OK thanks for the straight-up response. It does seem increasing clear from the poll here that the majority of players disagree with this change, but as you quite rightly said 'this is not a democracy', and considering it's abso-farking-lutely free for us to play, we can't expect to have much sway in what happens on slothMUD, unfortunately - that's one thing that has not changed in the years I have been here - basically if we don't like the changes, we are welcome to go **** ourselves (if you've seen the movie 'Departed' you'll know I meant that in jest).
Yes, the mud is waaay easier to level up now than it used to be, I'll give you that, but it's also far more complex, which is good to a point, just don't overdo it as, imho, while it increases the challenge for seasoned players, it can be information overload for newbies and drive them away - that's purely theory of course, I have no statistical data to back it up for you.
Please don't turn this into a reality-based RPG though - I believe that is one of the reasons players keep coming back.
And yeah Splork, Dweb was one of the areas I was thinking of - fortunately there's been some solid groups running around SS lately, which possibly contributed towards this change.