It seems Fractured Crystal has finally bitten off more than he can chew, and the entire Emerald gang may soon fork their viewer or call it quits.
What happened? Well, as of a few days ago, Emerald users were unknowingly being co-opted into becoming a part of a botnet designed to perform a DDoS(distributed denial of service) attack on the website of Hazim Gazov, a known distributor of a copybot client who has taken it upon himself to expose the "shenanigans" of the Emerald gang. Hazim quickly discovered what was going on and wasted no time bringing the crime into the public light. The news caught on like wildfire, and given the recent departure of LordGregGreg Back(he quit on ethical principles, believe it or not), the backlash is finally making Linden Lab consider outright banning Emerald.
What happens next is anybody's guess. If LL decides to ban Emerald, it's game over for all of them, including the devs who aren't total douchebags. If Emerald isn't banned, then most likely Emerald will fracture(pun intended) in two.
Either way, it's natural justice against Fractured and Phox. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
"I've got shit to do. I'm TP'ing out." - Fractured Crystal
Update: Fractured has issued a mea culpa on the Modular Systems blog(jokingly titled "Off with his head"), where he announced he will be "voluntarily" leaving Emerald and hand over control of the project to Arabella Steadham. That still leaves Phox, Fractured's BFF in crime still hanging around, and who's to say Fractured won't simply rejoin the project under a new alt account? Even LordGregGreg has come out completely against using Emerald regardless of Fractured's departure, and started his own fork. Who do you trust?
Update 2: The Lindens' first official action on the matter... Emerald is no longer listed in the TPV directory.
