This is not merely a disagreement about terms or worry over competition.
After working with Dan for 17 years he seems to be trying to end my company and co-opt the community of stack developers as his own – and all seemingly for little more than personal gain.
I’m certain he has his own noble reasons for these things, but the end result is the same: I’m forced to pivot to completely to new app to save my career and feed my kids.
However there’s much more:
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It seems to me that the techniques for achieving RW9’s new features were less than ethical. I’m choosing to keep this mostly private for now, in just the developer slack/discord. If I’m lying or embellishing, I hope the stack developers hold me to account.
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While Dan claims that the changes to the RW API were done only to improve RW. To me, many changes seemed targeted specifically to frustrate me and make more work for me. I said as much in private developer forums on Feb 24th SIX DAYS BEFORE DAN ANNOUNCED ELEMENTS TO ANYONE:
Feb 24, 1:15pm -- Isaiah Carew:
if i manage to make the transition to RW9 it will take a herculean effort
and there's absolutely zero guarantee that they won't change again a
day later. it's an untenable situation.
Little did I know that they would announce a competing product six days later. But I was at the end of my wits trying to work around all the little roadblocks that have been installed. No matter what Dan says, it strains credulity that this was anything but purposeful.
- And lastly, they fein offers of assistance in public if I were only to send them my code. However in light of them building a Stacks API “on the fly transpiler”, it strains belief that their intentions were benevolent or honorable as they were building a competing product when they asked for my code.
I try hard to maintain a professional demeanor, focus on the great potential for the Stacks 5 app, and let all this BS pass around me. But please don’t mistake this for a lack care about these things. I do care a great deal. In private I’m apoplectic with anger, so deeply sad about the community that he’s shattering I can’t begin to enunciate it, and frustrated beyond belief at his unwillingness to take responsibility for what he’s doing.
Every time you see me make a polite response, please keep in mind there are a dozen of these that come along with it.
🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
Someday we will perhaps be able to look back and forgive, but it’s early yet, the wound is still bleeding.
Perhaps rather than burying the hatchet today, I think the best thing now is to move forward and focus on building a new app and a new community so we can keep working together for a long time to come.