>>66244
"Why even bother making it a website?"
That's a fair point. Your later suggestion of TFGamesSite would be ideal. Something to help discoverability and allow for discussion. I keep saying "NSFW itch.io" for short hand, but you summed it up nicely, though itch.io doesn't have the best arrangement for discussion.
The "main site" would address a lot of those issues, but (not to disparage Grot's efforts) its unlikely that will happen any time soon unless Grot hires outside help.
Honestly, in lieu of that, a simple searchable site with user-supported tags would help. Could even set it up to link to topics in WGing so people could see the discussion.
>>66268
No denying that. The second round of failure did prompt the "wait, I think I suck at this." In fairness, that was (if I recall correctly) just Grot and our's money, as patreon funds subsidize hosting costs leaving us in the red before we even get to ancillary items. Doesn't excuse me rubber stamping it though.
To the other posts:
The project of WGing (without scummy practices) will almost never make a profit for reasons outlined here and elsewhere. One option I've suggested (and was attempted, but was yet another failed venture) was to have a flagship game developed entirely by WGing that helps support the site. Some subscription game that at least gives the people donating some tangible benefit other than a pat on the back for throwing money into the hosting void.
That or deals with devs with paid games, such that support for WGing would also give you a key to a list of games.
As to
>>66199
I actually agree, there's an issue here. I was going to point out complaining here doesn't fix the issue, and that I generally am not in the camp of policing defunct patreon/subscription links (that the onus is on the consumer to research the topic first).
But the core problem is the consumer has no place, other than here and other scattered chans and smaller forums, to actually DO that research. If you make a claim that a project is a scam, whether legitimately or not, there's a non-zero chance the post will get deleted on WGing.
This isn't necessarily 100% to protect the content creator (its mostly just to keep things on topic), but that is a factor as they don't want to chase away devs. This leaves the users (and mods, for that matter) in a bad spot, one that I'm not sure how they're going to navigate as the site inevitably attracts more scams and grifters.
And yes, I know its easy for me to criticize the site now that I have no real stake in it, but I do still want it to succeed for most users.