If you follow alternative Android ROM operating systems developments, and the drama gravitating around GrapheneOS, you should not have missed the drama and fallout from Louis Rossmann's "Goodbye, GrapheneOS" video on May 26, 2023. There wasn't any need to comment back then. Similar conclusions were reached and published here about a month earlier. Rossmann's video with nearly 2 million YouTube subscribers obviously carried more weight and had more impact. It prompted Daniel Micay to
almost immediately announce (archive):
I've stepped down as lead developer of GrapheneOS and will be replaced as a GrapheneOS Foundation director. I'll be ending my use of public social media. I'm unable to handle the escalating level of harassment including recent swatting attacks. There will be a smooth migration...
I'm going to focus on recovery from everything that has transpired since 2018. I have not been doing well, particularly in the past few weeks, but there has been no break from it since 2018. The police know about the swatting situation and are preventing it happening again.
Subsequent events were more interesting than the immediate proclamations. Those events illustrate, again, that GrapheneOS (strcat, thestinger, Daniel Micay and associates) cannot be trusted. After the initial announcement and commenting over following several days (archive), a strange thing happened at GrapheneOS forum (archive). All the comments were deleted, and only strcat's statement and a lame explanation by "admin" were left in place. This kind of editing for control of written history is typical for projects like GrapheneOS and /e/ foundation. Eventually, the announcement and explanation were also deleted (archive).
The Drama of it All website published a thorough analysis and explanation of Micay's behavior (archive). Bottom line:
Whenever you see someone acting like a savior or victim, you shouldn’t believe their stories. You should ask for proof and make up your own mind after viewing the proof.
Did Micay really do as proclaimed? No. In May 2023, thestinger (Micay) at Github (archive) had "3,882 contributions in the last year". A few months later, in August 2023, it increased (archive) to "4,307 contributions in the last year". As this was written, it was only somewhat lower at "3,582 contributions in the last year". At Github, Micay remains very active.
If you follow GrapheneOS Nitter or Twitter, the character of posts remains mostly the same. They frequently advertise "third party" reviews that are not really third party - written or contributed to "substantially" by Micay or close associates - and frequently claim the same old things without any evidence. With GrapheneOS (Daniel Micay, thestinger, strcat) it appears nothing has changed.
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