blep.art and the former e6ai staff: what was actually said
We are publishing this because claims are going around that MakeFox Group carried out a "hostile takeover" of blep.art, and that we promised the former e6ai volunteer staff autonomy and then went back on it. Those claims don't match the record. Below are the conversations themselves, with short notes. The Telegram screenshots are unedited. The pre-acquisition Discord excerpts come from a transcript in which consecutive messages from the same person are grouped, with the wording unchanged. Every screenshot is dated (all times US Central) so you can read them in context. Where we were blunt or got something wrong, we say so.
- Nov 4, early morning (Discord): The e6ai staff contact Hino after e6ai's shutdown is announced. Hino offers MakeFox's infrastructure and says he would handle sysadmin duties. Staff are added to a MakeFox Telegram admin group the same morning.
- Nov 4: Luca starts legal research on hosting the site from a Texas-based nonprofit. The site is renamed blep.art.
- Nov 5, 11:07 AM: blep.art goes live. In the morning, Luca raises moderation concerns he had heard from users. That evening, Hino and the team's developer clash on Discord over a change to signup verification.
- Nov 6, 1:43 to 3:18 AM: A long discussion about who has the final say.
- Nov 6, 4:20 to 8:10 AM: We reach an interim arrangement: moderation stays with the team, and Hino posts notice of changes before he ships them.
- Nov 6, 11:59 AM to 12:39 PM: The team rejects the written charter and asks for the domain. The relationship ends at 12:39 PM.
1. How it ended (Nov 6)
Screenshot 1 - Nov 6, 4:20 AM
The team asks for advance notice of changes and the option to "slam the breaks." Hino points out that the team wanted full transparency from us while objecting to the same transparency being asked of their moderation.
Screenshot 2 - Nov 6, 4:59 to 5:00 AM
Hino asks our assistant whether his reaction to the developer's messages was justified. In fairness, a few minutes later, with the full record in front of it, the assistant revised that answer: the developer's first message had been a reasonable request, and Hino's reply helped set things off. We include that correction here.
Screenshot 3 - Nov 6, 8:04 to 8:10 AM
This is the interim arrangement as of 8 AM. Moderation and the rules stay with the team. Hino handles infrastructure and software and posts notice before changes. Luca's concern was civil liability and being blocked from making necessary legal and security changes. None of it was in writing yet.
Screenshot 4 - Nov 6, 11:59 AM to 12:01 PM
The team asks whether our written charter is one-sided. We said openly that it is an owner's operating agreement: the company that carries the legal and financial risk keeps the final say. Our assistant's answer, which we didn't edit, says the remaining gap was narrow and came down to who has the final word on content policy and moderation.
Screenshot 5 - Nov 6, 12:02 to 12:04 PM
Hino says plainly that we can't hand over the user data or the domain, the same terms the team had with their previous host. The next message (12:04 PM, not shown) offered advance notice and help with a public-data download if they ever chose to move.
Screenshot 6 - Nov 6, 12:31 to 12:35 PM
The team then asks us to "transfer the blep.art domain like you stated earlier." Nobody said that. Half an hour earlier Hino had said the opposite, and the blep.art name was settled in our own group on Nov 4. The exchange got heated from there on both sides. Hino ended the conversation at 12:39 PM.
2. What was promised before the handover (Discord)
Screenshot 7 - Discord, Nov 4, 2:42 to 2:52 AM
The first conversation. Hino says his main concerns are legal, including who owns the assets. Shortly after this excerpt, Jello himself says "The domain will not be available and a rebrand would be needed."
Screenshot 8 - Discord, Nov 4, 3:01 to 3:04 AM (re-rendered from transcript)
Jello says they would be missing a sysadmin, and Hino replies "I'd handle all that." Hino also wrote, in the same message block: "I would love to continue running the site as-is if it means keeping those people with it." We understand why the team read that as a broad commitment.
Screenshot 9 - Discord, Nov 4, 8:02 to 8:04 AM
This is the closest thing to an autonomy promise in the record. Jello asks whether the deal is Hino as sysadmin with the volunteers handling day-to-day work. Hino answers: "For the most part, but need to discuss on my end."
Screenshot 10 - Discord, Nov 4, 8:39 to 8:40 AM
Screenshot 11 - Discord, Nov 4, 8:43 to 8:47 AM
Hino says he is waiting to discuss the legal side with Luca before anything is settled. He then adds the staff to our Telegram admin group, as promised.
What Hino actually promised: to handle sysadmin duties and to add the team to a Telegram admin group. He kept both. He also said he wanted to keep the site "as-is" and "everything user-facing exactly as it is." Nothing was said about the domain, user data, final authority, or code ownership. The team gave nothing up and signed nothing, and neither did we. Hino has since acknowledged that his wording made broad autonomy sound more settled than he intended.
3. The developer dispute (Nov 5, Discord)
Screenshot 12 - Discord, Nov 5, 6:12 to 6:36 PM
Screenshot 13 - Discord, Nov 5, 7:09 PM
On launch day, Hino started adding a second signup verification method because email signups were failing. He did not give the team notice first, and that was a mistake. The developer's reply is in these screenshots: "You are not here to be our boss," "I will veto what I need to veto," "This isn't an acquisition," and finally "I will simply leave… This is a non-negotiable." The underlying disagreement was who decides changes to software we host and are legally responsible for.
4. Civil and legal liability was a real concern (Nov 4)
Screenshot 16 - Nov 4, 9:59 to 10:04 AM
Screenshot 17 - Nov 4, 10:11 AM
On the first day, before any dispute, Luca and Hino are working out the legal risk of hosting the site. Luca says the risk affects how we take the site on, not whether we do. This is why we insisted that the company keep final authority over legal and policy matters.
5. Raising moderation concerns (Nov 5)
Screenshot 18 - Nov 5, 7:59 to 8:12 AM
Screenshot 19 - Nov 5, 8:14 to 8:17 AM
Luca passes on concerns he had heard from users about moderation and asks the team to "exercise objectivity." The team takes this as an accusation. Luca says he will "listen to both."
6. The final-say question (Nov 6, overnight)
Screenshot 22 - Nov 6, 1:43 to 1:51 AM
Screenshot 23 - Nov 6, 1:56 to 2:05 AM
Screenshot 24 - Nov 6, 2:08 to 2:13 AM
Screenshot 25 - Nov 6, 2:26 to 2:28 AM
Screenshot 26 - Nov 6, 2:48 to 2:50 AM
Screenshot 27 - Nov 6, 2:54 AM
Screenshot 28 - Nov 6, 2:56 to 3:00 AM
Hino asks whether the team will at least discuss future content-policy questions and accept that the company makes the final call. He says: "As far as I'm aware, in every single case, your decisions were valid," and promises that MakeFox will not overrule mods to please an angry user. Jello says "I think you're wrong," and "We are not biased so what we do is already neutral," and then says the team was given "promises of autonomy." Jello's reply in screenshot 25 answers Hino's message at 2:24 AM (not shown), which said "We want the site to eventually be open to cub stuff" and asked whether the team could "ultimately accept it is our decision." Hino had already said in screenshot 22 that this would happen "Not any time soon, and not without a full and thorough discussion."
Hino said one thing in this stretch that he took back two minutes later as said in frustration (screenshot 28). We include it anyway.
Where things stand
blep.art stays online. Moderation continues under the same published rules, and no content-policy change has been made. We aren't holding a grudge against the former staff, and we're grateful for the years of work they put into the site. If any of them want to talk, the door is open. Users and former staff can reach us through admin@blep.art.
- MakeFox Group