Truth... It's really very simple... his fear of failure was stronger than his will to succeed.
When you fear something very strongly, you tend to take such severe actions to keep it from happening, that the actions themselves cause it to become a reality.
If this isn't making sense, let me tell you more.
In May 2006, when WP opened it's doors the second time, Ray had already failed once and the thought of failing twice was first and foremost on his mind. Incidently, I truly believe that the timing of WP's opening last spring and the onslaught of sellers due to the eBay fee increase was simply a coincidence. I don't believe the owner of WP has the foresight to see this coming. The reason I don't is because he certainly didn't have enough business sense to keep us there once we got there.
Through this onslaught, angry sellers came badmouthing ebay and I certainly am able to lay claim to that myself. Many stores opened, sometimes 20 a day, sometimes 10 a day but the numbers kept climbing. The forums were all abuzz about this idea and that idea... relationships began forming and friendships were made. I feel like I am one of the lucky ones because I got to keep my friendships here on TT that I made there. It probably seemed to Ray to be 'too good to be true' but the sellers kept coming, the forums kept buzzing, the spammers kept spamming and Ray got TONS of free advertising.
During this rapid growth, seller to seller sales were made and only a handfull of sellers noticed that there was a definite lack of buyers that were not if fact, sellers. Certain sellers started questioning this and many got slammed so hard by fellow sellers that either they left quietly, stood their ground and argued and stayed, or fought til they couldn't fight anymore and left. Cheerleaders (myself included) were blinded by $9.95 because compared to eBay this was a real bargain. But where were the buyers? Ray was getting paid so he didn't care if buyers came... and he still doesn't... but he should have... and he should now.
When advertising questions came up, the poster was told that they didn't want to advertise an empty venue but compared to now, the shelves were VERY full. These questions at first were dismissed by other sellers in Ray forums as one would flick a crumb from their shirt. Then the posts began disappearing and constant reminders of forum etiquette began being posted and emailed to the offenders. To make myself clear... the post asking the "business" question was deleted and the poster was reprimanded... the posters that replied and told them that they sold junk and that was why they had no buyers were not reprimanded... they were agreed with by the owner of the site.
Ray feared criticism and feared that these questions would lead to others questioning him so he started deleting posts. By doing this, he lost the real business minded people on the site first. Those that refused to give money to someone who clearly had no interest in their concerns whatsoever. Then to be chastized for wanting to know their business plan and advertising timelines was ludicrous. What business-person wouldn't want to know that information. He lost the "fence sitters" next.. those sellers who wanted to be sure that leaving WP was the right thing to do and it took them longer to decide. Some of those people are now here posting on TT and are upset that they stayed so long. Those that are left on WP now are staying for either of two reasons... one, they are making money with sales or two, they just don't get it.
By fearing criticism, Ray created it in abundance... this TT thread is clear proof of that.
Deleting posts and reprimanding customers is not the way to build loyalty and trust. WP has always claimed to be a trust-based community but the one person making the claim has proven himself to be the least trustworthy of them all. Ray fears failure and because of this fear, he has treated his customers with disrespect, rudeness and fingerpointing. He always claimed that anyone asking these questions was breeding negativity. The cheerleaders still make these claims that we are negative... we are not negative as those of us who have started our own sites will tell you. WP was a stepping stone. For some of us it was our first experience of selling online out of the ebay realm. Now we have our own sites and want others to follow suit so as to put more money in their own pockets rather than someone elses. How can that possibly be negative?
A much more advantageous and trustworthy way to deal with questions of all types is to first, acknowledge the question, repeat it back to the questioner to be sure that you understand it, answer the question if possible and say you don't know if you don't know. I asked an advertising question and was sent a nasty email about forum etiquette. To this day, I don't understand why this was such a big deal. But I was not treated as a business owner, I was treated like a child who had just stolen a piece of candy. That made me mad and I left and took my inventory with me. He could have acknowledged my concerns and given me information. He chose to ridicule me and any other seller that he felt was being "negative".Â
Ray created failure because that is what he feared the most. He still doing it today and he probably will continue to do that until WP closes it's doors forever. Now his sellers are leaving, he's deleted posts and censored his forums almost to the point of extinction and he's probably only a couple of months away from the culmination of his fear of failure... the failure itself.
Sorry this is so long... I don't usually carry on so much but it needed to be said.
Oh and Ray... thanks for being such a nimrod... I wouldn't have my store if you weren't.Â
 I'm curious to hear the responses on this one... I'd love to hear someone call him on it.