Terry McIntosh Resigns
Lead Developer Resigns Amid Fulfillment Problems
Main article: What's Up With the Perks?
See also: Axanar Scrambles to Ship Perks and Axanar Launches New Fulfillment Platform
Terry McIntosh was the chief technologist and a co-producer for Axanar Productions, as well as the lead developer of its Ares Digital perk fulfillment software for crowdfunding projects. He announced his departure from Axanar in a post on his Facebook page on May 16, 2016:
Well, I guess it’s almost official, sans some paperwork and for whomever volunteers as their new geek to make some geeky changes. … I’ve separated from Axanar.
Today is very bittersweet, and an extremely sad day, but it needed to be done. I will look back on the past two years fondly, because I choose to remember only the good times. My very best wishes to everyone on the team for the future!1)
Donor Complaints
Donor complaints about Kickstarter rewards not being delivered, while Donor Store merchandise appears to be constantly shipping, are what led to AxaMonitor’s analysis of perk fulfillment. This comment by user Kelly Lincoln on Axanar’s Kickstarter is typical:
UPDATE On September 9, 2016, Kingsbury announced a new software platform had come online to manage long-delayed shipments to donors. See: Axanar Launches New Fulfillment Platform.
You know since my first contribution to this kickstarter I have not received even one items initially promised. I stopped expecting to a long time ago but frankly it was a waste of my money. I am amazed though that they basically got away with taking the money from people and not fulfilling their promises.2)
Several days after initial publication of the AxaMonitor perks analysis, in his May 5, 2016, “Captain’s Log,” producer Alec Peters announced that continued delays by Ares Digital developer Terry McIntosh would no longer prevent shipping of Kickstarter backers’ patches:
As to the patches from the first Kickstarter that have been sitting by Diana’s desk for 9 months while we have waited for Terry [McIntosh] to finish Ares Digital? Well, we decided that if Ares Digital isn’t finished by the end of [May 2016], we will either use BackerKit or use Kickstarter directly to generate the labels to ship these out. I am sure you would all like those patches, and I am VERY tired of them not being sent out. So we will get these to you shortly!3)
PATCHES The languishing Kickstarter backers’ patches are the first four pictured above. The fifth is from the Axanar Indiegogo and the Starfleet Disaster Response was available for Axanar’s “special events.”
While McIntosh refrained from specifying his reasons for leaving the production, another post on his Facebook page just two days after Peters posted about perks seemed to imply the source of his disappointment:
Had an online friend really screw something up to their detriment and all they can do is blame other people for it on their Facebook posts, when it’s clear that they own that one completely. Heck, I’ve screwed some things up in the last year… but I own that. Sure, it’s easier to blame others, but it’s flat out dishonest when someone doesn’t own up to their mistakes. As you said, learn from it, figure out (honestly) where the mistake(s) were made so that they’re not made again, and then work to improve.4)
In response to how he felt about Peters’ criticism about Ares Digital not being able to fulfill perk fulfillment, McIntosh replied:
Thankfully, that’s not a problem that I’m going to have to solve any longer.5)
Unnamed Defendant?
As one of Axanar Productions’ senior staff, and a producer of Axanar, some had speculated McIntosh might be one of the unnamed defendants in the copyright infringement lawsuit brought against Axanar by CBS and Paramount Pictures.
In another recent Facebook post, McIntosh claimed he was unbowed by the potential threat posed to him by the lawsuit:
My assets are well protected, so P/C [Paramount and CBS] wouldn’t get any blood from this turnip, any more than they’d get a cent from Alec [Peters] or Axanar Productions. =P The only people that seem to be concerned about the Does are the people shoveling san in to their vaginas. … I’m not one of them, sorry. Sue me, P/C! I need a free trip [to Los Angeles]!“6)
'Night of the Long Knives'
McIntosh, a technologist who lives in Seattle, had led the development of much of Axanar’s infrastructure, including its website and other online presence, including Axanar’s online Donors' Store and various Facebook groups for which he served as the admin, including the Axanar Fan Page and the donors-only Axanar page.
It was in role of Facebook group admin that McIntosh attracted the most attention, with his brusque comments aimed at people who dissented from the party line, finally culminating monitoring group members’ online activities and in a mass banning of fans who had come to question the wisdom of Axanar’s production delays, spending and crowdfunding.
Future of Ares Digital?
Axanar spokesman Mike Bawden announced McIntosh’s departure on the Axanar Donors Group on Facebook:
As many of you know, Terry has moved and will no longer be moderating this group or the Axanar Fan Group.7)
Mcintosh confirmed, ”[I] am no longer involved with the production in any way. … I’ll remain a member this group and the fan group, since I’m a proper donor, too.“
In a Facebook post the following day, he detailed the current status of the Ares Digital platform as he left it:
[Ares Digital] is still viable in that some work would need to be done (maybe 7-9 full days and for me those are typically in the 12-16 hours range) to make it “ready for retail,” so to speak. … A[res] D[igital] has been stagnant because I just haven’t been interested in it. As I also said, I created it for fun and when it stopped being fun I pushed it to the side.8)
In a June 6, 2016, Facebook post, however, fulfillment director Diana Kingsbury announced Ares Digital was to be replaced by a new system.
McIntosh went on to defend his stance, telling a group of Axanar critics he had documentation proving he had fully disclosed this to Peters:
All parties involved were given that disclaimer many times and from the get-go — email history and Facebook PM history, which are both searchable, show that if anyone had a doubt that was involved — so while I’ll gladly volunteer to nibble around the edges of a turd burger for making the decision to shove it aside for my own reasons, I’m not willing to take on a full bite.9)
Regarding the future of Ares Digital, the proprietary crowdfunding fulfillment software he developed on Axanar’s behalf to sell as a service to other crowdfunded projects future, McIntosh held out the possibility for it to become “a nice little profit center” that might also be provided as an open-source platform. “The latter surely would cause a few sphincters to tighten in that market segment,” he added.10)
Another Crowdfunded Production
McIntosh is also listed as director of marketing for another web series, Blade of Honor, an original science fiction drama also seeking crowdfunding. He served in the same position for Prelude to Axanar. Many of the same cast and crew work on the two productions. 
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