Mine for what it's worth.....
Way back when, I built a free site that had about 20 galleries, stories, adult Gif's the works. I subbed it to a member of this board, who rejected it with the line 'this is not a free site'. ????????? I thought, it is surely free? Well yes it was, a free 'site', but it wasn't a 'free site' as defined by LLs. I scratched my head, shrugged my shoulders and gave up. One wasted year later I found out what a 'free site' was, as opposed to a free 'site'. Two different animals entirely.
First thing you have done correctly is come and ask, I wish to fuck I had and gotten in a year earlier, nothing wrong in asking, if you don't, you won't know. It's all too easy to get 'aggressively defensive' if that's even possible, it's human nature, attack or run. But.... sometimes doing neither is the option, and saying hmmm, ok, so what do I need to do here to resolve this issue. Some people will answer you in a more 'direct' manner than others, don't take it to heart.
Take the advice given, Torn gave a definition of a 'free site' as defined by Link Lists, _that_ is what you need to be building, either to feed sponsors, or your own hub, which is what you have there.
"Not "help" from a competitor." = not a wise thing to say, this board, no, in fact this entire
industry is just about the only business where all the competition will help each other so freely. You wont find 'uber secrets' being dished out, but you will find a massive amount of info that can and WILL make you money if you follow the advice given by the majority of webmasters.
"What's his other complaint? We're different from the other sites?
GOOD!
I want us to stand out from the crowd." Sure you do, but LL owners don't. They want their sponsors to stand out from the crowd, they want their (submitted) free sites to give the surfer, especially bookmarkers, what they are used to, and why the keep coming back.
Trust me, LL owners love quality submitters that make good clean sites that follow the rules, and in the LL and free sites for LLs game, that means following the accepted standard.
Good luck
