funny, you don’t seem to be demonstrating “open communication” here. shhhhhh
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Too many sausages not enough buns.
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First of all I just want to say, I don’t know OgreAbroad personally, we have spoken in passing a few times. However I do know enough about him to vouch for the fact that everything I have seen from him, has been in a positive light and I know that he has done so much for the Harmony Community without needing a thank you or praise and without his name needing to be mentioned, he works selflessly for others and he’s truly passionate about Harmony and the survival of the chain, that much I know, So I think people should save the personal attacks so we can have a constructive conversation about what has been raised. I personally believe what he is writing what he has discussed with others, and given the situation mentioned, I can understand why people are fearful, or simply are struggling with the reality of how they feel due to personal relationships and the fact that there is an intervention.
Personally, regarding Stephen, I don’t know what Stephen does day to day, I know nothing about his management style personally and I struggle to think the problems that we face are primarily down to just him. I have heard other peoples opinions which will help with a decision though.
I don’t know who is responsible, However, I have seen decisions being made that I simply can’t fathom or understand, I have been affected personally by decision making and I also struggle with the Q3 plans. I believe higher management have been given more than enough chances to see the light through past decisions followed by public outcry, something which all core members suffer the brunt of when things go wrong. All this time I have never truly known who has made certain decisions in the past although I had suspicions or received hints. I have seen a total change of direction in core team members sentiments in the past with certain topics and have felt during these times that they’re echoing orders rather than speaking how they feel, I have got the sense and I’m pretty certain that a serious amount of bullets have been taken by core team members for decisions that simply weren’t made by them.
One thing I believe is important though, if this should come to a vote, is that there are contingencies in place for which ever way that a vote like this should go. I think there are things to consider here that quite frankly I don’t have answers to-
- Is there a suitable replacement that is ready to step in place and get up to speed during a time when we have very little room for error, or time for a transition period. Is there someone willing to take this potential heat and risk?
- Are there other factors that could be affected here, business partnerships, investors, personal relationships surrounding Harmony that help the chain continue that would out way bad decision making at this very moment.
- Are these bad decisions coming solely from Stephen, or are we making assumptions that all higher management decisions stem from him?
- How will the market react to the removal of Stephen Tse from an internal and external perspective, will it be ‘’Harmony just lost its head genius?’’ or will it be, ‘’Harmony are ready to make changes?’’ And are we sure of our own answer to this question.
- If Stephen Tse was to go, would this truly be enough to cut out the bad decision making?
- Can we truly take a massive shift in management during a time like this? Is this truly going to be a positive move…right now?
- On the flip side, Is that fact that we are in such a crucial time the sole reason why something must be done right now.
- Are there other options at this moment in time?
- Are there other members of higher management that will stand up and admit they have been part of the problem other than just Stephen Tse?
Just throwing a few things out there for people to consider, as this decision will either be a terrible mistake or a positive move. I have a lot of thinking to come to my own conclusions on to what I feel that will be. It’s a shame we couldn’t have more transparency and opinions openly from more core team members but I can completely understand if that doesn’t happen due to the severity of this situation.
Whatever the outcome, I just hope it’s for the best.
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With you on this one. There’s a method and a practice to resolving this. Builders especially want this taken care of so we can give our investors back the peace of mind they lost.
I don’t care for the rhetoric; in my opinion, it’s a waste of time. @OgreAbroad1 has made his choice in how to present the info. I say present away. However, next time I would recommend leading with evidence.
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@Pioneer - While I agree that @OgreAbroad1 has gone for the jugular vein, I really want you to go in and read the performance review comments about Stephen & Li for Q1 & Q2 2022.
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There is no data of team feedback on Stephen’s performance.
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The performance review data is literally missing for a couple of team members.
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While performance review details about individual team members might be different, it’s literally an NPC styled copypasta feedback for the Chief Operations Officer over past 6 months that “chews on details about areas of improvement.”
When I had mentioned operational deficiencies as key thorn in the operations process months ago, this is what I was concerned about. For example : A CFO or Head of Finance doing Treasury Management would have any questioned operations lead months ago over prospective bloat in line-item expenses.
The lack of checks & balances for adversarial thinking is too apparent, or does feel as an recurring issue that is frequently getting ignored.
I would like to reiterate what I said before : I wouldn’t necessarily attribute the current sequence of events within the community over the past 8-9 months to incompetence during the learning curve, but the contributing factor to be a serious lack of appropriate, specialized & staff level manpower. This is an issue projects frequently encounter when they are unsure about the pace on how to meaningfully scale.
While an argument has been struck, there is a middle ground that can be reached here, as stated above.
Final point : I absolutely DO NOT want to hear ideas about Harmony One being a community-owned chain or community ownership, because we are not Ethereum.
The community has absolutely ZERO idea about the team’s internal pipelines (which are already under duress atm), nor does it have a great degree of experienced industry professionals (developers, ex-founders, business development individuals) to take charge of the project, by any reasonable metric. Any such outcome, is ways down the road.
Therefore, it’s best to use the platform to be appropriately suggestive & constructive, than spark mutiny. If the team needs private feedback, they know where & when to reach out.
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I am extending a invitation to anyone here who wishes to come and voice their opinion, live on my show on Twitch on Friday.
A constructive conversation is required.
Reach out on Twitter, here or Discord or telegram.
Thanks - Andy.
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This topic just remind me the resignation of
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
His resignation does not solve the UK problem anyway.
And this can apply to the current status of Harmony.
We should focus on solving the problem, not just finger pointing to find the “witch”.
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With what conversations and twitterspaces I’ve had around or invlolving Ogre, this is not something being done blindly. I do, however, believe it is being done hastily. While it may not be justified, the lack of communication on their part does not earn more clear communication on ours and Ogre’s probably reacting just as much to that as anything else.
The guy friggin’ went in person to Palo Alto in pursuit of answers. While the effort is commendable, it appears that to him it also produced results, which he’s choosing to follow up on now.
But Ogre, you better have a team in place ready to pick up that scope and run with it or they’ll be just as likely to plug up the drains on the way out. This one was premature.
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To be frank, this timeline is absolutely ridiculous. I cannot take any of this seriously.
Stephen and Li helped get Harmony to a top 10 chain by TVL. I understand that’s not where it is today, but they have had success before and they can do it again. What we need to get there is cooperation and constructive criticism, not blackmail.
Given everything the Harmony team is going through right now, you cannot just walk into their office and expect 1:1 time with Stephen and Li. Calling your attempt to get 1:1 time with them “one last chance to save face” is quite disrespectful. I cannot even imagine an individual who even remotely understands the current circumstances taking this approach.
There have been blunders in the past, but the recent actions from Stephen and the core team have shown me that they are listening and will strive to continue to improve. There are some absolutely incredible team members/founders on the core team, including Daniel, Giv, and RJ, just to name a few. You need to realize that Stephen helped build this team.
Anyway, this post doesn’t change my view on the Harmony core team. They’re going through a very rough patch but I will remain supportive to the end because the core team is simply amazing.
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My team and I scheduled 1-on-1 time with another Harmony rep and got stood up. Given the existing circumstances, it’s really hard to not draw conclusions from that. Even if the expectation of at-will 1-on-1 time is unrealistic, we’re not even being responded to by the normal means.
I’m really trying to stay neutral here, but operationally things are FUBAR with Harmony as an organization. I offered to help at the beginning and got ignored (through multiple venues), so that implies to me that either they have the help they need or they don’t want it. I don’t think either is a very acceptable response, but I can’t affect things with core. Our team can’t get a concrete answer on the fate of this chain and we have our project and investors to be concerned with. I know we’re not the only ones and now I hear that @Tailchakra is having trouble staying afloat. These are projects that got Harmony to where they were at peak. Do we just leave them in the dark now? Doesn’t seem acceptable to me, either.
Take the threats out of Ogre’s OP for a second and the evidence (edit: concern) still matches up with experiences like the ones I have had and probably many others. Makes it really hard for us to justify staying, especially when we have to be good stewards of our investors’ funds on top of everything else.
Blunders are forgetting to turn off the coffee pot when you leave for the day. We’re well past blunders and the calls for accountability are a reflection of that. I personally don’t have confidence, but I’m putting the influence in where I can: at the ground level. It’s what I suggest we all do, instead of flocking to this thread as the tastiest Harmony gossip. Ain’t gonna be a chain worth saving if there’s nothing to run on it and, like @Mando said, everybody wants to try steering this ship rn.
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It takes 10 min of your time to communicate something if you know how, tbh i cant believe they are letting this post unanswered for almost 24hs, i DONT think tse has to step down, but harmony as a whole needs to understand communication is really important and you cant just wait, like in this case until more and more ppl get confused and lost. even more if rumours are running wild.
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I agree!
Communication has been an issue, and still is right now an issue.
It is what makes this post so believable, even though I cannot guarantee the authenticity of this post. Using an alt account & not a core dev making this post, please don’t blame me. But I don’t know what connections you have.
BUT
I have seen multiple projects speak out about not being able to talk to the core team and it’s heart breaking.
To make myself clear I’m just a delegator and talk (A lot) in the community.
I have seen no reason myself to blame tse, but I do believe something needs to change and I can see why the community wants to find the source of that.
Please talk more Harmony Team…
Much love,
Chaos
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This is the most dysfunctional team and community I unfortunately am part of…guess all my hope and dream for Harmony is gone.
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Yeah, I haven’t even gotten into how rough this is for the validators, who are wrestling with their own profitability issues.
Really, it’s a sign of a problem long-ignored. Hang in there @james_p and if you wouldn’t mind, could you share your validator link (assuming that’s allowed)?
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Leadership starts at the top and that’s Stephen. Stephen is a brilliant technologist and Harmony is a great blockchain. Unfortunately, it’s time for him to become a chief technologist (as in Bill Gates) and hand the CEO reign to someone more capable (as in Satya Nadella).
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Ah I’m currently with OtekaOne who unfortunately got unelected recently, I’m usually in the Harmoforce chat so I totally understand the validator issues.
On the bright side hopefully the 200 million $one will pull through soon 
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With regards to the 200 million $one promises, for a delegator on the edge (like me), I’d have to lower fees from 15% to 5% to apply. 15% is keeping us close to breaking even.
Given the recent history, should I trust that I’ll be “taken care of” if I lower fees?
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I think the real question on everyone’s mind is:
How’s the Vegan Africa DAO going?! Vegan Africa DAO - Project X Grant Proposal
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I have taken a complete 180 on my position regarding the decision that needs to be made. As you can see from my above comments, I have tried to remain subjective and, on the fence in a neutral position so we could up with a sensible and realistic outcome for this.
I have since had conversations with people close to the epicentre of this topic, I do not take this lightly and it honestly hurts to say this-
Stephen Tse needs to step down with immediate action.
Mark my words, If Stephen doesn’t resign, we will no longer have a Harmony, we will no longer have talented core team. I no longer believe that we need to way up if this will be a bad move due to timing or a good decision based on true responsibility of bad decision making. I am now certain in my own mind that it’s completely necessary for immediate action.
The last thing I wanted to do today is to shoot down a hero, someone who I have looked up to and always wanted to think the best from. However I believe that Stephens presence is not only bad due to bad decision making, but more importantly damaging to efforts to sort out real issues and problems that should be our upmost priority as a blockchain. I now believe Stephens very presence within this core team is damaging to the absolute core of what Harmony is supposed to be, the people, the chain and the culture.
For anyone reading this, you do not have to trust my position, I would expect you to come to your own conclusions regarding this. My conclusion is based on my own opinion and based on the information I have come to learn.
For anyone that wants to understand why core team members would not want to stand up to what they believe is right, you have to understand some company cultures, you cannot stand alone and be the first to push for a revolution, especially if you know that your opinions will be brushed off as nonsense by the people in power or worst case, be immediately dismissed from your position for not understanding the masterplan of the gods. Much like a regime, sometimes leaders believe that everyone is on side when people are too scared to speak the truth, which further spirals the damaging self-belief that their decision making is impeccable, some people may seem this as spineless when people don’t speak up, however I see this as preservation, peoples rent depend on this, peoples careers and peoples families. You cannot always walk up to the emperor and tell him he needs to step down whether you have people around you or not. Some leaders will always, to the last dying breath fail to admit they are the problem, and whilst they are in power, you have to tread lightly.
If Stephen should happen to read this. I do apologize regardless of the opinions I now hold, and I’m sure this will be difficult to come to admit, but your actions and presence are damaging the very thing that you started to build for us, It can still serve as an amazing tool for many, to improve lives and the blockchain space as a whole, but it’s no longer in Harmony’s best interest to have you at the helm. Please take time to reflect on this with an open mind, on what will be best for Harmony, it’s core team members and its communities.
I truly believe that following Stephen Tse stepping down that even if a suitable replacement isn’t found, that we will see rapid action in the areas that are vital for survival, we will see an abundance of the right action, an improvement in communication and more importantly healing in areas of the blockchain which we so desperately need.
I believe I have said enough. I don’t particularly want to have long back and forwards on why I feel this way, what I have come to learn and from who. This forum was built for opinions and view points, and sadly these are now mine.
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I hear you brother, and appreciate the honest feedback from you as well as many others.
This has not been fun, nor necessarily the best way to handle things in my opinion either.
Part of the reason I am not just presenting tons of facts, is that much of the information I got from team members whom I trust. In some cases there is no proof.
I won’t make accusations without proof.
The team has kinda disappointed me here. I never thought that I was going to end up being the patsy to force Stephen to listen, and hopefully change… but it’s appearing as though that may end up being the end result.
At this point, I’m going to stop until/ unless the team is able to stand up and speak their truth.
I’ve done enough damage to the chain I love, while operating with the best of intentions.
Bottom line though, because of the way a cryptocurrency is formed, there is no internal lever for the team to remove him. It has to be his choice. They do t think he will, so they won’t stand up… for fear of being fired.
I fully expect that we will begin to see an exodus of team members, followed by projects/devs, and then finally those loyal few who rode ONE to the bottom.
The team has very little money left. They cannot repeg without outside help. Those who choose to stay are likely in for a long wait, that may end up fruitless.
I wish I could say that I saw another likely outcome. I know it doesn’t look like it to those of you who don’t know me…
But I just burned OgreAbroad to the ground to try and save Harmony.
Unlike many, I stick to my Handle, and I’ve built OgreAbroad for longer than many of you have been alive (~ 22 years)
If I was willing to do that… it should tell you something. I wish you all the best of luck. This will be my last post on this Forum.
OgreOne Out. 
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