My thoughts on the "AllDroid" issue as of 20120711

This was a reply to someone on Google+ which I recently left and since this was a very public issue and this reply represents my current feelings and perspective, it just makes sense to throw it out there for the few who might want to hear it (or those who don't but can't resist).


I don't fault bird much if any in what I'm talking about. He was a hard-working, low-key dev that I pushed to make noise if anything. Steven is another story. When he came on "the scene", he "wanted to learn how to code", was a nobody on the Android scene, and was gung-ho to be an admin for AllDroid so long as I agreed with his ideas. He and I fundamentally differ though and he just said it clear as day, "it's a business". He was always out for money and/or attention. "I" was out to support developers by providing any resources I could manage through AllDroid. This including borrowing $5,000 to buy the rights from Brent Fishman. Every dime the site earned went to developers or into improving the site itself even though I should have been paying back that loan. *One* admitted exception was a phone upgrade for myself. Another fundamental difference between Steve and I is that I didn't play games (read "politics") unless it was absolutely critical and this meant that I had no problem calling out people when I saw fit (like when they sold code that wasn't theirs to sell, or store ideas from devs and claimed it as their own). So of course Steve "seems" nice to most people. That doesn't mean he wasn't sincere with you. I'm not trying to speak to the nature of your relationship with him. I'm just saying that it often wasn't sincere.

Anyway, I don't even have a problem with how RW is run. It's how it came to be that demonstrates his true nature. He stabbed me in the back once and I forgave him only for it to happen again and the second time, he and his buddies used outright lies (under the guise of ignorance that was more like naivety at best) to drag my name and AllDroid through the mud, killing the site. If it wasn't for my willingness to make him an admin, give him the freedom and control I did, then the humanity to forgive him the first time, I have no reason to believe anyone would even know his name today. I gave him AllDroid as a platform to stand on thinking he was interested in bettering the Android community and instead he used it to make a name, gain a cult following, then burn me at the stake and to this day he's always got some excuse, reason, or hollow words to try and make it seems like something other than what it is. I can't tell you how many months ago he and Bird told me that they'd be throwing some money my way to help out in light of what went down and I haven't heard from them since.

I'm sure that there are few people out there who both believe me and care what I say, but I've accepted that and as bitter as I am about what went down, the fact is that I (my better nature) made it possible and I had many chances to prevent it. In the end, I'm likely better off for it anyway because AllDroid was consuming WAY too much of my time and since it's gone, I've been able to go back to school, advance my business, and now I'm about to have another child (literally any day) and I couldn't have managed AllDroid along with any of those things. What I am sad about is how much the Android community had to pay because of the way AllDroid played out. When Brent shut the site down, he severely fractured the community (as if he hadn't done enough harm before-hand with the way he was playing politics). When Steve and friends (led by Tom Spear) executed the final blow, they saw to it that the Android community would forever be split even more ways and dominated by commercial sites who will always appear to have an interest in Android, but in my experience, are more concerned with their pocket-books.

A wise woman by the name of Maya Angelou once said something that I wish I'd heard and taken to heart before encountering the likes of Tom and Steve (along a few others), "When someone shows you who they are believe them the first time."

Now tell me, who is looking to help Android more; they guy who spent hundreds of hours for the community, borrowed thousands of dollars, trusted others claiming to do the same then getting stabbed in the back, or the guy who did the stabbing and turned around to launch a site built off ideas he received from his victim, and did so for "a business"?

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but shouldn't it be based on obvious facts?

I'm going to end on that note because the other thing I learned through this experience is not to get sucked into the drama. Speaking my mind once in a while is one thing, but engaging in an on-going dialog is another and I have much more important things to spend my time and passion on. Android is clearly taking very good care of itself thanks (ironically since they are the reason AllDroid came to be) to XDA. I'm sure RW does its part somewhere too, but I use XDA exclusively these days and virtually never hear about RW which suits me just fine. :)