I
Faking
Love
The Mining Barge changes. I love them to death, and all night long.

There was, though, an unfortunate side effect. This didn't effect all miners, because some people were aware of these changes ahead of time. But, some of us were not. Like me. Cause I just don't like reading forums, seriously that's it.

The side effect is what you bought before, and now what it does and is worth.

On the subject of worth: while the price of a Hulk is so far unchanged, the price of a Skiff or Mackinaw have essentially blown the roof off of their previous limits and into high orbit. (Especially dat Skiff, from under 50 to over 200 as of right now!) So any players that just happened to have one of these ships gained a huge net worth while Hulk players gained nothing, essentially a loss. (Unless I missed the part in the patch notes where it says all Skiff owners now take on a 150million ISK debt to CONCORD.)

On the subject of purpose: everybody wanted dat Hulk. Whether you were going it solo or in a group, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it was most commonly sought after. But now people that wanted it because it was tankier or could hold more have been overshot by ships that were cheaper.

Personally, I don't think it's right to benefit or punish people just because they didn't or couldn't find the patch information before its release. And since I've seen a fair amount of surprise, noticed that not every single EVE player is on the forums, and never got an email a week ago detailing all the changes I don't think the "This has been posted at the county records office for over a year!" excuse is going to work. I had to go into a basement, damnit!

I would propose that for the next week, or some future finite time period, CCP should give all EVE players the option to trade any one mining barge for any one other mining barge. But only one, and only once. This remedies the issue of losing the purpose you bought our ship for or replaces the market value you could have gained.

I will now begin to mentally prepare myself for the oncoming shitstorm of people telling me how this ruins the veterancy system or some other crap. :P

EDIT:
Lemme just put what I would up saying farther down up here as well

I have no actual issue with the changes.
I have no actual issue with people being able to profit from the patch.
I have no actual issue waiting to but a new rig later on.
I do think there could have been better ways to handle this, I was suggesting one and why I felt that way.
You're all taking my suggestion like I'm making a demand, I am not. If I'm making it seem that way I apologize.

EDIT2:
Clearly the community is vehemently against my suggestion, and I'm not afraid to admit defeat.
So ... yeah. Obviously it was a bad idea. :P