It's about trust, Moana. Making absolute statements and then changing them does not build it. They have to be vague.
This is a MUTUAL relationship. Not a dictatorship. SOE was burned alive for that style of managment. Blizzard has seen what player revolts can do, and yes, they would be naturally concerned to not have them.
I agree some posters on the forums don't help at all -- especially drivebys (why are they tolerated???). If Blizzard cleared the forums of those alone it would help tremendously, and up the signal to noise ratio. There's some really nasty, and I mean sociopathic, people who post there. If you heard them in vent on top of what they spewed on the forums, yeah, they need to be out of the game itself forget the forums. They hurt the game by hurting people itself. If they can't be nice to even themselves, how can a community expect them to be even sociable to them? BUT, Blizzard bans everyone else and keeps the drivebys...................
So what is there IS Blizzard's fault. They allowed the community and the culture to get to where it is now (on the forums and ingame). They have a very Libertarian view, but we're talking about kids who may come from broken homes who never got any home or social training, and someone besides the Law has to say, "that's not acceptable behavior". There's too much "just because" in this community and ingame. It may have brought everyone possible into WoW to play, but it does little to maintain a healthy community. We're talking BASIC social skills. How to act in groups even. That is how bad it has gotten. It went too far.
It IS a step in the right direction for Blizzard to show by example (because too many of the kids look up to them) what is acceptable behavior. That reply I hope isn't the last, but at the same time, Blizzard too has to accept criticism when necessary, too (not running a dictatorship...as gamers notoriously will buck such control).