While a source aligned with you said about it on YT: "They didn’t even give time for ANYONE to offer help. They jumped the gun immediately." in response to my inquiry as to whether the situation could have been resolved by an offer of help to them. Rational decisions are the last thing emotionally reactive people will do in a given situation when cornered. To imply that distrust would simply go away like that is frankly naive yet understandable viewpoint.
Regarding Mikhael Blur's blunder, all avenues of discussion were open at the time where we initially rejected the submission for containing Sonic1983's work. Charyb and Mikhael were even DMing each other about it before that happened.
Mikhael had all the time in the world to bring up those circumstances (health issues, large dependence of the Russian community on Sonic1983's work, etc) or even seek someone else's help but instead, he chose to lie. Irrational as it may be, it is not on us that he chose to act like that, and the fact that they distrusted Mystic has nothing to do with it (and it could've been brought up as well if it somehow did). Your logic
does not follow.
What's more, they have brought up Mystic when discussing their hatred for you multiple times, which implies the opposite, repercussions from the Old Guard's abuse of power being thrown in your face.
This means nothing but that they both hate Mystic and us, for some reason. You actually have to have evidence of any correlation.
I also know through other sources, most importantly being around when it happened, that you also had to fix the site & deal with hacker attacks on it as well. So once again, not convinced.
srb2.org and adjacent have been victim of targeted attacks a couple of times lately, and whoever the responsible party may be, that still has nothing to do with Mystic because, again, no evidence has come forth corroborating so. We have nothing to "convince" you of.
In fact, I feel bad for you for it, probably even worse knowing that you had no idea about them holding a grudge and thus no idea how to deal with that situation properly as a result as a community. That outburst of Motor Roach that got leaked on YT by the content maker aligned with WS implies that this is not as much of "business as usual" as you would have me believe, as he's clearly stressed about the situation based on the screenshots.
Any unspoken grudges someone may have had towards Mystic do not justify rule-breaking or otherwise unacceptable behavior inside the community and will still be punished accordingly. It is simply not our problem to deal with because,
again, we removed him, we are not affiliated with him, and are doing our best to distance ourselves from the way he used to run things.
If we are somehow failing to uphold this, you're free to point out how.
You both do realize that considering the situation surrounding the MB vs WS having sharp tones of "if you're not with me, you're against me", that is the worst move I could make, because what's stopping you from trying anything while we discuss it within said DMs? In fact, your moderator buddy tried to do that last time, Sev, implying mutual distrust. What internet has taught me is sincerity often gets exploited & punished in situations like these. That is why I want my initial dealings with you to be seen by the public eye as well, for transparency's sake. I am forced to do this now, much like how I am forced to take this tone, because the situation demands that sort of serious tone.
I'm actually sorry that you see it that way, but I think the situation is completely one-sided. We have no qualms with SRB2 communities alternate to the official, and they do not pose any sort of threat to us either. All there is to it is that some people from there broke rules in their time here, were banned for it, and are hostile to us since. As Sev just put it, we're adults with jobs and have no time to wage internet wars against teenagers.
We value transparency just as much, so if it makes you more comfortable to discuss your grievances in public, feel free to do it right here! I'm actually curious about what evidence you might have and we will gladly share whatever we can as well.
This is also why I'm currently investigating the matter on my own. To quote myself from that same YT discussion: "In that case, neither you nor them will tell me the full truth of what happened. I will thank you for indulging whatever information you had regardless." Those reports don't tell me WHY they would do it or WHY all these human variables behaved the way they did, the only way I'm gonna get that is if I speak with the people themselves regardless of the side they're associated with and put those pieces together. And from what I've observed, Old Guard's actions have indirectly caused this incident as well.
If by "investigating the matter on your own" means to come in here and post paragraphs of confrontational, ominous wording while the only "evidence" you have is that "they had a grudge with Mystic, thus it's all connected," then pardon the thought: you are a terrible investigator.
You investigate things by asking questions to your target, and refuting false answers to those questions with evidence. What you've been doing so far is just making wild statements with no regard for what our answers may be or what facts we're presenting to you, which at its best is conspiratorial fearmongering and at worse bad faith slander.
Needless to say, the latter we do not tolerate, so I recommend being in your best form starting now.
