It's been a quiet few months for DotDotDots but last night the Discord burst into life, it was the sort of resurrection that you'd expect to find in the Bible.
Incase you're unaware DotDotDots is a largely anonymous project, for a brief overview check out this post about the project. The creator's identity is still unknown, people have their suspicions but nothing has been confirmed so far.
It had a lively and passionate community but over the last few months it has gone very quiet, rare interaction from the official Twitter account @functionofdots has lead to many active users moving on and rarely checking back or dropping a message in the server. They can't be blamed, this project had a lot of potential and although I am writing like it has died, it hasn't, last night proved DotDotDots has plenty of life in it!
As with any organisation that lacks direction and leadership there is a power vacuum, and the problem with a vacuum is that it needs to be filled, step forward Dotty.
Apparently a moderator called Dotty has been putting themselves forward as an "ambassador" or something similar, someone that can be the face of the project and ultimately gain some power over the community. This has been going on a while and I only found out yesterday that not only did Dotty set up the Discord but also the unofficial Twitter account, this is where things got interesting.
In a bold power play Dotty created a thirty three tweet thread, yes THIRTY THREE tweets, basically savaging the whole Dots project and making some pretty big claims about rug pulls and trouble within the team running the project. These tweets were posted from the unofficial twitter account which also had a change of name, it was now called OnusDAO. Who knows what OnusDAO really is but one things for sure, it is likely to have some sort of fee for it's product which is due to launch in the next 72 hours.
@functionofdots quickly took to Twitter to make everyone aware there was an issue. It was the sort of tweet that read like a hostage plea, a tweet that you would expect to end with John McClain bursting through a door and dropping Dotty from a window fifty floors high.
This move by Dotty sparked a resurgence of the whole community, long forgotten mods awoke from hibernation, community members not seen since the days of Banksy speculation appeared out of nowhere. The enigma that is Norrin Rad was even talked about, the crowd demanded his return, it was such an unbelievable moment that people dared to dream the impossible. Could Norrin really make a return?
A member called Stalker was awoken at 4:30am to address Dotty and offer some well constructed advice. It must be said that Dotty kept a cool head through all this, it was like they had lit a fire then stepped back to watch the house burn, except it didn't burn. What had happened was a broken community was brought back together, united in a common hatred of Dotty and the nostalgia of a project they had left but were quickly reminded of it's beauty. DotDotDots is a unique experience.
It quickly became obvious that the anonymous aspect of DotDotDots had created this problem, sure it's nice to be anonymous but if you're relying on random community members to build the socials then you can't be shocked if one of them goes on a power trip, it's only a surprise this hadn't happened earlier. Thankfully it forced the hand of the creator and within a couple of hours a new Discord had been set up and fresh information had been laid out that cleared up the confusion.
So for now there are two servers, one run by Dotty which is likely to be turned into an OnusDAO appreciation society and a new fresh server with active members of the DotDotDots base.
Some have speculated that the whole ordeal was a carefully orchestrated effort to revive the project, it has been widely discussed that it is a social experiment and this could quite easily apply to what happened last night, if that is the case then I would consider it a genius move. If, on the other hand, it was a genuine power grab then I'm glad it was quickly resolved and a new framework has been established to provide stability going forward. It could also serve as a warning to other projects that have put trust into moderators. Far too often I see comments of a mod being compromised in Discord which leads to fake links and people being scammed, are all of these cases of hacking or could some of them be opportunistic thieves that have abused community trust? It is something to consider.
So after last nights saga I am pleased to see life in DotDotDots but it will be now be a test to see if this can be sustained, perhaps a review of the server structure and maybe even a role for myself! I promise I won't go full Dotty.
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DotDotDots Socials:
Wesbite - N/A
Discord - https://discord.gg/mrBrtY5stw
Twitter - @functionofdots
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