I did not intend to post anything about this, so as not to add to the drama, but I've been asked several times now for my reasons for leaving ADN. Rather than keep repeating myself, I'll post the following words, which were culled from a couple of PMs and extended a bit, and which sum it up as well as anything. These will be my last words on the subject; I will not elaborate further. Time to move on.
Basically, here's what happened: this has been a long time coming, pretty much ever since the personal attacks attending the whole kerfuffle over Brendan Eich that got me to switch to this account. I've been on ADN radio silence for the last week (publicly, anyway) because I needed some time to think. I just happened to log on yesterday and saw yet another ADN circular firing squad revolving around [REDACTED] (some of which is still going on this morning, actually; take a look at [REDACTED]’s stream). Frankly, I've had enough.
From what I can see, the tenor of the place has changed from what it was in the beginning. If things were different, if I thought the service had a brighter future, I might stay and fight. As it is, it's just more than I have in me.
Yes, Dalton has told us that it can continue indefinitely. He also told us everything was fine, right up until the time the staff got laid off. I hope you'll forgive me if I take it with a few large grains of salt. My honest opinion is that it's probably fine until the next round of renewals, and/or until iOS 8.x or 9 breaks all the apps that the devs have stopped working on (given the Apple-centric nature of ADN, that'll likely kill it quickly). Either way, I don't think the future here is bright. That's why I have been following all the ADN folk I can find on Twitter.
The @adnfuture thing is fine, except that the people behind it have no control or ownership of ADN. It's nice to talk about a new name or extending the API or whatever, except that ultimately it's all rather pointless unless there's buy-in from Dalton and Berg, and there's no sign of that. For that matter, there's no sign of Dalton, either.
I thought a lot about this before doing anything. I take no joy in leaving, and I am going to miss what once was, but what once was is no longer. I'm keeping apps on my phones for PMs and such for those folks who refuse to be anywhere else, but I won't be posting to the public stream (edit: or checking in on it, either). It's just gotten too toxic too much of the time.
So anyway, that's my take on it. I made a lot of friends here, and I hope to stay in touch with them wherever they end up. In the end, as I've been saying repeatedly, community is people. The rest is just software, and software can be replaced.