5 ms·

I don't see anyone talking about throwing away decades of his work. The good that he's done won't go away any time soon. But it's becoming more and more evident

I don't see anyone talking about throwing away decades of his work. The good that he's done won't go away any time soon. But it's becoming more and more evident that the free software movement can't survive unless it continues to push past the rut in which people like RMS are content to remain.

pieter_mj 6y ago
Is it the author's and signatories' goal to rescue libre software? I don't think so, they couldn't care less.
- cforrester 6y ago
  The signatories are largely people who work on free and open source software projects, and their stated goal in keeping people like Stallman out of positions of influence within the community is to increase participation in general by discouraging behaviour that drives potential contributors away. Having read a number of articles on both sides of this issue, I see no reason to believe that their advocacy is anything but genuinely motivated by a desire for a better community.
  - modo_mario 6y ago
    >increase participation in general by discouraging behaviour that drives potential contributors away. I seriously feel like this would do the very exact opposite. It's throwing out the baby with the bathwater in a hugely damaging way and who the actual fuck wants to work in such an environment. And why for example do these people regardless of whether they agree with him or not genuinely believe that rms is trasphobic because he thinks there is/should be a gender neutral pronoun that would be better for common usage than they/them. I think the one he suggested sounds stupid and won't find common usage at all...but I definitely do not think he's trans-phobic because of it and that his view on this matter should somehow be a contributing factor to the entire board getting thrown out or him being shunned from anything free software sounds absolutely stupid.
taylodl 6y ago
From their statement: “It is time for RMS to step back from the free software, tech ethics, digital rights, and tech communities” - in other words they want RMS to step away from everything he’s worked on over the past 40+ years over pronouns and different thoughts on what constitutes consensual sex. They demand for him to simply walk away from his life’s work because they don’t like his opinions. Incredible. This is the manifestation of cancel culture. It’s repugnant.
thefz 6y ago
> The good that he's done won't go away any time soon. These letter subscribers just want to put "their" face on another man's life work.

pieter_mj 6y ago

Is it the author's and signatories' goal to rescue libre software? I don't think so, they couldn't care less.

cforrester 6y ago
The signatories are largely people who work on free and open source software projects, and their stated goal in keeping people like Stallman out of positions of influence within the community is to increase participation in general by discouraging behaviour that drives potential contributors away. Having read a number of articles on both sides of this issue, I see no reason to believe that their advocacy is anything but genuinely motivated by a desire for a better community.
- modo_mario 6y ago
  >increase participation in general by discouraging behaviour that drives potential contributors away. I seriously feel like this would do the very exact opposite. It's throwing out the baby with the bathwater in a hugely damaging way and who the actual fuck wants to work in such an environment. And why for example do these people regardless of whether they agree with him or not genuinely believe that rms is trasphobic because he thinks there is/should be a gender neutral pronoun that would be better for common usage than they/them. I think the one he suggested sounds stupid and won't find common usage at all...but I definitely do not think he's trans-phobic because of it and that his view on this matter should somehow be a contributing factor to the entire board getting thrown out or him being shunned from anything free software sounds absolutely stupid.

taylodl 6y ago

From their statement: “It is time for RMS to step back from the free software, tech ethics, digital rights, and tech communities” - in other words they want RMS to step away from everything he’s worked on over the past 40+ years over pronouns and different thoughts on what constitutes consensual sex. They demand for him to simply walk away from his life’s work because they don’t like his opinions. Incredible. This is the manifestation of cancel culture. It’s repugnant.

thefz 6y ago

> The good that he's done won't go away any time soon. These letter subscribers just want to put "their" face on another man's life work.