wintermute-psych team mailing list archive

[SII <dante.ashton@xxxxxxxxxx>]

>
> I have spent most of the day wondering how to phrase this email, in a
> polite manner. Let me explain what has happened...
>
> It seems we have been at the center of another
> strange political...occasion. As we have a couple of new members who are
> not familiar with our history, I will include a brief history here. This
> is simplified and does not go into much detail.
>
> *When we started the SII, the Wintermute project (led by me)  was working
> with the SpeechControl project (led by Manuela Popping; known as 'hajour' in
> IRC.)*
> *A number of incidents, seemingly due to hajour's emotional instablilty,
> caused friction between the two groups, this grew to the point where we, as
> a team, spent more time dealing with her problems, misunderstandings
> and temperament more then we focussed on our work. These problems seem to be
> partly her emotional instability, as well as her less then perfect sense of
> english, (which resulted in many miscommunications) *
> *
> *
> *Obviously, this could not continue; after many episodes, hajour demanded
> 'credit' for her work to the SII. That conversation ended with hajour and
> UndiFineD leaving us (according to Daniel0108, UndiFineD and hajour had been
> under the assumption that the SII and the Wintermute project was a sub-team
> of their team. This was never the case, and none of the SII team members
> have shared this assumption.*
> *
> *
> *Whilst we retained a business relationship with them (sharing information
> between individual members, and having developers and others working in both
> teams)* another incident has occurred that brings myself, Jacky and Phill
> (the three trustees of the SII) to conclude that hajour is attempting to
> hurt us by spreading FUD.
>
> In this case, hajour told Jacky that NRWlion was not to be trusted, she
> apparently saw him at the UDS in Budapest running a Nokia stand, (confirming
> it was him by asking his name and his IRC name) and he was apparently ready
> to siphon information off to Nokia and to lay claim to projects such as
> SpeechControl and and the SII's work on Wintermute. She also suspected
> NRWlion was the hacker who breached UndiFineD's and Jacky's computers. We
> have proved both, through the use of logs and conversations that took place,
> to be false. (log is here: http://pastebin.com/DKs0Vz9y )
>
> She has also claimed that CensoredBiscuit attempted to hack into her
> Facebook accounts and that she has been emailed by Facebook with his
> details. (log: http://pastebin.com/7XaheYPG )
>
> NRWlion's life is not excellent right now, and he was in no way, shape or
> form prepared for this. His life online was his last refuge from the
> troubles in RL. Myself, Jacky and Phillw are, personally speaking, disgusted
> by hajour's actions. They have caused NRWlion, who most certainly did not
> deserve this, to leave us, as he feels he will not escape what was said by
> her.
>
> We do not know Hajour's motivations for this, but we do know they are not
> healthy for anyone. We also know that anyone who continues to work with both
> teams is in danger of being used as a way of attacking us (that is what
> we perceive these attacks as, if FUD is injected and the bonds of trust and
> friendship are broken, then we have nothing.)
>
> The end result of this is, unfortunately, a sad one; we want
> to separate entirely from hajour, as we feel she is either spreading FUD, or
> has issues which is beyond the scope of people here to help her with. All we
> know is she is spreading lies, for one reason or another, and this must be
> stopped, before she hurts more people.
>
> The separation means that everyone must decide where their loyalties lie.
> If you support hajour, by all means, leave the SII and continue with your
> work, and myself, Phill and Jacky wish you the best of luck in your
> future endeavours.
>
> If, however, you wish to remain with the SII, we ask you to remove all
> connections to the SpeechControl project. Until something is done about
> hajour, us (the trustees) do not want anyone working with us to be harmed,
> as has happened in NRWlion's case.
>
> I am considered to be the TL of this project; and I find transparency is
> the only thing that leads to good leadership. If you have any questions
> about the SII, or the SII's decision, you are perfectly free to email me and
> ask them and express concern.
>
>
> I leave you to make your choice,
>
>
>