Like I always say, there's 2 sides to every story. And sometimes, you question whether you're on the right side, or the wrong side.

Brad "Carnevil" Carney made Skulltag. Plain and simple. There's no denying that. He did so with the help of hundreds of people, especially those in the community, but ultimately it's his. For that, we have to thank him.

Has his baby been ripped from his hands? That's a question I'm not even sure how I'd want to answer. There's so many different ways to look at it. In his perspective, it is his, always was his, and he never "gave it away." In others' perspectives, he quit, and let someone else take over. Isn't that what they're supposed to do, take over? A question for another time, I suppose.

This whole situation has me very stressed out. I'm sad for what happened to Carnevil. I really am. Would that I could, I'd have said some things different, done things differently, and tried to be more of a mediator to the cause, than an arbitrator.

Brad sees that I've only been on the skulltag team for 2 months, but I've been with them for a while longer than that. Since then, I would like to think I've done many things to help Brad Carney's creation - I've done pivotal things to enhance and strengthen the community. I created a new site for Skulltag, and I created an entire new network - no more DALnet cops saying we can't do this or that thing (which, ironically enough, is how we met one of our more respected members), no more mad OFTC cops getting in our way. And if a person causes more of a problem, it's a lot easier to remove them.

In that time, people have also helped me improve my administrative skills. I'm no longer such a hard ass with everything, I'm far more social with people, and I've even made amends with the people I've hurt in the short time since I was promoted to admin.

In his theft story, Carney threw some baseless accusations with how myself and we, as the administration team, were running the site. He was very emotional, and upset, and it's quite understandable considering what he thinks has actually happened. The fact of the matter is, we can't reason with him, we can barely even talk to him. He won't listen to what we have to say, and since then he's flown off the deep end. I don't know what to say.

Is it wrong what we did? If we truly did what we did with the intentions he stated, it sure as fuck would be. Hell, I'd be pissed as hell too.

But we did not have the intentions in mind that he stated. Me conning Rive? I was going to help Rive search for hosts if he denied mine. Rive took it because it was handy, and it was free. No one else has to pay the bills, except me. As it would've happened, Rive and Metalhead would have most likely shared in on the hosting costs.

The fact of the matter was, at the time, that Dreamhost wasn't treating Skulltag well. It was not giving Brad Carney's creation the respect it deserved. It infuriated most of us, instead, spitting out constant errors and time-outs. At certain periods of the day, the site was nigh innavigatable. The problem was fixed once before, but after the release of 98a, Rivecoder even decided that it was enough.

I respect Dreamhost - a lot. They're not some faceless corporation concerned over nothing but its stock quote and its profit margin. There's actual people there. But Skulltag outgrew the box Dreamhost gave it - it needed to move. It was most likely even a mutual need - I'm sure Skulltag was getting too much for them to handle too, with the load that was being put on their servers.

Am I better than Dreamhost? No. They host hundreds of sites. I host 2, with a bunch of hostees to boot on one of them. I just gave Skulltag a better home.

It was NEVER my intention to steal the site!

Why then, wouldn't I give it back? Because I can't talk to the man who wants it back! I tried, I offered it to him, I told him open an SQL database and a blank FTP and I'll put EVERYTHING back on there - no questions asked. It was impulsive of me to even offer it at all - but he still turned it down.

I can say, this situation has certainly turned a lot of bad stones. I think there were misconceptions all around, and everyone here is stubborn (yes even myself). We all have our own interests in Skulltag, and some of us are more concerned over the community itself than ourselves.

I honestly don't know what to think at this point. I'm honestly pissed at Carnevil, but I know he has a rhyme or reason for what he's doing. I think he should've brought his concerns to the table far ahead of time, rather than remaining silent about things. Holding it back is precisely what caused the Metal/Xen drama, and precisely what caused this to happen - and it's precisely what would have happened with me and another community member later on, too.

Am I sorry for what happened? You bet your sweet ass I am. There's a lot of things I would have done differently. And if I knew this was going to happen, I NEVER would have offered to host the site.

My motives are for the people who make Skulltag a success - the very people who play it. If Carney still wants his creation back, I'm still open for it, but I know a lot of people won't go along with it. He can have the site back, and change it however he wants. At that point, I'll be done. I won't be a part of Skulltag anymore. You just don't know how badly I want this to happen, even though I know it would hurt a lot of people. Another part of me wants to keep Skulltag going as it always has, with the same people and the same community. I don't want to hurt or disappoint anyone, and I feel Carnevil regaining the site as it currently is would do that. I'm torn to shreds by this, and I don't know what to do.

Carnevil isn't the only one hurt by all of this. All of the admin team is. We put a lot of our blood and sweat into the community. The developers invested a lot of hard work and arduous hours into fixing bugs. Carnevil threw false, baseless accusations at us, and in turn, colored our names in a dark and unpleasant light. Skulltag is what it is today because of the work of hundreds of people - not just its creator and founder.

We'll see where this goes, from here. I'm sorry about the long rant in this post.

In a way, I'm glad this all happened - it put a lot of things on the table that needed to be put out.