Thread by @fullydavid

I think this is a fair summary of what actually happened, though we clearly have different understandings on what this means, Max is a friend who I suggested as a referee, and I respect him for laying things out clearly 1/n

https://twitter.com/socialevol/status/1422223706093465603

I have a few comments. Firstly, I had been planning to interview Yuri well before the BS process began, and in my view was irrelevant and overdue. I apologised this morning in my message if Yuri presented material that wasn't his and I failed to pick it up, that's on me 2/n

I was initially approached to be a potential referee and this was not appropriate, so was given a role as "observer". It was never made clear what that involved other than access to the Twitter thread to observe the interactions between the referees, and covering the project 3/n

I've also been trying to support the project as much as possible informally, trying to deal with criticisms from people who assume because of Alex's involvement it would be a partisan attempt to whitewash Bret and Heather's content. I've been clear that I don't believe it is 4/n

Some of the most intense criticism all the way through has been coming from Yuri, which I've been trying to head off both publicly and privately, and encourage him to back off and let the process play out. 5/n

At one point he strongly questioned Max Borders' suitability for the role and I forwarded this to Max, with my concerns about the way the process would be perceived, and the impact on him if Yuri was to continue to make public attacks on his credibility. 6/n

Max is a long term friend, someone I have been in dialogue with for some time about all these issues, and someone whose ability to make independent judgements and make up his own mind I find impeccable, which is why I suggested him for the process. 7/n

You can see even from this thread that he values truth above and beyond any other value, even if he thought I'd be unhappy with him, which I'm not. 7/n

As I said, I agreed to no "protocol" or agreement not to communicate with the referees, and part of my coverage of the project is to establish if the process is happening fairly. And as I said this morning, they are clear that Alex and Eva have been above board privately 8/n.

Max's response to my message was a strong "trust the process", which I respected. Was it an error to have forwarded that message to Max. Probably in hindsight, but these things happen. Max is a friend, things have been v heated & I was under no impression this wasn't allowed 9/n

I genuinely thought nothing of it. I perhaps should have realised that my relationship with Max had changed because of the nature of his role in the project, and again, that's my error. 10/n

The main issue is that Alex is convinced that I have been trying to subvert the process from the outset, and has been finding every piece of evidence to make the case. He was even convinced that I had made a burner account to submit claims myself. I didn't. 11/n

I haven't been trying to subvert the process. When I've been involved, it has been to defend it and argue that people should give it a chance. I also took it on myself on multiple occasions to privately message the likes of Yuri to stop the attacks. 12/n

A nice round number 13. This entire area is so heated, given the stakes, and the widespread accusations of bad faith. I've tried my best, and will continue to do so. And likely fail in many ways. 13/13