There was a time when parsing the data files and finding stuff in them was a "leak". Since then, data mining has become something anyone can do with a number of programs, and the only advantage sites like MMO-Champion have is that they have better programs to automatically extract it rather than going through by hand. Blizzard has seen the methods people use and has found better ways to release it in a way that it's no longer easily obtainable, even if the data is essentially in plain sight (e.g., the post Garrosh kill cinematic).
There's also legit leaks in the more traditional sense - that is, things that are intended to be secret that are released to the public by inside sources, or accidents (e.g., a website update that's accidentally updated, someone catches it before it's reverted) -- but as Blizzard has long since learned how valuable information is, they are much more deliberate about how they manage it, and also more liberal about how they release it - if something is inevitably going to be leaked, they no longer attempt to hide it, and instead release it and put their own spin on it from the start rather than having it be discovered, giving discoverer license to give their opinion as the first impression.
Basically, MMO-Champ didn't get worse at releasing leaks, Blizzard got better at not having leaks.
You're confusing "leak" with "small tidbit of information disclosed to a select few sites immediately before an official announcement in order to force the community to pay attention."
MMO Champion has never leaked anything.
Not to interfere with the conversation but discussing moderation or specific moderators is out of bounds for the thread and off-topic in any case since it has nothing to do with leaks.
If you have issues with moderation generally or a moderator specifically please send a PM to an admin. Thanks.
"...money's most powerful ability is to allow bad people to continue doing bad things at the expense of those who don't have it."
I'm on this site for many years now and it was a well known that Bibi knows people from Blizzard that shared Alpha and Beta Informations with him. That what mad MMO Champ the #1 Site for WoW news. Faster than any other site out there. If you want untextured alpha models from internal versions you found them here. But this started to change with WotlK. They had the Familie and Friends Alpha Patchnotes and then Blizz contacted them and asked them to remove them:
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...-Rating-Comics
At that time it was prefered to post leaks from other sources in the forums to make sure it's not MMO who is to blame. This went on until Cataclysm.
When we got leaks of the Familie and Friends Beta showing the new Stormwind:
http://www.gameinformer.com/cfs-file...2D00_610x0.jpg
Blizzard contacted Bibi and asked not to share Internal/Alpha/NDA-protected Data. They agreed to avoid legal problems and since then all we get are datamines from non-NDA violating PTR Files.
Here is the news from the day this happened:
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...from-the-site/
2010-05-12 Boubouille: "Blizzard asked us to remove all the content from the Cataclysm Alpha on the site. I don't have any reason or project to be an internet superhero because none of the underwear I have look nice over my pants and I'm in the process of removing all the content from the site."
Since that was the second time this happened MMO Champ have become very strict against posting NDA violating material, even in their forums and about other non-Blizzard games.
Atoms are liars, they make up everything!
What was the information/leak that all the other sites, like Curse, did not reveal while mmo-champ did? That was when this became the clear #1 site for WoW. I remember it cost them relations to Blizzard, and mmo-champ was not invited to the press dinner while every other major fan site was. Other fan sites at the dinner got some crappy ass PR information from Blizzard while mmo-champ had won the top site race by giving the real unedited info to the masses. I think it was around TBC.
All good things come to an end though.
When did they sell off? To who? I missed something.
Actually, besides MMO Champ, what is the next best fan site for MMO, Ten Ton Hammer?
PTR was for people who were REALLY REALLY into the game, we didnt have devs workin as close to MMO as the do now, its not that they stopped leaking, its that things go thrown out to the masses for you to read more, and not have to be discovered in a PTR.