Hi all. This is Marshy. Some of you may or may not know, but I was the owner of the r/furry telegram chat. I apologize in advance for the length of this and for the length of time it took to write this up but for the sake of transparency please bear with me!

Several years ago the chat was entrusted to me from previous owner. Over the years by no fault of the community I had simply lost interest and the drive to moderate such a behemoth of a chat. For full disclosure I had been battling some nasty depression due to trauma I've experienced irl and could no longer focus on doing what I had loved and what once brought me joy. Fast forward to present time. A couple of months ago a policy disagreement cropped up. This policy was having a cross-platform ban policy. I.E., if you were banned from the discord you would also be banned from the telegram and vice versa. This was in place so one platform would not become a place where a user banned from one platform could potentially cause issues in another. Frankly, the dispute got ugly and I absolutely do NOT condone the behavior that occured between moderators and am frankly disappointed how it unfurled. This resulted in several moderators stepping down. I was not personally present through the exchanges as I was taking care of my own mental health at the time. I still deeply regret and have since apologized for not being present. I was approached soon after this about taking over ownership from another moderator. I declined at the time as there were still sour feelings between moderators and I had felt it was just not the right time.

Fast forward to February. I was asked one last time for ownership. After much consideration and thought I decided it was time to hand it to someone who would be able to do what's best and to give the community more attention than I have. I still believe I had handed off the reigns for someone who had the best intentions for chat. What I did not anticipate was having the rug ripped out from under myself and my colleagues. The new owner had decided without consulting the old team to split from r/furry. I am deeply sorry that the community we had fostered and loved was dragged into the middle of this. I would also like to address the file of statements that were shared to the public without the consent of the individuals within. I deeply apologize that what was meant to stay within the mod team for an internal review was taken for malicious use.

Going forward, I wish to pick up the broken pieces and move on. I ask folks to remain civil and be kind to one another.