stoat.exposed
Founder exhibit · Insert
The we, the I, and the Ltd.
Stoat’s landing page is a chorus. The FAQ is a single owner. Companies House is one name. This page is that person’s public record.
Identity
Pawel Makles, also Insert.
Public names attached to the same project: GitHub insertish, handle Insert, legal name Pawel Makles (Companies House also files “Pawel”). Born March 2003, Polish national, UK resident. Domain contact for stoat.chat. Data controller of your messages. Person of significant control of Revolt Platforms Ltd, 75% or more.
GitHub README, current: “i currently work @ FUTO on the Immich team / i made Stoat (formerly Revolt) / fastest way to reach me is through the Stoat Lounge or at insert#0751 on Discord.” The Discord-alternative founder still routes the fastest ping through Discord.
The original three
Vale’s history, written by a long-time Revolt contributor who later designed Toast: in 2019 three students in their mid-teens, Paul Makles, Rene Vinter (Nizune), and Martin Löffler (FatalErrorCoded), ran Riot on Patreon. It died mid-2019. Revolt started in late 2019 as a Rust learning project. The API server’s name stuck.
Vinter left in early 2023. Löffler’s contributions slowed, then stopped. Vortex 2.0, the old voice stack, entered development hell after that departure. LiveKit replaced it years later and still launched unusable. The “team” on the blog is mostly the person who remained, plus later maintainers (Jennifer / infi on Android, Zomatree on iOS, Declan Chidlow on docs, bots, and the mascot).
Volunteer basis
On 2 December 2023 Vale emailed Insert a dossier of user concerns. The team wiki published it. Vale wrote that Jennifer “prefers to have the platform closed source,” that her “primary motivation for keeping code proprietary is so she can collect praise,” and that feedback on the Android app was often met with “a dismissive or snide response.” On Zomatree: “constant condescending remarks and insults,” “cope,” and “chad” reactions to closed source, “even in serious contexts.” Vale asked that Revolt not endorse the Android app as official if the source never landed, and that the CLA be narrowed so it could not relicense the project closed.
Insert’s reply, 24 January 2024: an open-source license had been “chosen” for both mobile apps, to be published “in due time.” He would not “exert control over anyone’s views / beliefs / actions or remove anyone unless if it is truly detrimental to Revolt.” Team conduct “recommends preferring to be helpful to others but it is not a strict requirement and certainly not enforced as everything is on a volunteer basis.” He asked Vale for “concrete examples” on Jennifer’s feedback handling, and said he had spoken to Zomatree “unrelated to this inquiry” and that they had “agreed to make an improvement.”
That is the documented pay story for the other names on the masthead: volunteer. Donations, in the FAQ, cover “operational costs.” Large gifts go through Insert. His GitHub bio lists a paid FUTO/Immich job. The public record does not show a payroll for Stoat developers, and it does not show a vacation ledger either.
Vale inquiry, archived · 11 May 2024 controversy, archived
How he talks in public
On why Revolt exists, first person. “I’ve had a few people say, ‘why not just contribute to X?’, the answer is quite simple, I just didn’t know about any of these projects (i.e. Matrix).”
On money, first person. “if you want to make a larger donation, please consult me first.” Personal Ko-fi split: “long overdue… Future donations here will just fuel my development costs.”
On the rebrand, first person, two days late. “I apologise for the way this ended up being handled… I intend to write up a postmorterm within the next week.”
On the landing page, chorus. “We’ve got no board to please.” “We actually listen.” “Free and open source, now and forever.”
The week that keeps slipping
3 October 2025: a postmortem “within the next week.” The live updates index still has the rebrand post and no postmortem of that week. 11 May 2024: after a lounge fight over FOSS, Insert wrote that some people were “permanently dropping their association,” that he would “Ignore the drama completely going forwards,” and that licensing would be sorted “by the end of May.” The June addendum still owed Discover and Shield. The FAQ, last updated 10 May 2024, still has financial transparency reports coming soon. GitHub discussion #1050: the “main character” tagline, 161 thumbs up on the complaint, locked by Declan Chidlow after “starting to turn into attacks,” with a promise the line would change.
He does ship. Discriminators, an architecture overhaul, Android, a new web client, a million registered users. The exhibit is the mismatch: a homepage that sounds like a foundation, a filing that sounds like a sole trader, and a calendar full of “next week.”
What this page will not do
It will not recycle a rival’s CSAM threads as evidence. Those posts live on r/dcts and get cited from dcts.community as “trustworthiness.” Stoat’s AUP forbids CSAM. A single Trustpilot review is not a finding.
It will not invent a lifestyle. There are no public receipts of parties funded by Ko-fi. There are two tip jars, a Ltd with unpublished first accounts, and a founder who also has a FUTO salary. That is already the story.
If you would not hand a community’s plaintext message history to one 23-year-old whose legal entity still uses the name a lawyer made him drop, you already understand the product.