Please: There is a strong possibility that my account will be deleted after this, so I ask that you save this letter and share with others.
To our Syndrone users:
It pains me to bring this to your attention, but as users and supporters of this site, you deserve the right to know what has been going on with Syndrone, despite the objections of a certain staff administrator. To those of you who aren't entirely familiar with me, I am Rapscallion, Syndrone's Lead Artist. Before this, I was just a normal artist on the site, only focused on making items, and before that, if some of you might remember, I was a global moderator. Much like most of you, I waited eagerly for Syndrone to open, to rise from the ashes of Terrasus, a former avatar site, under new leadership and management. However, it seems as though we were doomed to have history repeat itself, a recurring situation in which I cannot and will not sit idly by and let it happen once again.
I have been with Syndrone since the very beginning. Back in early 2012, Krank, my friend, wanted to revive Terrasus, a project that was close to her heart before it had been shut down due to poor management and monetary corruption under another leader. It was only an idea when she presented it to us, an idea that I watched grow and come to fruition. The point is, I have been with this site through its ups and downs, contributed as much as I possibly could to the site, and I've seen it all. However, I am sad to say that the vision we had for Syndrone two years ago is so much different than the Syndrone that exists today. With Krank's departure from Syndrone, the administrative changes that are about to occur will completely alter the integrity of the site, tarnishing its name, what my friend had built. While I could be more receptive to this change, with our current leader right now, I can't bring myself to do such a thing.
As you know, Syndrone is owned by Fork; it has been owned by Fork for quite a few months now, and with Krank stepping down from her administrative role, this leader is given full rein of doing whatever he chooses. It's easy to follow a leader's command, to take his word at face value, to whole-heartedly accept whatever lip service he gives. He becomes lionized, simply for his colored name and position, not for his actions. Of course, everyone on Syndrone is free to ignore my words, to dismiss my comments, to argue that I act out of spite. But I am not here to manipulate you, I am not here to convince you, nor am I here to slander the site. I am here to present information - information that you, as a user who donates their money or their parent's money to Syndrone, might be unaware as to how it is being spent.
Syndrone relies heavily on donations from users like you. In exchange for your money, you not only receive donation currency, but also an indirect promise that the money you give will be put back into the site, so that you can have new features that make your experience on Syndrone enjoyable.
As you all know, Syndrone has a paypal account. Originally, both Krank and Fork have access to this, able to monitor cash flow and have documented information on where the money goes. However, Fork has been siphoning all Syndrone money to a private bank account, seen here:
(Click on the images to view a bigger version)
This amount totals to nearly $5,000 that no one has any idea as to how it is spent. You might think because Fork owns Syndrone, he can manage his money however he wishes, but why the secrecy? If you notice the dates of the cash transferred, this happened right when Krank stepped down as owner and Fork took over. Almost immediately, he began to siphon money over to his own private bank account. Why transfer money that is already secured into a private bank account? When I approached Fork regarding how the money that the users donate is being spent, this is the reply I received:
Just simply asking him how money is being spent garners a "if you don't like this, you can leave" response. I am a lead artist, now in charge of designing items for Syndrone. What's the issue with informing me, even briefly, where Syndrone's donations are going towards?
Let's look at some of the consequences to his bank transfers. Here he is being charged $270 for overdraft fees, which then became $500 of overdraft fees. To explain to those unaware, overdraft fees are what banks charge your account when you take out too much money to buy something with money you do not have.
How do you guys feel to have around $500 of your donations go entirely to waste, all because Fork just has to transfer money and is perfectly fine with the accrued charges? Sure, you may think that it's fine, as long as you got your donation items, whatever happens to the money happens. But look at it from a different perspective. This $500 could have paid off artists to make even more site items. This $500 could have been spent towards developers working on new features for Syndrone. This $500 could have been spent upgrading our servers, to provide smoother browsing and avoiding lag. But Fork doesn't care. To him, $500 completely wasted, why does it matter? It's "his" money.
Is this the reason why he felt the need to transfer all of Syndrone's donations to his own private bank account, so he can spend it however he wishes? "My business, my money." How comfortable do you guys feel to see that your donations are going straight to his pockets and to be used for frivolous spending and not on Syndrone?
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As a site administrator, Fork holds the responsibility of informing his staff and keeping them aware of what goes on. As a leader, he also needs to maintain proper channels of communication and be willing to converse with his staff in all matters. The issue here is that Fork refuses to do so. Even with senior staff members who hold administrative positions, Fork will dismiss any and all inquiries made, preventing even our admins from being privy to any type of information solely as a practice of his authority, with no other reason to his actions.
Seen here, Fork and Sake (Loki) were originally discussing information that affected the entire staff, and therefore the site. However, once Sake decided to include Krank, Nitro, and myself into the discussion, we were immediately dismissed, on the basis that he wanted to talk to us individually. Despite Sake seeing a need to have a conference with the other administrators to converse further, Fork refused to hold the dialogue, with no explanation as to why.
Fork later tells Krank that he feels betrayed because of what Sake did, ignoring the fact that we as staff members have the right to this information, especially if he is already divulging information to one staff administrator.
Upon seeing his dismissal of us, I confronted him regarding the issue. Here is how it transpired:
Please ignore my language, as I had no more patience, with this not being the first time Fork has "dismissed" the rest of his staff members.
In another situation, Fork was explaining his plans with Syndrone now that Krank and Nitro have departed. When suggested to let the other staff members in on his plans, he treats his staff as if they're easily disposable. The "MIT chat" in question is the staff chat, in which Fork made it clear that he wants no involvement in it, thereby refusing to interact with his staff and informing them of his plans. Apparently moderators and staff are nothing but users, and can learn about what happens to Syndrone the same time the userbase does:
Here he is telling Chinchilla not to help and offer solutions to users who are having issues with Syndrone and not to challenge his authority when questioned. This happens often with Fork - staff members who question his actions are immediately shot down and told to blindly listen to him.
Again, Fork continues to ignore questions from staff members:
When the site was shut down unexpectedly, Fork never informed the staff members; it happened by surprise. Later on, when he was available, he was questioned as to why it happened. Again, he gives no explanation, dismisses the staff, and gives us the equivalent of "it's not your business."
When Krank was still a site administrator and head artist, she asked Fork about the future of the site. He did not want to reveal any information, even to her, and then becomes angry that information was leaked.
As you can see, Fork's leadership style is to withhold information from all of his staff members, refusing to release information when it directly concerns us. This is not the way to run an avatar site as an owner and a leader.
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I'm going to end all of this by informing you all what Fork plans on doing with Syndrone, now that he is the sole proprietor.
First off, Fork plans on discontinuing all donation items, including RIG items, for something that he hasn't even explained to us. Meanwhile, Sake is uploading items and I am creating new items for absolutely no reason at all. It's interesting how he says he will present his ideas to us "this evening." Do you guys want to know the date of this post? June 9th. It is now June 23rd, and no one has any idea what he wants to do with Syndrone other than him. Don't you guys think you deserve to know?
Now, to the meat of his plan. What Fork wants to do is have Syndrone become a host for different avatar sites, all owned by him. Each avatar "community" would have its own avatar, its own staff, and its own artists. Just at face value, what does this scream to me? Money. The purpose of doing this would fill his pockets with so much cash, because he is effectively managing five avatar sites under one umbrella.
Notice how he says "execution of this will need to be well-documented and thought out to even begin." And yet, when I asked him about his plan of execution, he replies with:
This plan of his has less than a 10% chance of success, stated by Fork, and yet, as Sake points out, he refuses to even come up with an idea of how he wants to do this.
With such a high risk, as staff, at least, everyone but Fork, is concerned about the user. We want you guys to know that your money is going into a well-deserved site, but Fork seems to differ.
I want to highlight this quote from Fork, our leader: "I love the concept of being ethical, but that's not always best when it comes to keeping the business open for people to enjoy. If you mix ethical and unethical, you get business. Because the unethical things you do translate into ethical reasons."
For those of you who are unaware, ethics plays a major part in businesses, in fact, there are college courses devoted ENTIRELY to ethics and making sure that the business is showing ethical practices. However, Fork, our esteemed business leader, believes that unethical practices are necessary in business, that while he loves the concept of being ethical, he can't bring himself to do so.
Is this really the person you want to donate your money to, to someone who encourages unethical business and disregards its legal implications of fraud and deceit?
And if you really think he will be able to go through with anything he promises, here is something that was discussed on February 5th, 2014, regarding the forum index. If you guys remember, the index shows a bubble headshot of the members online. While he might think this is aesthetically pleasing, it is very difficult for moderators to do any work, because we rely on this list to see users who are online and such. When approached, he told me directly that he would fix the index, and yet, five months later, here it is, exactly the same.
I for one, am not hopeful at all that he will even successfully execute his 10%-success-rate plan. To those of you who think that I took these messages out of context, consider this: I don't have just one screenshot, I have many. Fork has shown his inadequacy as a leader many times, and I have tried to gather proof of it all for you.
I loved this site so much. I watched it grow from an idea to what it is today, and I have to say, I am extremely disappointed in what it has become. And to now witness this man make empty promises and try to swindle the users into believing that everything is normal, I just cannot handle it anymore. It is unethical business, something that he actively practices and promotes. But I can't control your actions -- I can only provide you with enough information to make a reasonable judgment. Do what you wish with the information I have given you all; I for one am done. It was a pleasure serving you guys, and I hope to see you guys again in the future, just not on Syndrone.
Goodbye,
Rapscallion
P.S., This is from another staff member on Syndrone who wishes to remain anonymous.
I also wanted to bring to your attention the matter regarding the recent "site hacking". The site was never hacked.
I'll break down for you what happened.
When certain people left Syndrone staff, Fork, being the ever-vigilant owner he is, neglected to remove them from the database. One of their passwords was leaked, and it was eventually passed down to a friend of mine. With their username and password, along with an easily accessible URL, they were able to access the database and delete everything on it. This was meant to be a warning to Fork, whose carelessness nearly cost him Syndrone.
Fork's Syndrone account was not hacked, either. Once upon a time, Fork gave Syndrone's Paypal password to someone, and that eventually was leaked, and also fell into the hands of my friend. My friend then decided to do some snooping, only to find out that Fork's password for Syndrone's Paypal was the same password for his Syndrone account, along with his Skype, his Gmail, his Facebook, another Paypal account…
Are you seeing a pattern here? Everything that happened to Syndrone happened, not because it was "hacked", but because our noble leader Fork was negligent regarding the safety of the site and the userbase.
If my friend wanted to give away your information, users, they could have. They could have given everything over to someone who wanted to do actual harm to Syndrone and its users. They chose not to. Because my friend wasn't out to get the users.
Fork is misleading you. No passwords were acquired, no emails were acquired. Your information was not touched at all. Your information, users, was completely safe. Fork is trying to cover his own ass, trying to scare all of you into doing something that you never even needed to do.
A TL; DR for you all: The site was not hacked. The site breach was, in fact, Fork's fault.