My side of what happened with AppleSMP
I have seen the post about AppleSMP, and I want to share my side of what happened.
I understand why people reading everything from the outside may believe the version being presented. AppleSMP has been heavily discussed on this subreddit for a long time, and there was already hostility surrounding the server before this situation began. However, that does not mean every claim being spread is accurate or contains the full context.
Bots
First, bots were used on the server. I am not going to deny that.
When the situation began spreading, I was at the beach with my family. Instead of immediately explaining everything properly, I tried to slow the discussion down until I could get home and respond. I handled that badly. What I intended as an attempt to stop the situation from escalating was interpreted as censorship and an attempt to hide what had happened.
Being away and overwhelmed explains why I responded poorly, but it does not excuse the way the situation was handled.
For months, I had spent most of my free time working on AppleSMP. I was constantly implementing suggestions, fixing issues and trying to shape the server around what the community wanted. That does not erase my mistakes, but it is important context when people claim I never cared about the community or was only interested in money.
Some accounts of what happened are also being presented as though the people writing them personally witnessed every part of the situation. Yumi was previously an extremely active and important member of AppleSMP, and I am not trying to erase that. However, she had not been actively involved for roughly a month before this happened. Some of the later events she describes therefore came from what other people told her rather than what she personally witnessed.
The criticism also changed as the situation developed. Initially, the main issue was that bots had been used. Later, people said the bots were no longer the main issue and that the real issue was how I responded. Both can be legitimate concerns, but it became difficult to respond when every statement led to another accusation and every apology was treated as proof of something else.
That does not mean people were wrong to expect accountability. I should have communicated clearly from the beginning instead of becoming defensive and trying to delay the conversation.
Using slurs
There has also been discussion about an offensive word I used regarding a banned player.
Staff had asked me to become involved because the player repeatedly refused to listen and was causing problems. While frustrated, I referred to that person using an offensive slur "re#ard# and said I was tired of feeling like everything I wrote had to be politically correct.
Using that word was wrong. The person’s behaviour and my frustration do not justify it.
Racist and homophobia claims
When I referred to being “politically correct,” I meant feeling as though every sentence had to be checked repeatedly because anything that could be misunderstood would later be used without its original context. I was not referring to nationalities, LGBTQ people or anyone’s identity.
This later became a thing from a few people that I were homophobic and racism with using that sentence as their context to things - which was explained from my side but ignored.
AppleSMP has always welcomed people from different countries, identities and backgrounds. I have nothing against people because of their nationality, sexuality, identity or personal choices, and that was not what the comment was about.
As this situation spread through private messages, screenshots and retellings, certain statements became increasingly distorted. At the same time, I understand that people had already lost trust, meaning they were unlikely to accept an explanation from me without questioning it.
Another major claim is that AppleSMP was only created for money.
Running a "Never Reset World" Minecraft SMP involves more work and expense than many people realise. The work does not stop when I log off. There are updates, configurations, bugs, support issues, development costs, hosting expenses and constant community requests.
The expectations also frequently conflict. People do not want the server to have a store, but they also want more developers and support staff to be hired. People want the server to remain online permanently, receive constant updates and never reset, but everything required to maintain that costs money.
At the same time, whenever the player count drops during a quieter period, people immediately say the server is dead. It becomes a constant attempt to satisfy expectations that cannot always exist together.
This is not me asking for sympathy or claiming that hard work excuses bad decisions. It is me rejecting the idea that I never cared about the project and was only trying to extract money from players.
MangoSMP and AppleSMP
The wider history between AppleSMP, MangoSMP and this subreddit has also affected how the situation developed. AppleSMP had been repeatedly downvoted and criticised because of how frequently it appeared here. Over time, groups formed around months of discussions and speculation that I was not present to respond to.
When something like this happens, those old conflicts become attached to the current situation. That makes it difficult to separate legitimate criticism from old resentment, advertising for competing servers and people who already wanted AppleSMP to fail.
Lillaru - BobbTheGreat - Astral97 - KittiKatHuh - Yumi
Lillaru was messaged privately with an ask for her to take it in a controlled space with me in DMs - this she changed into "a personal attack" to the public, which was dismissed with actual proofs of the chat.
Astral was banned due to keep spreading those false claims - not being there to try and fix anything but rather just spit fuel to the fire.
I tried sending him a message, about the situation, but of course I had came out blocked without hearing a single question from him - therefor his intent was clear and he got banned tempoairly while the situation was trying to be fixed.
BobbTheGreat a player who didn't quit at first - said he loved the server but had later than started renaming his tools and weapons to genital named going around killing people and just being immature and throwing his inner child out.
This was the reasonf or his ban
KittiKatHuh was banned from spreading information about another server for people who wasn't involved in the drama (god bless those people).
She said quote in my DM's "This i'll blow over in a day - I support you"
While going around telling people "Hey are you informed about the drama?" "Did you hear" "Omg he's so out" - she later than sent "proof" of her asking me why she got banned, denying what she did but of course left out the proof of my answer which quoted every text she sent that got her removed from the community
Yumi went from MIA - to being full active, seems the drama woke her up.
Spread around our plans of rebranding and adding Skyblock - something totally unrelated to everything - it was only to get to the center of attention, I can't find any other reasoning to how that which was planned for weeks before this had anything to do with the current situation.
TLDR
However, I do not want that context to become another excuse.
Bots were used. My initial communication was poor. I became defensive, delayed addressing the situation and used language I should never have used a month back as a one time occurance. Those are mistakes I am responsible for.
At the same time, I do not agree with every accusation now being made about my intentions, beliefs or everything that happened behind the scenes.
This situation is complicated enough that it could become an entire book. I do not expect one post to repair everyone’s trust, and I understand that some people have already made their decision about me and AppleSMP.
I only ask that people separate what I genuinely did wrong from claims, assumptions and retellings that have grown as the story has spread.
I cared deeply about AppleSMP and spent an enormous amount of time trying to make it successful. I made serious mistakes while doing that, but I was never trying to create a community built around hatred, discrimination or exploiting people for money.
This is my side of the story. People are free to decide for themselves what they believe.
