Whether it was a hoax or not, in the real scheme of things doesn't matter.
What really matters is the awful precedent here. Someone announced they were working voluntarily on an important project for the Xbox scene and was making significant progress...and all he got in return was over 50 pages of flaming and people yelling bullshit. People went on and on about how if he didn't meet his deadline, then he's a lying piece of crap.
Who the hell would wants that kind of abuse? Why would any developer want to take on any difficult project after that. If they failed trying, then they'd be verbally abused and called a fake.
When it comes down to it, no one had any real clue if he had worked on it or not, but most of you judged him without any evidence. Hope this shit doesn't continue or there won't be many tough projects tackeled by volunteer programmers in the future.