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Root An Explanation of what happened to Sholes.info

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kelchm

Newbie
Sep 27, 2009
12
0
#1
So, I'm sure a lot of you have heard there has been more drama in the Sholes.info camp. It sucks and I'm not happy at the way things went down. I feel like the team owes everyone an explanation, so here is my attempt to explain just what exactly happened. This is a long story and I'm making some oversimplifications for the sake of readability, but here it is.

Background:

Michael Purcell: ran the sholes.info website and owns the sholes.info domain
Scott Anderson: Wrote the SMUpdater app

I did my absolute best to have this work out amicably for all parties, but it didn't happen. I thought that Michael was going to take the high road and hand over the domain to another team member. He told me today that he had changed his mind and he "wasn't going to take the high road."

And the 'fun' began.

1. Today, Michael accused Scott of trying to defraud the Sholes.info developers via this post. He did not have the consent of the rest of the team in making this post. Unfortunately, it being his server, he had control.

2. Michael demanded that Scott refund all the donation money received via purchases of SMUpdater via the Market.

3. A number of members of the Sholes.info team, myself included objected to this idea. We proposed that we could give back excess donations back to the community via giveaways, donations to other developers, etc. We also objected to the fact that Michael made public accusations against Scott without the consent of anyone else on the team.

4. It was at this point that things really went to pieces. Michael owns the domain and the VPS the site was on. He also was the founder of our public chat room on Freenode. So, this basically left us up a creek without a paddle. Michael decided to leave the project, took the sholes.info site offline and also took control of our public IRC channel. There is really very little we could do.

So, in the end this is a big mess over nothing other than egos and misunderstandings. Scott Anderson did nothing wrong.

The Good News:

The remaining members of the former sholes.info team are hard at work getting things back up and running. Please give us a day or two to get back to where we were. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

-Vulcan (former Sholes.info team member)
 
#5
sad to hear this from the sholes team. you guys put out some pretty kicka$$ roms. i installed 2.0.5 on my wifes droid and she loves it. i also donated to get the smupdater from the market place. i hope the remaining team members can pull together and continue your excellent work. looking foward to some more kicka$$ roms from you guys.
 
Upvote 0
#7
spartan141 said:
sad to hear this from the sholes team. you guys put out some pretty kicka$$ roms. i installed 2.0.5 on my wifes droid and she loves it. i also donated to get the smupdater from the market place. i hope the remaining team members can pull together and continue your excellent work. looking foward to some more kicka$$ roms from you guys.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry you feel that way. I've tried to be as fair and accurate as I can in describing what happened. If you have any specific questions I'd be happy to answer them.
 
Upvote 0
#19
Well, I happen to be busy enough for the next few days that I don't have time to do much with the phone anyway. That said, I'm leaving sholes 2.0.5 right where it is. The intellectual power of guys like have to be on this team, or any other ROM development, are too powerful to just "go away". So since they did me the favor of the SMUpdater for a measly $5, I will return the favor by staying put. For enough time anyway for them to do their thing over at DroidMod. WIll I eventually try another ROM or three, probably I will. I am also glad there are choices out there.

So far as Scott Anderson is concerned, I have to tend to agree with the point made that he did nothing wrong. Wake up and look at what the IRS uses as a tax rate on donations for pity sake. It is right about 50%. Scott would have been on the hook for all of that bill from the IRS. So let him get his LLC and get the financial end squared away. Those donations, as I understand it, are not intended as salary per se, but for development costs, phones bricked by developers (and replaced at their personal cost) and other required hardware. I for one would just as soon see that my $5 stayed where it was intended, instead of $2.50 to the developer and $2.50 to Uncle Sam. The split might be less than that too, because Google gets their cut (whatever it is) from the $5.

I wouldn't know anybody on the team if I saw them on the street, but we need to thank them for what they have done for us by not flying off in all directions following rumors.
 
Upvote 0
#21
brettlewis said:
i like how the websites source shows

HTML: 
<html><body> 
<h3>Presently unavailable</h3> 
<!-- Due to general douche baggery --> 
</body></html>
Click to expand...

LMAO!!! I am SO glad to see I wasn't the only one that checked the source code to see what was going on. I felt like such a nerd while I was doing it, too.


In any event, I am sorry to hear about the continuing drama. It seems things have been spiraling out of control for you guys ever since the crap with alldroid surfaced. I just hope you guys land on your feet. Best of luck to you all.
 
Upvote 0
#22
kelchm said:
So, I'm sure a lot of you have heard there has been more drama in the Sholes.info camp. It sucks and I'm not happy at the way things went down. I feel like the team owes everyone an explanation, so here is my attempt to explain just what exactly happened. This is a long story and I'm making some oversimplifications for the sake of readability, but here it is.

Background:

Michael Purcell: ran the sholes.info website and owns the sholes.info domain
Scott Anderson: Wrote the SMUpdater app

I did my absolute best to have this work out amicably for all parties, but it didn't happen. I thought that Michael was going to take the high road and hand over the domain to another team member. He told me today that he had changed his mind and he "wasn't going to take the high road."

And the 'fun' began.

1. Today, Michael accused Scott of trying to defraud the Sholes.info developers via this post. He did not have the consent of the rest of the team in making this post. Unfortunately, it being his server, he had control.

2. Michael demanded that Scott refund all the donation money received via purchases of SMUpdater via the Market.

3. A number of members of the Sholes.info team, myself included objected to this idea. We proposed that we could give back excess donations back to the community via giveaways, donations to other developers, etc. We also objected to the fact that Michael made public accusations against Scott without the consent of anyone else on the team.

4. It was at this point that things really went to pieces. Michael owns the domain and the VPS the site was on. He also was the founder of our public chat room on Freenode. So, this basically left us up a creek without a paddle. Michael decided to leave the project, took the sholes.info site offline and also took control of our public IRC channel. There is really very little we could do.

So, in the end this is a big mess over nothing other than egos and misunderstandings. Scott Anderson did nothing wrong.

The Good News:

The remaining members of the former sholes.info team are hard at work getting things back up and running. Please give us a day or two to get back to where we were. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

-Vulcan (former Sholes.info team member)
Click to expand...

If you guys need server space let me know.
 
Upvote 0
#23
OMG the ignorance and misinformation in this thread is quite appalling.

Firstly, the quote "money is the root of all evil" is incorrect. The correct quote is "The love of money is the root of all evil". Money in itself is not bad.

Also, regarding the taxes - it's not 50%. Firstly, these wouldn't be considered "donations" since they are still profited from by the carrier. They are real business income. And you don't have to be a "company" to handle the income. You can simply file as a normal sole proprietor, in that case the extra income just goes on your normal personal income except the extra income as taxed as self-employment tax, which is usually around 24% or so, up to 30% in some cases. I know this because I've worked as a side contractor for the last 3 years and I also sell android apps. Tax law is not that complicated, go to the IRS website and read thru the docs, it's pretty clear cut. LLC's (and corporations) are only needed for liability reasons and a few other tax breaks, but they also bring their own burdens too (lot more paperwork, etc) but are certainly NOT needed to do business.

Continuing on, even if he did share the profits then he wouldn't be "on the hook" for all the taxes, only for the amount that he kept. Now, if he did create an LLC or Corporation he could get a tax ID and then pay the rest of the money to the other devs and give them 1099 forms to file - so maybe that is why he was considering that. But otherwise he could probably also just have created some forms for them to sign to show that they were paid a portion, you just need some legal way to show where the money went if the IRS comes auditing.

Lastly, I think what really happened here is a bunch of ego centered bastards having a fit, that's all. Unfortunately I did root with Sholes, and now I think it's time to go back since that's twice now in the span of only a couple of weeks that they have been having drama.

-niko
 
Upvote 0
#24
nikolatesla20 said:
OMG the ignorance and misinformation in this thread is quite appalling.

Firstly, the quote "money is the root of all evil" is incorrect. The correct quote is "The love of money is the root of all evil". Money in itself is not bad.

Also, regarding the taxes - it's not 50%. Firstly, these wouldn't be considered "donations" since they are still profited from by the carrier. They are real business income. And you don't have to be a "company" to handle the income. You can simply file as a normal sole proprietor, in that case the extra income just goes on your normal personal income except the extra income as taxed as self-employment tax, which is usually around 24% or so, up to 30% in some cases. I know this because I've worked as a side contractor for the last 3 years and I also sell android apps. Tax law is not that complicated, go to the IRS website and read thru the docs, it's pretty clear cut. LLC's (and corporations) are only needed for liability reasons and a few other tax breaks, but they also bring their own burdens too (lot more paperwork, etc) but are certainly NOT needed to do business.

Continuing on, even if he did share the profits then he wouldn't be "on the hook" for all the taxes, only for the amount that he kept. Now, if he did create an LLC or Corporation he could get a tax ID and then pay the rest of the money to the other devs and give them 1099 forms to file - so maybe that is why he was considering that. But otherwise he could probably also just have created some forms for them to sign to show that they were paid a portion, you just need some legal way to show where the money went if the IRS comes auditing.

Lastly, I think what really happened here is a bunch of ego centered bastards having a fit, that's all. Unfortunately I did root with Sholes, and now I think it's time to go back since that's twice now in the span of only a couple of weeks that they have been having drama.

-niko
Click to expand...


CoolStoryBrocopy.jpg
 
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