I've noticed some collaboration between shells.com and Linux Mint. Do you know if Andrew is involved or trying to become involved in Linux Mint? I love that distro and community and don't want to see it damaged by this man.
To be fair there was also collaboration between PIA and Linux Mint while I worked at PIA. That'd probably be a question best answered by the Mint people who're involved
One sure thing is the Linux Mint help channel is not on Freenode (but SpotChat)