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Death threats for OSS contributions are insane, can anyone shed some light on the backstory here?

by pkinsky 12y ago

qohen 12y ago
A bit more detail from a GigaOM piece [1] on this: According to Noah Kantrowitz, a former Chef colleague and a recent critic of how the company has been managing its open source community, Vargo’s work on the Chef-centric workflow management tool Berkshelf caused some commotion among certain Chef tool users who advocated using a different workflow method; these people supposedly felt that Berkshelf had somehow affected their daily work habits and routines and their frustrations drove them to react harshly. Vargo apparently “ended up at the center of this storm of disagreements.” “There have been people who have gotten very far over the line and it has made me sad,” said Kantrowitz. “Hurling terrible epithets at people is unacceptable.” [1] https://gigaom.com/2014/08/27/chef-engineer-leaves-the-company-after-receiving-death-threats-from-its-open-source-community/ https://gigaom.com/2014/08/27/chef-engineer-leaves-the-compa...
- qohen 12y ago
  BTW, in case it's worth mentioning, this stuff happened last summer (i.e. end of Aug. 2014). FWIW, the story seems to have made it to HN around that time, though it only got 2 comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8236027 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8236027
Arnt 12y ago
Guessing based on the stuff people have said to and about me (more than I'd wish on anyone, much less than Seth got), it's one part strong feelings, one part callousness and two parts entropy. Feelings run high, callousness prevents even a veneer of politeness or moderation, randomness inflates either the feelings or their expression. The sum can be awful.
- cauterized 12y ago
  Death threats are more than callousness.
  - Arnt 12y ago
    Let me try it differently. What people choose to type, when they go into cloud cuckoo land while still sitting at their keyboards, doesn't seem rational. It seems random. Detached from thought. You can read it and even while the grammar is fine, the writer doesn't seem to be a sentient, rational human being. Reading it feels like reading static, not human signal. The only explanation I've been able to come up with is that once someone takes the step to write such things, the actual content is largely random. Perhaps that makes it more scary.
pjc50 12y ago
Death threats are the new background radiation of the internet. Too many parts of the subculture accept negative hyperbole; people accustom themselves to torrents of abuse as regular communication in a dark corner, then step out and apply that to other situations.
- irascible 12y ago
  Damn well said.

Death threats for OSS contributions are insane, can anyone shed some light on the backstory here?

by pkinsky 12y ago

Death threats for OSS contributions are insane, can anyone shed some light on the backstory here?

qohen 12y ago

A bit more detail from a GigaOM piece [1] on this: According to Noah Kantrowitz, a former Chef colleague and a recent critic of how the company has been managing its open source community, Vargo’s work on the Chef-centric workflow management tool Berkshelf caused some commotion among certain Chef tool users who advocated using a different workflow method; these people supposedly felt that Berkshelf had somehow affected their daily work habits and routines and their frustrations drove them to react harshly. Vargo apparently “ended up at the center of this storm of disagreements.” “There have been people who have gotten very far over the line and it has made me sad,” said Kantrowitz. “Hurling terrible epithets at people is unacceptable.” [1] https://gigaom.com/2014/08/27/chef-engineer-leaves-the-company-after-receiving-death-threats-from-its-open-source-community/ https://gigaom.com/2014/08/27/chef-engineer-leaves-the-compa...

qohen 12y ago
BTW, in case it's worth mentioning, this stuff happened last summer (i.e. end of Aug. 2014). FWIW, the story seems to have made it to HN around that time, though it only got 2 comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8236027 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8236027

Arnt 12y ago

Guessing based on the stuff people have said to and about me (more than I'd wish on anyone, much less than Seth got), it's one part strong feelings, one part callousness and two parts entropy. Feelings run high, callousness prevents even a veneer of politeness or moderation, randomness inflates either the feelings or their expression. The sum can be awful.

cauterized 12y ago
Death threats are more than callousness.
- Arnt 12y ago
  Let me try it differently. What people choose to type, when they go into cloud cuckoo land while still sitting at their keyboards, doesn't seem rational. It seems random. Detached from thought. You can read it and even while the grammar is fine, the writer doesn't seem to be a sentient, rational human being. Reading it feels like reading static, not human signal. The only explanation I've been able to come up with is that once someone takes the step to write such things, the actual content is largely random. Perhaps that makes it more scary.

pjc50 12y ago

Death threats are the new background radiation of the internet. Too many parts of the subculture accept negative hyperbole; people accustom themselves to torrents of abuse as regular communication in a dark corner, then step out and apply that to other situations.

irascible 12y ago
Damn well said.