Ben

There's a lot to unpack here but... yeah this isn't how I would have done things

I think their hearts are in the right place but the apology part of it feels really forced, at no point do they really apologize for the mishandling of the situation or place the blame on themselves :/

It’s like they were so close but at the end of the statement retracted everything. Until they realize this one incident is what brought the pot over boiling they will not fully understand what is happening...

yeah it definitely seems like they think the issue is with the transparency and not the behavior

I think there is a discussion to be had regarding what can be done moving forward. As for the apology, there was a reasonable basis for why the board ruled as it did, and while I understand why some may view it as half-assed or insincere, I do not agree with that assessment.

As the main drafter of the statement here (hi earl!), what would you have preferred to see included? There were apologies, we seriously feel bad about the way we treated Cinder.

I just feel the apologies were a bit backhanded. they didn’t really apologize for the mishandling of the situation as much as the perception of it. it felt very impersonal but that’s subjective. I understand there was probably no way to write a statement that satisfied everyone

I can see that. Let me say though that in writing the portions where I was reviewing my email on behalf of DoA responding to Cinder about his concerns, I felt awful reading the words I typed. If the apology seemed insincere then I did not write/deliver well, I felt horrible.