As a VIP on what.cd, I feel it is my duty to inform the users when issues directly involving them have arisen. The following contains very few mentions of actual usernames, but I can assure you that the sources (of which there are numerous, as I have been investigating this) are all reputable and have direct connections with, have been, or currently are, staff.
On January 17, 2011, an announcement was posted on the front page of what.cd: "An introduction to flattr", a guide to help users quickly and easily set up an account to donate to what.cd. The need for urgency was explained:
Since August, our donations have been down for much longer than they've been up, due mainly to payment providers caving to the demands of the IFPI. As you might imagine, it's been a nervewracking time for us, and we've only been surviving by delving deeper and deeper into our savings.
However, those savings have effectively dried up. Expecting this, we launched a new, solid payment processing system recently - flattr. Unfortunately, flattr is an unfamiliar system to most users, and it can be a bit confusing. As a result, we were not able to make our monthly donation goal in the month that we had flattr running. Thus, we have detailed how to donate via flattr [...]
It all seemed to make sense, in a way. And even if it raised a suspicious eyebrow or two, who is to question those who run this amazing site? They've always been open and honest with the userbase as far as we can tell, and that level of trust is what makes us so willing to hand our cash over to them.
However, it appears that something has been amiss recently. It was noticed that staff began dropping like flies--the latest count is something like eight staff members departing in the span of two weeks. No official farewells, merely quiet demotions. While there is still speculation as to what exactly is happening behind administration's closed doors, we are discovering information that would make it seem that things are not as copacetic as they appear.
Among the numerous staff departures, some things were allegedly brought to light was regarding what.cd's funds.
Around a year and a half ago, a new server was purchased. A moderator named Yibbles elected to pick the server up himself, then transport it wherever it needed to go for the site's use. What.cd put roughly $10,000 into the equipment, and shortly after picking the server up, Yibbles stopped appearing around the site, no longer responding for weeks to months. Presumed to be stolen, Yibbles was disabled and the money considered lost. This is not necessarily new information to many people, but it's fair to assume it's not common knowledge, either. In all fairness, it appears to have been an honest mistake, and given that the equipment has to be touched by human hands regardless, something like this is probably difficult to prevent. It is also reported that the sysops purchased iPhones with the users' donations.
What.cd later had a moderator named TheRiddler. As many of us have often guessed about staff members, TheRiddler had a 'user' account as well, where he could keep his user activity separate from his staff activity. TheRiddler's user account was 'the_e_male'.
Around six months ago, TheRiddler allegedly asked the sysops for a personal loan from the site's funds. Not for a couple hundred dollars, or even a thousand, but $7000. Saying he would pay it back by a certain date, they gave him the money. Around the time he offered to pay the money back, he disappeared from the site, much like Yibbles.
According to reports, the administration told no one about this, not even the moderators. Shortly after this all occurred, What.cd's Paypal was frozen to incoming transactions (they could apparently still pay bills with the account, though). It is reported that prior to the loan to TheRiddler, those in charge of the money spoke confidently of their funds surplus to the other staff. Yet once incoming transactions were frozen, those same people began expressing fears that the site wouldn't survive another month. This contradiction was questioned by the moderators, with no answers given. TheRiddler was eventually demoted in silence, still without explanation to the staff about what had happened--the loan was being swept under the rug entirely.
However, secrets always seem to leak at some point, and it made its way to at least a couple staff members. It is reported that among the recent staff departures from staff, an explanation was requested of TheRiddler's demotion, the loan, and another important detail: 'the_e_male', TheRiddler's user account, was still enabled. Not only 'enabled', but a VIP who was still actively using the site. The administration later half-addressed the issue to its staff, claiming that the_e_male was still enabled because they 'hoped he would pay them back eventually'. What has not been addressed is that fact that this has been hidden from everyone, nor how this will be prevented in the future.
So, with regard to the news post, what the administration means when stating, "those savings have effectively dried up", is that they made an executive decision to give the users' honest donations to another staff member for personal use, then tried to cover up the entire incident when things went awry.
Where does the users' money go? Well, some of it goes to the site. But about $17,000 has gone into other staff members' hands, and it sounds like the administrators have decided to keep it to themselves if they choose to put the money where they shouldn't. The userbase has a right to know where their generous donations go, and it seems more than a little deceptive for the staff to cry poor and place the blame everywhere but internally. Granted, it's their site and have the right to spend their money as they wish, but should people really continue donating to a place where money may disappear without any acknowledgment or visible steps taken toward stopping it from happening again? Having been a VIP for years now, this makes me extremely disappointed, but I feel that the userbase of What.cd has a right to know about it.
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Originally Posted by EyeCandy
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