There have been a lot of accusations thrown around in recent days. We want to set the record straight, to give the truth of what's been going on. Because it seems that there's quite a bit of misinformation, misunderstanding, and misattribution happening.

First of all, remember this. We were here because we wanted to be. We liked this server, this community. So we worked for it. We put in our time, our effort, into making it as good a place as it could be.

A few months ago, Neural was in charge. Bliss was beneath him, and the rest of us under that in a couple of layers. Neural made the decisions, and we did what we could with them. Often these decisions were contradictory, badly explained, or just odd - but we did our best. We disagreed often in private spaces, did what we could to argue for what we saw as better ways. Often - usually - ineffectually. Often being branded as unhelpful or "having a grudge" for speaking up. But in public, we did what we thought best for the server. Tried to hold it together, to apologize for the issues, to explain the decisions, even as often we were scrambling to find out ourselves what was going on.

While this was happening we occasionally had to put out fires related to Neural himself. People coming to the server to pick fights, or to complain about him, or to troll because he ran the place. We accepted that as part of the job, really. It seemed weird, but we dealt with it. Often we'd come online to find things had changed, people had been kicked, or a channel had been muted. We accepted it - it was Neural's server. We were there to help, to assist. We were there for the users, and so we did what we could to make it as good a place as we can given our limited abilities.

Then he left. We, as the top level of mod team, had been discussing it happening. He told us the reason was conflicts of interest between running a large, time-consuming free platform, and managing his content. But had agreed that he'd not leave until a succession plan was in place. That wasn't what happened. He bailed five days earlier than planned, put Aurora in charge, and left us all to clean up the mess. You all saw what he said, it was pinned for a while. We'd been told that maybe he'd come back in a month or two and post his content, but as just another content creator.

So we went along as best we could. Reorganized the mod layers to fix some long-standing issues. Condensed the user conflict management decisions into Sinister and Kitten to avoid the epic semi-public arguments and shit-slinging about each problem user. Delegated roles, opened up the planning of events, started working on what ascension would look like now. What the server needed. We'd like to think we were moving in the right direction.

Then Aurora got messages from Neural that he wanted to come back. This had never been discussed. She wasn't happy, but he wouldn't take no for an answer. She had never been given the impression that her appointment as server owner was temporary. None of us had. Then the Tumblr purge was initiated and Neural apparently panicked - and told Aurora he was taking it back then. Should she have said no? Probably. Was saying yes a mistake? Probably. We make mistakes. We acknowledge that.

So he was back. Aurora was panicking, because suddenly he had the server owner position and hadn't even thought she needed new permissions to do the job she used to. Several of us complained. Questioned. Argued. He *insisted* that he wasn't going to make decisions, that he was there only because... well, he never really said. Because he was worried about being "kicked out of somewhere that he'd put a lot of work into".

We did what we could. We argued. Those of us who were vocal about it have been branded as dissenters, Warren and Sinister in particular. He'd decided they were against him, and therefore they were suspect.

He initially wanted to keep his presence secret. We argued against it. We hated the idea of lying to the users. We hated the idea of being his shield against his own decisions. He agreed to make an announcement declaring his return and be open about it. It was... understated and easily missed. We weren't happy, but again we did what we could to keep things running.

Things continued for a couple weeks. He offered "advice". Kept telling us to kick people more when they were awkward. Told us he wouldn't put up with it if it was his decision - despite the fact that when he was in charge he was paranoid that each ban would lose him money and so wouldn't do it in most cases.

Then things blew up. You saw it. Main got filled with an argument about his presence. We tried to handle it. We were hobbled in that by the fact that good points were made. Yes, he was back. Yes, he'd done it rather less than transparently. But we did what we could, because we wanted the server to thrive. And because, yes Aurora was in charge. Yes he wasn't making decisions.

Wasn't. Because FFT kicked the instigator - despite it not being the understood and agreed upon method for dealing with such things - and was utterly unrepentant of the action. He told us all that he'd do it again, because he felt it was right. Aurora said that she was in charge and that wasn't okay... and Neural backed FFT. FFT is still in the counsel because Neural, in essence, made the decision. And Aurora was temporarily demodded - Aurora, who was "in charge" - by Neural for calling for a vote on FFT's removal.

Then it got worse again. People blew up about the decisions. People posted long rants without all the facts. Neural made more changes and more decisions. It became very apparent that no, this wasn't a community server. No, it wasn't a server where we could all interact peacefully. No, it wasn't bias free. It was what it always was - Neural's server. Where what he wanted mattered more than anything else, and the rest of us were being turned into scapegoats and apologists for his actions.

And so we're leaving. We've been working as best we can for this place. We are sad to see it go. But no, we are not culpable in what's happened. We have fought, and we have argued, and we have given our all in keeping it a safe place. We have failed - but most certainly not for lack of trying.

Aurora has spent days of labor on this place, working to keep it running. A job she took for the betterment of the community, which was then taken back. She's done her best to find the best path available for all of us. She has our trust and our respect.

Kitten has done everything she can to be impartial, to make the decisions as best she could with the information available to her. She has done what she can to deal with users who made the place miserable for the rest of us, and organizing events to keep the place exciting. For that she's been rewarded by having her phone number leaked by an unknown user and has received several harrassing phone calls. She has our trust and our respect.

With respect to Magenta, as a result of the server she is in a position where she is very tied to the Neural Nets brand. Because of this she has received a lot of undue and unfair harassment and accusations. She has our trust and our respect.

Sinister has argued against what he saw as bad decisions and done what he could to fight for the rights of users facing Neural's ire. He has been as impartial as possible, and always made what he thought was the best decision for the server. He has our trust and our respect.

Warren has argued and fought for what he saw as right, calling out Neural where he saw it as necessary and defending several users when Neural attacked them. This has earned him dire warnings of consequences. He has our trust and our respect.