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Being political isn't a problem. Free Software is political. mjg59 put this far better than I could: > A reminder that free software is fundamentally about br

Being political isn't a problem. Free Software is political. mjg59 put this far better than I could: > A reminder that free software is fundamentally about breaking down barriers preventing people from participating in a social endeavour that grants them more control over their computers, and anyone who argues against that process is not helping the cause of free software > Some of those barriers are technical (DRM, proprietary software, undocumented hardware) and some are social (unwelcoming communities, abusive maintainers). You don't get to focus on one category and deny the other. > Alleged free software advocates who defend abusive individuals aren't helping the cause of free software by doing so. Push back. > "If anything deserves a reward, it is social contribution" - the GNU manifesto by Richard Stallman, 1985. https://twitter.com/mjg59/status/1042709376442687490 https://twitter.com/mjg59/status/1042709376442687490

nailer 8y ago
mjg's quote was concerning ethics and abuse, and does not mention politics. The concern is that the CoC itself may be used to abuse individuals. Asides from the Tso example, there was someone else harassed because, outside of a project, they expressed a sexual preference for male dominant/female submissive roles.
- pseudalopex 8y ago
  Can you explain what you mean about Ted Ts'o? I know there's a story going around that people are calling him a rape apologist because he didn't endorse the CoC. People have called him a rape apologist for years because of arguments he made about rape. If your other example is Larry Garfield, he's part of a subculture that's controversial even in BDSM circles, and he insisted on bringing elements of that subculture into technical events. Also, the official position seems to be that he didn't actually violate Drupal's code of conduct, but they removed him anyway.
AllegedAlec 8y ago
Where in the definition of FOSS does it say anything about breaking down barriers? Neither the definition of free software nor the definition of open software said anything about that. Unless that guy somehow would provide something that indicates that there's a consensus about his definition of FOSS being the correct one, it's just another person trying to push his own values as the values of an entire group.
temporary4499 8y ago
> Being political isn't a problem. Free Software is political. Free software isn't concerned about petty identity politics US style. That's very much what the contributor covenant, the document adopted by Linux is.

nailer 8y ago

mjg's quote was concerning ethics and abuse, and does not mention politics. The concern is that the CoC itself may be used to abuse individuals. Asides from the Tso example, there was someone else harassed because, outside of a project, they expressed a sexual preference for male dominant/female submissive roles.

pseudalopex 8y ago
Can you explain what you mean about Ted Ts'o? I know there's a story going around that people are calling him a rape apologist because he didn't endorse the CoC. People have called him a rape apologist for years because of arguments he made about rape. If your other example is Larry Garfield, he's part of a subculture that's controversial even in BDSM circles, and he insisted on bringing elements of that subculture into technical events. Also, the official position seems to be that he didn't actually violate Drupal's code of conduct, but they removed him anyway.

AllegedAlec 8y ago

Where in the definition of FOSS does it say anything about breaking down barriers? Neither the definition of free software nor the definition of open software said anything about that. Unless that guy somehow would provide something that indicates that there's a consensus about his definition of FOSS being the correct one, it's just another person trying to push his own values as the values of an entire group.

temporary4499 8y ago

> Being political isn't a problem. Free Software is political. Free software isn't concerned about petty identity politics US style. That's very much what the contributor covenant, the document adopted by Linux is.