[Tom Henrik]

It has been many many years since the dissident issue, but this was a dark time in AB's history. One that I was hoping wouldn't resurface, but something so big will always rise up to the top.

So, in the interest of trying to clear up what happened and why, here is the full story behind the events that led to the creation of the dissident forum.

Sebatianos was an idealist. He had some great ideas, and he was a very hard worker. Unfortunately, he also had a bad temper.

Combine that with a lot of server access and power, and you have a ticking timebomb. The real reason for the whole dissident issue was that Kosta and myself woke up one morning to discover that Seb had gone rogue on the server, and started to delete games, reviews, translations and more. Basically, he was cleaning out our database in a fit of rage, because he felt that he deserved more than he got.

We had to ban his access, ban his account, ban his IP, ban every access point he had, in order to save the site from being destroyed. Kosta and I were both completely in agreement that Seb had gone too far, and that we could not condone his actions. Where we differed was in how to pass judgement.

I felt that had this been anyone else, the person would've been banned on the spot for life. No questions asked. And as such, Sebatianos was no different. He had simply gone too far, and was a liability.

Kosta felt that Seb had done so much for the site, that he wanted to instead have him on a short leash, and remove him from the active community.

This formed the dissident forum, where Seb and anyone who wanted to be with him got access. This was an unmonitored forum, where Kosta would just push problematic members into, instead of having to deal with them.

Unfortunately, since none of us who knew what actually had happened were allowed to talk about it, Seb was creating his own stories about how he had been wronged. He eventually gained quite a following of other users, who all believed his side of the events. Eventually all of the negativity was too much to handle, and the community was split right down the middle.

Even the staff and admins were split. I felt that Kosta should never have created the dissidents, and that it just created more problems and more drama as the years passed by. As such, I had a hard time supporting my boss, as I did not personally believe that he had done the right thing. I felt like every day I was cleaning up a mess that would've been a non-issue if we had only banned Seb and come clean about his actions and why we had banned him as a result. Every day, the forum was littered with posts about how we had wrongfully treated him, and that the "truth" was for anyone to see in the dissident forum. It was almost like watching the start of a civil war, where both sides were recruiting soldiers.

Only a few people knew the truth, and we were not allowed to tell anything to anyone by Kosta. He tied our arms and sealed our lips, because in his mind, this was an issue that would simply pass over time. He expected Sebatianos to simply quit on his own, after being put on a leash. When this did not happen, he did not want to admit that he had been wrong, but instead decided to pretend all the new problems that arose as a result didn't exist.

Kosta was a great owner and leader, but in the later years he grew tired of the sites. AB and AR had been his hobby projects, and a way for him to learn and develop his coding skills. He did not want to get involved in big issues, or take any sides. He hated having to make executive decisions, and he hated having pressure put on him, or admit that he could be wrong in anything.

In the end, this led to him selling the site for money, leaving the community shocked and in disbelief. Very few people even knew that he had plans to sell the site out, and a lot of people (myself included) felt that he had basically sold us as well. We all worked tirelessly without pay for our common love of games, and now we had been sold to make money for an owner who just couldn't be bothered anymore. It was a hard blow for many of us.

When Studentis started plastering ads all over the site in order to create their own personal cashcow, that was the deciding moment that made me pack my bags and leave.

I hope this will help some of you understand why things happened and why. I will gladly answer any questions you have, in the hopes that maybe we can finally put all of this behind us and move on.