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posted by martyb on Tuesday March 10 2020, @11:51PM   Printer-friendly
from the quite-the-coc-up dept.

Open Source Initiative bans co-founder, Eric S Raymond:

Last week, Eric S Raymond (often known as ESR, author of The Cathedral and the Bazaar, and co-founder of the Open Source Intiative) was banned from the Open Source Intiative[sic] (the "OSI").

Specifically, Raymond was banned from the mailing lists used to organize and communicate with the OSI.

For an organization to ban their founder from communicating with the group (such as via a mailing list) is a noteworthy move.

At a time when we have seen other founders (of multiple Free and Open Source related initiatives) pushed out of the organizations they founded (such as with Richard Stallman being compelled to resign from the Free Software Foundation, or the attempts to remove Linus Torvalds from the Linux Kernel – both of which happened within the last year) it seems worth taking a deeper look at what, specifically, is happening with the Open Source Initiative.

I don't wish to tell any of you what you should think about this significant move. As such I will simply provide as much of the relevant information as I can, show the timeline of events, and reach out to all involved parties for their points of view and comments.

The author provides links to — and quotations from — entries on the mailing list supporting this. There is also a conversation the author had with ESR. The full responses he received to his queries are posted, as well.


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday March 11 2020, @01:21AM (11 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday March 11 2020, @01:21AM (#969384) Homepage Journal

    Yeah, um, no. His beefs were with those particular points but not even slightly the way you're framing them. But if you told the truth, I'm assuming you know the truth here in the first place, it would mean you had to say he was right in his free speech and meritocracy views, which are directly opposed to your personal agenda of censorship and victimocracy.

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  • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Wednesday March 11 2020, @01:56AM (9 children)

    by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Wednesday March 11 2020, @01:56AM (#969401) Journal

    All I know is what I found from the linked article and the OSI site. If ESR wanted to say what he originally posted, he should have repeated it instead of going all coy.

    Or did you not actually read the linked article and see that he refused to repeat his posts?

    Since the mailing list no longer has the posts, and nobody bothers following that shit anyway, why don't you enlighten us about what it was about? I had assumed it was some Code of Conduct stupidity, but seems it was actually about the sections 5 and 6 of the license.

    Contrary to the linked article's assertion, there are no links to the various emails from ESR. Either that, of the crappy colour scheme makes them almost invisible, but the blog itself says the emails have been deleted

    The OSI Board is aware that some offensive emails have been sent to this list. The OSI does not tolerate deliberately divisive or disrespectful messages from any quarter. We have already taken moderation actions to this effect and we will apply further sanctions if necessary

    Looking at the source, there are improperly constructed links to ESRs site.They work in source view, but not on the blog page. And they just go to an obsolete entry about ab HD-DVD decryption key. Which goes to another entry about an HD-DVD encryption keys. Stuff that nobody gives a shit about.

    If that's the hill he wants to die, on, so be it.

    But both the article and everything ensuing is full of shit.

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    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday March 11 2020, @06:22AM (6 children)

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Wednesday March 11 2020, @06:22AM (#969523) Homepage
      > Or did you not actually read the linked article and see that he refused to repeat his posts?

      What words did you read that expressed *refusal* to so do? I read the linked article, and the linked to blog post, and therein ESR *explicitly* stated that he didn't even know which posts had been considered objectionable. Which bit of
          Lunduke: Any idea what statement/email you sent that specifically caused the banning?
          Eric S Raymond: “They never told me specifically which message was the cause.
      failed to get that across? How is he supposed to tell us what he's not even been told?

      The OSI professional victims have refused to say, as they've been explicitly asked to justify their actions, and have given no such justification. They just got in an inane flap and started ranting about CoC abuse without identifying any evidence.
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      • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Wednesday March 11 2020, @08:28AM (5 children)

        by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Wednesday March 11 2020, @08:28AM (#969560) Journal
        He could have just copy/pasted all his posts from the period in question, but no, better to leave everyone guessing. Both ESR and the OSI are useless at this point. Seriously, when is the last time anyone brought either of them into a discussion. They're like RMS nowadays, out of the picture.
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        • (Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 11 2020, @05:23PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 11 2020, @05:23PM (#969708)

          He could have just copy/pasted all his posts from the period in question, but no, better to leave everyone guessing.

          Kind of like how you're refusing to copy and paste your source links...? ;)

          • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Thursday March 12 2020, @01:59AM

            by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Thursday March 12 2020, @01:59AM (#970006) Journal

            He could have just copy/pasted all his posts from the period in question, but no, better to leave everyone guessing.

            Kind of like how you're refusing to copy and paste your source links...? ;)

            I gave the exact search phrase "Woman wins $10,000 from Microsoft" that will bring up the relevant links as the first 10 results, and more on the following results pages.

            Unlike the blog, which has no visible links to ESR's posts because the html is screwed up, bad css, poor colour scheme, etc ... take your pick.

            A really bad blog post that shouldn't have made the front page because it's pretty much zero content. I'll sum it up/

            1. ESR abandons project (so what else is new? Seriously, this is his modus operandi);
            2. 20 years later all butt-hurt that changes seem to be in the making. Expresses phony outrage;
            3. Anonymous submission referring to badly written blog.

            Conclusion: The submission was blog spam.

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        • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday March 11 2020, @09:50PM (2 children)

          by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Wednesday March 11 2020, @09:50PM (#969858) Homepage
          I presume this was the one that got at least one snowflake in a tizz: https://lists.opensource.org/pipermail/license-discuss_lists.opensource.org/2020-February/021273.html
          --
          Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
          • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Thursday March 12 2020, @02:21AM

            by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Thursday March 12 2020, @02:21AM (#970022) Journal

            Good catch. Except that he contradicts himself ...

            After all, if he's arguing that nothing should be restricted, that includes not attempting to restrict the potential "persona non gratia" clause. That's the problem with absolutes - nothing is absolute, not even zero, no matter how close we get to it.

            But ESR dares to post "whatever moral authority I still have here,"? He abandoned the project two decades ago by his own admission. He quotes Thomas Paine. I'll just say "use it or lose it" - and he abandoned it of his own free will and by his own admission, so he has no moral authority whatsoever on the question, and he has some nerve to try to impose his will as an outsider after 20 years.

            If someone who I haven't seen in 20 years suddenly popped up and started telling me what to do, you can guess what I'd tell them. I suspect most people would be the same.

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          • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 12 2020, @04:40AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 12 2020, @04:40AM (#970101)

            I'm sure that did ruffle a few horsefeathers.

            But I believe what he actually got banned for is the one quoted here [opensource.org]; the original seems to have been moderated, but it appears to be quoted in full there.

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 11 2020, @07:13PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 11 2020, @07:13PM (#969757)

      Buzztard read sourced info? Pleeeaaasse. The dude only ever reacts with his manly man libertarian bullshit martyrdom and any valid criticisms of someone like ESR is just pissy rants by people who can't handle reality.

      He should be ignored in most conversations as he can't handle the nuance of reality.

      • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday March 12 2020, @03:00AM

        by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday March 12 2020, @03:00AM (#970052) Homepage Journal

        Since it's what I've been working my butt off doing lately, answer me a question: Is any of this remotely as important as having a pressure tested plumbing system and a working shitter at the church so I don't have to drive home to shoot a roost? Yeah, it's just not. Deal with not being important enough for me to bother educating.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 11 2020, @03:38AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 11 2020, @03:38AM (#969473)

    You've seen her shit. I'm not even sure if she can help it, it's like some kind of tourettes thing. The extremely personal issues she has with free software, free speech, and so many other things require intense psychotherapy, and probably stronger meds.