This marks the beginning of everything wrong to come. Everything listed here (other than my opinion) was leaked on toontown.co.uk. However, I feel that all the messages are very difficult to read, so I took the liberty of summarizing everything. Though if you're here just for my opinion, feel free to scroll down to the very bottom. If you'd like to read for yourself, click here to download the ZIP file.
Toontown Offline staff chat is comprised of staff, active contributors, and guests. Active contributors can chat in all channels and have access to source, much like staff.
King Mickey wanted to use the Litigator head model for one of his projects. Poppy and Loonatic said he probably couldn't. Then Disyer pitched in and offered to decrypt the Clash files in order to get the head to him (circumvents asking permission). Loon pleaded to Disyer multiple times, but he did it anyway. Clash leads eventually find out and demand an official apology from Disyer for doing it and Toontown Offline (namely Benjamin) for letting it happen. Eliz and Vamp pushed for these apologies. Eliz's claim in particular was included in the screenshot leak. The Clash leads were also unhappy with the Clash bad-mouthing that occurred in staff chat.
This resulted in a group chat being made on February 20th, 2021 to discuss this issue. The group chat was comprised of 7 Clash Leads (Poppy included) and 2 Offline Leads (Benjamin included).
The Clash leads were unhappy that Disyer ultimately didn't receive any visual repercussions. Ben makes an issue of this by claiming there wasn't anything he could do other than "make a song and dance out of the situation," which he wouldn't do. He states that he couldn't control his actions because he isn't a team member. Ben makes an issue of the bad-mouthing claim by stating that one person's actions (namely Drew in particular bad-mouths Clash often) shouldn't represent that of the entire team, especially when a lot of Offline staff is either on both teams or were huge fans of Clash. Ben states that he wouldn't be forcing Disyer to apologize because it was up to Disyer to.
Ben goes out and states that Toontown Offline doesn't apologize for what happened. He reasons that since Clash found out about this, it could be considered leaking and he expects an apology from Corporate Clash and the same kind of punishment to those who forwarded this decrypting situation to Clash staff. He makes an issue with John Cote being accepted onto the Corporate Clash team due to the events of February 2019 (the Offline Split of 2019). Ben finds it ridiculous that Clash views Toontown Offline as actively hostile towards Clash. He finds it ridiculous that he was contacted about it, as he isn't the team lead; he was a creative lead and game developer, and highlights that he was one of the people to tell Disyer to stop.
TL;DR What came from the members in complaint should not represent Toontown Offline as a whole, and in turn shouldn't warrant Clash asking Benjamin for an apology, to which on behalf of Toontown Offline refuses to apologize.
Poppy's first argument is that there should be a moral standard held for each member that engages within the Toontown Offline staff chat and that Ben didn't do enough to remedy the situation. Poppy also argues that given that this situation involves multiple parties rather than just two, it would've been responsible that other parties were notified that something happened. Instead, Clash was left in the dark.
Poppy states that there's a difference between self-expression and doing something that you know is wrong just because they're your friend. He makes the argument that Disyer more represents Toontown Offline because he has association with the team. He's in staff chats, specifically labeled as active contributor. This is unlike JJKoletar, who was not in direct contact with the Clash team. Poppy also states that it's foolish for Clash to apologize because Offline was the one to try leaking first due to Disyer decrypting the Clash resources.
TL;DR Offline didn't do enough to remedy the situation: Parties involved weren't contacted, and Disyer wasn't held to a higher standard given his place in the staff chat.
Ben emphasizes that the closest person to Disyer tried to get him to stop and points to Poppy not doing anything to stop Disyer. Ben agrees with Poppy's argument that Disyer ignoring people telling him to stop "speaks volumes about his character." Ben argues that Disyer not being a team member isn't justification for not doing anything. He also doesn't see how Disyer being more associated to Offline than JJKoletar was to Clash changes anything. He highlights that he had to confront Disyer, who he holds very closely as a friend, as a way to show how unbiased Offline was with this situation.
Ben accuses Poppy of thinking that he let Disyer crack the files because they're friends. Ben also states that nothing was leaked, rather Disyer simply gloated about what he did. Otherwise there would've been bigger issues. He also suggests to Poppy that their encryption method should be improved. Ben agrees with Poppy that Disyer should've known better than to post about it given the Clash members on Offline.
Ben claims that the Clash leads should've asked before leaking logs about the decryption. He admits that they should've contacted Clash sooner in hindsight, and that Offline simply didn't have this in mind. He also reiterates that Disyer isn't an Offline team member.
TL;DR The situation left him to do things that he didn't want to do, such as confront Disyer, and points at Poppy for not doing anything about the situation despite being so concerned about what happened.
Ben ends the discussion after 32 hours without response and makes some closing remarks. Ben was disappointed that the group chat didn't become a proper discussion, and instead became a bunch of long messages between only two of the parties. He was particularly disappointed that the points of "Ben being singled out," "Why Clash leads thought the team was wholy hostile/salty towards Clash," and "John Cote joining the Clash team" weren't discussed. Before departing, he emphasizes the following:
Disyer is not a Toontown Offline team member and does not represent Toontown Offline.
Toontown Offline does not apologize for what happened. Offline team members told him to stop, he was given a stern talking to, and given a final warning. Ben then states that they should be thanking Offline.
19/36 Offline team members have a sizable involvement in Clash, whether it being a Clash team member or having a high laff Toon.
Ben states that the whole situation has left him very stressed and soured his views on Corporate Clash as a whole. He leaves with the advice to discuss this further with Disyer and leaves the group chat.
It's interesting just how much Benjamin tries to pull good guy in this situation. He frequently brought up that he had to confront Disyer about this, and that it was hard for him to because they're friends. I don't know why he would be bringing this up so often if he believed that it was the right thing to do. I'm also confused as to why he thought a huge opener would be inviting for open-ended discussion when it was clearly going for a more letter approach, hence why Poppy replied the way he did.
I believe that Toontown Offline is in the wrong for this one. For one thing, the staff structure was set up in a way that makes Disyer look like a part of the team, when he really isn't. "Active Contributor" is a really vague title that could apply to people inside and outside of the staff. It's understandable why Corporate Clash would think that Disyer represented Toontown Offline more than what he's actually was.
Speaking of representation, Benjamin was extremely tone-deaf as to why the Clash leads went to Benjamin about this situation. Sure, he wasn't the head lead of Toontown Offline, only being Creative Lead and Game Developer at that time. However, out of anybody on the team, he was THE FACE of Toontown Offline at that time period. He has written the vast majority of blog posts on the Toontown Offline website, which was true even when John Cote was team lead. Many people could easily see the staff as "Benjamin and the Toontown Offline Team." Of course the Clash staff would confront Benjamin about this. It's the same thing with Joey Ziolkowski and the Toontown Rewritten Team, but you don't see him resigning because someone had an issue.
Something that particularly irks me about Benjamin's arguments is the fact that he brought up John Cote as a problematic figure in the Corporate Clash Team, citing his meltdown that resulted in the Offline Split of 2019. I'm unsure why he would bring up a two year old event and compare it to something that happened just days before during the group DM. It feels as though he wanted to take the opportunity to throw John under the bus again, but that's just my perspective.
Overall, I feel that Offline, particularly Benjamin, was in the wrong for berating the Clash leads in how they had viewed the Offline team. This is an example of the carefree work environment of Toontown Offline becoming less cohesive with the overall maturing Toontown creative community, which would only get worse as time went on.