Besides Ver, who else are the people behind it? Andresen and Hearn?
Unlikely.
He's doing a good thing IMO, it's true that XT was arguably censored (although it's slightly academic; whether it is/isn't/would've-been-in-the-future an altcoin is a whole debate in it's own right).
I'll be checking forum.bitcoin.com out I think, although probably not joining up right now.