I don't think people are trying to snark/crush/sarcasm your idea to death. Theres something there. You have a name.
But you're asking people for money without a roadmap. You have some responsibility to the donors to at least try to plan so the site doesn't die within 6 months.
I have a roadmap for the first year. It's gotten easier as people have come forward to help with things for free. I'm not going to make the goal. I always knew that. What I need to know is what amount of money I have and calibrate from there. It's hard to create a business plan when so many things are in flux. I'm trying to be honest about that but it feels like people just want me to blow smoke up their asses.
As for the site staff. I still need to go through all of the applications and pick who is qualified and who isn't but there are atleast 15 people who have asked to write for the site. I have several people helping me with site design. One, you guys know, he goes by Mik on this forum - check out his work in the mock up videogame covers - the man is fucking brilliant with design. As a i mentioned earlier I have two different sociologists that want to contribute from time to time because I think the fact that games being "addictive" being thought of as a good thing is worrying. Or that most mobile games are basically slot machines. Several gaffers want to help. Vince McMahon (formerly sunflower) completely sold me with a PM where he said he had no interest in snark and wanted to do something earnest. I have a professor of english who does not want to be named that will help edit (and we all know I need that). I have a few other 'grammar nerds' that have offered to do the same. This will be a much larger operation than I planned. And every one of these people are doing this for free because they believe in the idea and they are also looking for someone to give them their break. I'm happy to a part of both of those things.
I would love to have an advertising department that has zero contact with me or anyone in creative. As of yet I don't have that person. So google ad-sense it is, for now.
As for resources. Jason, here, is someone I chat with a lot. Owen Good and I are friendly. Pastapadre, who has basically already created this website, but for sports games, is a friend. The co-host of my podcast, Rich Grisham, has been doing freelance work in the industry for a decade. The entire playerone podcast crew, which all worked at various publications, are very good friends. Boogie and I have become fast friends. I also have my industry contacts that beyond giving me "insider info" are good just to bounce ideas off of. I'm surrounded by people much, much, smarter than me.
I also plan on launching the private forum ($15 tier and higher) very soon and will be using all of those people as a sounding board for ideas.
If this thing fails it won't be for a lack of trying. I'm not going to pretend I have all the answers because I don't. But I do think there's a good idea in here and I do believe it can work. If you think it can to and you want to give a few bucks - awesome. If you don't - cool. There will be far more people on this planet that won't donate than do. See... I know some math.