Background Origin and Evolution of Q Anon

Just to make sure I mention this first. People can claim to be involved in anything. I am simply trying to share one particular path along the Q Anon trail that many don't know of. However deep Defango is a part of this is also a valid question.
I don't think I've seen this covered. Hopefully, I am adding something to the conversation.

I'm friends with a notorious 'YouTube' personality named Manny, i.e. DEFANGO.
We met at a co-working space in Chandler, Arizona back in November, 2017. He was recording episodes of his previous YouTube channel out of the facility and we had many an occasion to hang out and talk.

Like many others, I was alerted to the original Q drops in October of 2017. I too found the 'connections' between the crumbs and Trump's Twitter posts interesting.

Manny seemed pleased that I noticed the socratic method being (attempted) in the original drops. He eventually let me in on his version of the Q drops.

BTW, I was shown a message that contained a Q drop, but it had not yet gone public until the next day. That gave me quite a pause.


PART ONE
Manny was at DEF CON 25 in July of 2017. Primarily as a part of the community trying to solve Cicada 3301 puzzles.
CICADA 3301
Defango goes to Def Con

He claimed to know some of the ''white hats' in/from the 'insider' community. These people apparently range from old spooks to current agents. They make up an association of insider good guys. I don't know enough about it to offer much more.

They allegedly had a concept to psy-op the public in some way. Primarily to get people thinking. With the open hostility directed at the Trump administration, there was an idea to expose the public to another side of the ledger.

Defango has claimed that he facilitated and/or instigated a process that led to the original Q drops.
In a SLACK video, He explained the the Q insider was an academic as well as tech savvy relation. Q was not an individual sitting in Trump's inner circle. These two, however, WERE connected in some way. They were also parts of the previously mentioned 'white hat' group.

OCTOBER - DECEMBER 2017
If you read the original Q drops and compare them to current drops, I think you will se a clear difference.
The original drops had a very different cadence, tone, structure, intellect, and intention.

Once they began in late October, by late November there was diminished interest by the insiders to keep going. From what I was told, and personally discovered, the Q Anons felt they did enough. A large number of them stopped and moved on to other things, a few continued. The few still involved were curious by the public reaction and had their own reasons to dabble.

4Chan had a problem
In December, the 4Chan board had an issue. The trip code for Q Anon got 'hacked.' This means that any perceived authenticity of the Q Anon was now broken.
There was a series of events that led to the Q Anon being re-established, re-verified, faked, removed, etc.
The Q Anon then went to 8Chan and even more chatter within the boards erupted.

Many people, Including myself, felt that whatever legitimacy there was to Q Anon was now gone.

Q Anon Commandeered By New Personalities
In December, a bunch of web personalities took the spotlight.
One woman named Tracy Beanz, who I believe was genuine, took the Q train into a new 4Chan board.
By late December a 4chan /pol/ board called "CBTS" (Calm Before The Storm) tried to become the main funnel to stay on top of the drops. I was one of the first people to join. I believe that the entire effort was legit. Tracy, along with a few others tried to create a focused and curated place for everyone to communicate and interpret the drops.
Eventually, the board filled up with nonsense.
By late January, it was a crazy house full of memes and outrageous claims.

Another name became central to the Q Anon community, Jerome Corsi
Jerome Corsi

People seemed to give him a lot of credibility in interpreting the drops.

By this time, YouTube was filling up with channels dedicated to interpreting and monitoring Q.
A couple of channels even had 24 coverage by people taking turns going live.

Fun While it Lasted
Everything about the new Q drops felt immature. At the time, I couldn't put my finger on it. They felt like someone 'trying' to sound like Q but lacking the intellectual depth and skill of the original posts from 2017.

By now, I was done following this at all.

Defango was also on the road quite a bit at this point, so we didn't really talk. But looking back, he was clearly indicating the entire thing was hijacked and no longer based on the original purpose.

BUSTED!
Enough people apparently felt like I did.
It was clear that the December 4Chan hacks were conducted by the current 'experts' like Corsi and others.
There were people making lot's of money off of the YouTube channels and other insider forces funding their own type of psy-op.
Defango put out a video where he named names and who was behind MANY of the facets surrounding this 'thing'
Normally, it would't amount to much, but shortly after:
Jerome Corsi left the Q world
Tracy Beanz disowned it and moved on
The 24 hour channels went silent

...hmmmmm?

WHAT'S GOING ON NOW?
No idea. I'm actually still surprised to see anything Q related going on. Perhaps it's been re-commandeered? I left behind any shred of interest by February.

DEFANGO'S TRAIL

First video about Q
November, 2017


November 2017
Defango mentions the growing problem brewing in the 4Chan world. Q de-evolving.


May 8th, 2018
Defango names names on Cicada and Q


September 7th, 2018
Deals with the Microchip interview Troll

a reply to: LedermanStudio

Interesting thread, though I think it may get closed. So if I were you, I'd copy it and put it in the main thread as that's where everything gets redirected.

Usually I don't delve in these threads, but you wrote this one with healthy skepticism which is very much appreciated around this topic.

a reply to: CriticalStinker
Thank you. Could you tell me what the main thread is? I'm not sure I've learned that yet in my time here...

a reply to: LedermanStudio

It is over here but don't expect a warm welcome:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

originally posted by: daskakik
a reply to: LedermanStudio

It is over here but don't expect a warm welcome:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Skepticism is not viewed well there by most.

LINK

Please continue in the Q thread at the link above.

Thread closed.

Edited to add that all points of view are welcome in the Q thread, whether they be pro or con and the Q thread is heavily moderated.