which is something a man like Mr. Rosenblatt shouldn't want to have happen.
The Grab site no longer resembles the site I loved so well. A new look and new games were introduced all at once, and the site is FILLED with glitches, bugs, whatever you'd like to call them. They have added 4 new games, and for that have increased the $20 yearly fee to double that-its $40 now, & there's not $40 worth of product there.
1)Games that we used to be able to challenge each other on no longer allow challenges. This is not intentional-its one of the issues. Even the 4 new games he's basing the price increase on sometimes allow us to challenge each other, and sometimes don't. Not dependable.
2)The new games he values so much are full of bugs. On one called Gold Miner, when you score big by snagging a diamond, the claw then jerks violently the other way, causing you to lose whatever else you may have picked up.
3)The games do not have full lettering. On challenges, it used to give the winner and scores. Now if you're lucky you get "winner" with "score underneath-no names or scores-just the 2 words! Very unhelpful!
4)One of the nice features of grab was the ability of members to chat on screen in the particular game we played-that too has become hit or miss-maybe one day you can chat, the next day you can't. Unreliability is NOT good!
5) Another feature is the Grab Mart, where we can exchange "grabbles", the currency of the games, for odd little items to buy, such as virtual tvs, stereos, cars, plants, balloons, dream catchers, thank you cards, etc. Some items had an expiration date, others were supposed to be PERMANENT. Not now-the items disappear after a day or 3, even those that are supposed to be yours as long as you have an account. The members who are spending their own grabbles to get these goodies are not always reimbursed.
6)WE used to be able to see mutual friends when we'd visit another user's profile. That has been taken away, along with an easy way to calculate how many grabbles we win. Some of the games are now awarding grabbles on a hit or miss basis, when there are set rules as to when they should be awarded.
7)Many users are now having problems with downloading pictures and captions for them to the site. That wasn't a problem before.
8)Sometimes the escape key works when trying to close a window in the site-other times it doesn't. Again, what happened to the reliability?
9)Our $20 "Gold" memberships have been upgraded to "VIP" and will cost $40 to renew-if you're lucky. Many of the "Gold/VIP" members have, to their shock, been listed as "free" members, which limits the perks the members are paying to use when they go "Gold (or Vip, as its now called".
10)Our ability to see the ages of those we talk to in Grab has been taken away. Many of us adults do not wish to talk to children.
11)They have changed the resolution in Grab. I have a newer computer, but not everyone does, and the change has affected their ability to see all of the screen.
12)And to be told by one of the staff that "maybe you shouldn't be on here so much then" when trying to get a problem resolved is BAD business. A staff member told another user that "you always complain about everything". Professional, huh? Again, another member ready to leave at expiration of her membership and staff's exact words were "sse ya, goodbye"-why are they encouraging paying members to leave? Another woman had a problem and said she was considering not renewing her VIP membership and another staff member told her "goodbye"-is THAT how Mr. Rosenblatt wants business done? Just telling the paying customers to go away because there's always a new crop of customers growing up isn't the way to run ANY business, from a web site to a dry cleaners!
13)We had the ability to set blog censoring to off or on, depending on what we wanted to read. Now it skips back and forth without any input from us. If I set it, I want it to REMAIN at that setting!
14)Results of tournaments no longer sent through our regular email, as before. We WOULD like to know the status of tourneys we join.
15)The "new and improved" Grab should have been released as a beta product, and membership fees should not have gone up until ALL of the many issues have been cleared up. What I've listed are but a small example of the actual number of complaints.
I have compiled a list of game sites that look quite interesting. I'm middle aged, have some physical disabilities that make getting around difficult, so the games are a way to pass the time. There are a large number of women(& men) like me on here, the users are not all teenagers. Those of us who play Grab are loyal to the site-or WERE loyal. Mr. Rosenblatt expected too much from too few programmers, and as a result a very good product has been relegated to the ho-hum, so what category. If THIS is what he does to all of the companies he takes over, then I predict its going to come back and bite him in the keister.....you don't fix something that isn't broke, and you take care not to break other things in the process. Shame on you, Mr. Rosenblatt. There should be some way to get in touch with him to let him know about the high dissatisfaction rate in Grab, but nope-the rank and file aren't good enough for him to be bothered with.