[asiekierka]

For the sake of public record, I would like to state that I was doing nothing "behind the scenes". My part of the conversation in question is public - I was pinged as a gbdev Discord community member and that is the extent of my "consultancy". I also warned the GBcompo organizer that they should validate the rules' interpretation with a lawyer before trying to justify any requests that go beyond disqualification/delisting, particularly ones where finances get involved.

The comment about "burning bridges" is not a statement of intent, but of observation: if I publicly call someone out on the Internet, and we fail to reach a common agreement or understanding, that bridge inevitably becomes burned - even if I'm correct, even if most people agree with me! It was based on my understanding of how other people reacted to the controversy as it was brewing in community spaces, but I understand now how it could have been interpreted as a threat in its own right.

The reason I made a comment below the post (now deleted as per the game author's wishes) is because I saw him accusing the gbdev community of "censorship" - as such, I wanted to provide full transparency and accountability with regards to my role in the dispute. That was the extent of what I could do at the time, as someone who was never involved in the organization of gbcompo23 or any other gbdev community event and thus had no decision-making powers. I realized later that my stance led to harm. I regret getting involved in this at all, and I regret the things I said.