I've contributed to several Telegram-related products that people still use today. At the same time, I can't really say I'm especially proud of most of the projects I created entirely by myself. Many of them eventually died because they required much more time and maintenance than I was able to give them. My most popular personal project is probably @gifts_detector. Maybe in the near future, especially with the help of modern AI models, I'll be able to revive some of the projects I worked on in the past.
8⃣ Let’s talk about one of the most controversial and discussed matters regarding you. dictionary.tg reports an event involving you and pyrouser, where an argument escalated into doxxing. Would you like to explain what really happened how a simple opinion about a bot led to a near arrest, and how the whole situation eventually ended?
There was a conflict between me and Aleksandr (Mark) where we had very different opinions and statements about each other. Unfortunately, it escalated far beyond what the original disagreement was about, and personal information ended up being shared by people on multiple sides, including third parties and supporters. I don't think there's much value in restarting that conflict today or going through every accusation again. People who are genuinely interested in the history of it can probably still find archived discussions and old posts, but personally I consider it something that should have been handled very differently by everyone involved.
9⃣ Which Telegram projects that you were not involved in are your favorites, and do you know the people behind them?
I know people behind quite a few projects that are still popular in the Telegram ecosystem. One of my personal favorites is My Wallet, formerly MyTonWallet. I really like the direction in which the project has been growing, as well as the way the team communicates with and supports its users.
1⃣ Do you plan to create new projects or develop new initiatives related to the ones you’re currently working on?
I'm honestly not sure yet, and I don't want to make promises about the future. Right now, there aren't many new public Telegram projects that I'm especially interested in building from scratch. I'm more interested in creating tools and automations for my own use. That said, I'll probably still try to revive several of my older projects.
💬 Telegram isn't a perfect platform and has a huge problem with OSINT bots and exploits being discovered every day. What are your thoughts on this? Have you ever been threatened as a result of your public role? If so, how did you react?
I haven't really been seriously threatened because of being a public person. Actually, I enjoy the small amount of recognition that comes with it. Sometimes I join a chat and people I've never met say something like, "Hey Aryn, I know you," and then tell me they've seen my posts or used one of the projects I worked on. I think that's pretty cute, and moments like that have definitely motivated me to keep doing public projects and sharing things with the community.