I have just removed the 9rules logo from my website. This means I'm no longer a 9ruler. I did it with a bit of pain in my heart because I feel that this blog owes a lot to the 9rules network. However, the network has changed a lot in the past year and is shifting its focus even more as of now. I received the new revised member agreement to which I had to either agree or leave the network containing the following:

Members spoke out about their displeasure concerning members that they never interact with and never hear from, yet all member entries carry the same weight on 9rules, which is not fair. After talking it out in Clubhouse, we made participating either in the private member area or my.9rules a requirement, part of the membership agreement... If you feel you are contributing by your entries being shown, 9rules is no longer a good fit for you, decline the agreement (or do not respond), remove the leaf from your site and we will remove your site from displaying on 9rules. If you agree but don't have the time to interact or don't feel you should (or don't want to), the participation will become a chore, something you didn't want to do in the first place. It just won't work in the long-term so it would be best to decline now...

Let me be clear - participation in either the new member area or my.9rules is required for all members, requested by members.

Tyme White, 9rules

I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. On one hand I really don't want to leave the network because it's been great to be a member, I met interesting people through it and I've always considered it some sort of 'seal of quality' of which I was quite proud. Things however have changed a lot. It's not just about quality blogging anymore. 9rules now wants more from its members.

What started as a network of high quality weblogs has changed into something (IMHO) much more generic and much more community oriented. With the staggering amount of websites that are associated with it nowadays I can't help feeling a bit different about it than I did when my site was accepted as a new member and the network had only 70 or so members. Note that I'm not making any judgement on the quality of the sites that are members at this moment because that would be rude and unfair. All I'm saying is that things simply feel different to me.

This however hasn't ever been a reason for me to even consider leaving 9rules. Until I received Tyme's email I was just as happy to be a member as I was when I first got accepted into the network. Making 'community participation' a mandatory thing however IS a reason for me to leave. As much as I hope the network is making the right choice with this decision it feels 'wrong' to me. And because I know I can't possibly make any promises about how much I will participate in community activities I have decided to take the leaf off my site and move on.

I'd like to hereby thank Scrivs, Tyme, Mike and the other 9rulers for their support and I wish you all the best of luck for the future with the network. It's been an honour!