Guess it doesn't matter now. I've degraded both myself and what maybe one day could have been a good mod.
Mistake made - absolutely. But only because I went about it the wrong way. I needed to pull the mod, as I said, for other reasons as well. As a consequence I've ruined my relationship with so many dedicated fans. I did this for them, not for me, and they are all left wondering wtf happened. I get that. I will never gain their trust again. I get that too.
My final reward for my effort is disgrace, but I'm not an ungrateful swine. I truly care about the community, and to be called that means the caller truly doesn't know me.
No.
Not "what maybe one day could have been a good mod" -- what today
is a good mod.
"I needed to pull the mod, as I said, for other reasons as well." -- Then state so. The only "big mistake" was to have the thread not just locked, but still visible, but actually "deleted"; the rest of us cannot read it, and cannot understand what happened.
Get the mods to un-delete the thread.
Post in there a statement that you have some other, personal reason (or whatever) for removing it.
Decide if you want the mod to be distributable in the current form, but with no more planned updates, or outright not distributed at all.
And keep in mind: There are copies out there. People did download it. This is the internet -- right or wrong, some people will distribute copies without permission.
"I've ruined my relationship with so many dedicated fans. I did this for them, not for me, and they are all left wondering wtf happened." -- We are wondering wtf. So tell us. You did not ruin the relationship. Sour? Perhaps. Ruin? No. Doing nothing might result in ruin; stepping in to explain why it was pulled will not.
Will Microsoft commit a PR time bomb? Sadly, the odds are yes. (*). Do you want to say "Pulled, no one else may distribute", as a way of saying that even Microsoft cannot use it? Fine, but I have no idea if that'll work or not. Since you're not 1.8 compatible, it probably will be sufficient.
"My final reward for my effort is disgrace" -- Not in my eyes.
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(*): A "corporation" is a legal wrapper around a pile of resources, and some people who have authority to use those resources without the consequences of their actions. As such, they tend to take actions without considering the repercussions -- their only legally required objective is to attempt to make money. In the USA, where most of Microsoft takes place, the people who make the decisions about what to do with those resources cannot even be held accountable for those decisions -- we've made the stupid decision that it is the resources that have decided to do something, and we only sue the resources, not the people.
The only point here is that someone will have the authority to try to make more money off of Minecraft, and they will see the idea of "lots of plants" -- there are a lot of mods that add plants now -- and see one mod that does it better than the rest, and an EULA that lets Microsoft do whatever with it. We have no control over that person, or even if it is a "vote" of two out of three on the board.
Odds are that someone will say "This will make things better". Even if there is a person in charge of preventing a PR nightmare, someone may suggest the idea to that person, who in turn says "Do it".
