I’ve written my fair share of posts now in the JA. None will be as hard to write or have as much thought put into it than this one. I have done something truly terrible and dishonorable, and I owe each one of you an apology.

While working with the IRC bots, I was trying to figure out how the logs worked and getting the bots to report the information needed for various tasks. One of the settings I experimented with was making the bot record a raw input/output of everything it saw. This made the log files of an enormous size, but that wasn’t the only thing wrong with them. When I read the log I saw this included actual written commands from the users, including their passwords when they auth’ed. I had never seen this before. The passwords for HK-47 are stored in what’s called Blowfish encryption to protect them. Yet here before me was a good friend’s (a JAT’s) password. I fixed the log output and archived the log away.

Roughly a week later I was talking with another good friend who is a JAT, and he was venting his frustrations about the Knight selection process on the JAT forums. Not understanding fully where he was coming from, curiosity ignited in the back of my head, and I began to wonder about that password. It tossed in my mind for awhile, and I succumbed and decided to see if it worked. It did…

It made me able to read the JAT forums. I was able to see what my friend had been frustrated about, and various other issues in debate there…issues I had no business knowing about. Instantly I knew I was guilty, but I had already bitten the apple. It reached its climax when a post appeared on the JAT forums about myself of a less than favorable nature. I was outraged at the post’s accusations against me and felt I was nothing that it described. Yet there I was breaking into the JAT forums; violating everyone’s trust in me and my integrity.

Later when I went to Virtue to confess what I had done, he asked me “What happened [to you]?” I’m not really sure. I had no intentions of doing anything of this sort, but then when the password was put in front of me I let my curiosity get the best of me. It was sly, deceitful, and dishonorable: things that sound so out of character for me. Yet it was me doing it. My desire to know what was happening overtook my principals, and I fell. I forgot about my friends, the trust put into me by them, and what kind of person I should be. I forgot everything. I don’t think I was power hungry. I don’t think I was hell-bent on rank. I think it was trivial curiosity and wanting to know. Doing something so tragic for something so meaningless – I don’t know if I’ll ever know why.

And so I owe each of you an apology. I have let you all down, I have betrayed you, and I have let down the JA. I have snuck around your backs for no reason better than being curious of what you were doing. I’m torn because I have now lost everyone’s trust, and I deserve no less. You each have given me so many great things and in return I do this. I am so very ashamed of it and I don’t deserve any of what you all have done for me.

I have gone to Virtue and confessed everything I did to him. The JAC have discussed it and Buzz and Virtue met with me this evening. They have decided that I am to be demoted to the rank of student. I will no longer be in control of the IRC bots, of the Aurochs (or their servers), of JA Radio, or any of the other projects I worked on here. I am to receive an official warning and never to be considered for a rank ever again. They were lenient. I should be permbanned on the spot but I guess the JAC decided to give me a little slack. I am not angry over their decision; they did the right thing. Of course I am crushed to no longer be a part of this team, but I am getting what I deserve. I am really going to miss it .

I hope you guys can forgive me, but it’s understandable if you cannot. I hope you will think well of me, but I can see why you’d spit on my name. I honestly have always and will always mean the very best for the JA. One of the JAC dismissed that notion. No….I…really…ment it. I really care a lot about the JA, and I poured my heart and soul into it. Ultimately that might have been what faulted me here in the end. My desire to be even more apart of what was going on may have moved me into darker areas.

In conclusion I want to thank each of you. This has been the best experience I’ve ever had online. I have learned not only tons about the game, but about being a leader, being a teacher, working as a team, new technologies I wasn’t familiar with, and many other aspects that aide me in my life. I have had so much fun with all of you, and I think you’re the best group of people I’ve ever seen on the internet. Each of you is an incredible person, and it has been an honor to say the least.

-Tido