Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

John Sullivan resign as executive director of the Free Software Foundation

social.librem.one

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 431 posts

Re: John Sullivan resign as executive director of the Free Software Foundation

#41

Post by user-the-name »

mustafa_pasi wrote: post #31
user-the-name wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He has not just "said some sexist and edgy thing". He is abusive against everyone around him. He has sexually harassed numerous women near him, to the point that people lock themselves in their offices when he visits. He is incredibly, incredibly toxic. He has had a huge crowd of people trying, again and again, to tell him to stop acting like this, and to be a decent human being. He refuses. He is a massive burden on…

> He is abusive against everyone around him. He has sexually harassed numerous women near him, to the point that people lock themselves in their offices when he visits. Then why didn't these women report him to the whoever competent authorities at MIT? Or to the police if the crime is serious enough? Why are they signing an open letter on the internet instead? Please don't parrot unfounded heresy.

Are you saying all the people, from many different backgrounds, organisations, and genders, are all lying when they talk about RMS's abusive and harassing behaviour?

Re: John Sullivan resign as executive director of the Free Software Foundation

#42

Post by iseanstevens »

Re: RMS, without passing judgement: - I think people can have great ideas but not be great long term leaders.

FSF has high ideals, and fundamentally needs buy in from people on a lot of levels for them to succeed. It needs community. They could be really thankful to RMS’s getting things going but I don’t really understand why, now, they would add him back to the board. Is he saying new things that aren’t linear from the creation of FSF where his continued high level involvement is more helpful to the end goals than the community upset I would hope the board was aware of as a possibility?

Re: John Sullivan resign as executive director of the Free Software Foundation

#43

Post by bitwize »

fen4o wrote: post #7
oblio wrote: post #2

Is this related to Stallman going back to the FSF?

See https://rms-open-letter.github.io/ and the counter-letter https://rms-support-letter.github.io/

One is signed by the directors of major open-source projects and initiatives.

The other is mainly signed by Russian bots.

Re: John Sullivan resign as executive director of the Free Software Foundation

#44

Post by zecg »

kosinus wrote: post #19
risky_opinions wrote: post #9

I'm creating a throwaway that I hope won't irk dang. If this breaks the rules, I'm sorry and I'll stop. Richard Stallman single-handedly created the free software movement, and he's the reason we all have jobs. Google and Facebook might not have been possible in a world where you couldn't spin up a server for free and compile code without paying a license. Richard Stallman has said some sexist and edgy things. He als…

> American freedom of speech This specifically is such a weird expression. Other than that, just because Stallman did a good thing once, doesn’t excuse him from other mistakes. And making mistakes is not itself a problem, you can always own up to them and learn. But what I gather from the discussion is that there is a _pattern_ of bad behaviour.

> what I gather from the discussion is that there is a _pattern_ of bad behaviour.

I disagree, it's all very much overblown.

Re: John Sullivan resign as executive director of the Free Software Foundation

#45

Post by smt88 »

Number157 wrote: post #30
Jonnax wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stallman has stated that he does not have Aspergers or Autism. But for some reason people online can't stop themselves from diagnosing him with it.

Well it's for good reason. He displays the symptoms so he probably has it, regardless of what he says.

You can't diagnose someone else on the autism spectrum. Applying your bullshit armchair psychology to strangers is harmful to people who actually are on the spectrum.

My sister has Asperger's and is easily able to understand why children can't consent to sex and that it doesn't hurt anyone to use preferred pronouns. I don't see what Asperger's has to do with the issues RSM was/is ignorant about.

Re: John Sullivan resign as executive director of the Free Software Foundation

#46

Post by bryanrasmussen »

risky_opinions wrote: post #9

I'm creating a throwaway that I hope won't irk dang. If this breaks the rules, I'm sorry and I'll stop. Richard Stallman single-handedly created the free software movement, and he's the reason we all have jobs. Google and Facebook might not have been possible in a world where you couldn't spin up a server for free and compile code without paying a license. Richard Stallman has said some sexist and edgy things. He als…

>one poster suggested that this might arise from raising kids without bullying.

bullying is being exposed to the mob, not exposing kids to mobs creates mobs seems somehow counterintuitive.

Re: John Sullivan resign as executive director of the Free Software Foundation

#47

Post by lifeisstillgood »

clappski wrote: post #16
risky_opinions wrote: post #9

I'm creating a throwaway that I hope won't irk dang. If this breaks the rules, I'm sorry and I'll stop. Richard Stallman single-handedly created the free software movement, and he's the reason we all have jobs. Google and Facebook might not have been possible in a world where you couldn't spin up a server for free and compile code without paying a license. Richard Stallman has said some sexist and edgy things. He als…

> I don't want to live in a world without American freedom of speech - where we can't be blunt and speak our minds. Freedom of speech isn't the freedom to not be publicly judged about what you say.

>>> Freedom of speech isn't the freedom to not be publicly judged about what you say.

Thank you for putting it so clearly.

Re: John Sullivan resign as executive director of the Free Software Foundation

#48

Post by js8 »

enriquto wrote: post #11
risky_opinions wrote: post #9

I'm creating a throwaway that I hope won't irk dang. If this breaks the rules, I'm sorry and I'll stop. Richard Stallman single-handedly created the free software movement, and he's the reason we all have jobs. Google and Facebook might not have been possible in a world where you couldn't spin up a server for free and compile code without paying a license. Richard Stallman has said some sexist and edgy things. He als…

> What do we do about this? There's not much we can do about that; the world is a horrible, unfair place. If Socrates was born again, we would kill him again.

I disagree. People can do things about cancel culture, in particular, give a thought about whether something that people are saying about somebody is really true and whether to participate in an online boycott (of an individual) based on a 2nd hand experience. Especially if you're in a position of power, consider if you should give in to the mob, which might not even relate to you.

Re: John Sullivan resign as executive director of the Free Software Foundation

#49

Post by beaconstudios »

kosinus wrote: post #19
risky_opinions wrote: post #9

I'm creating a throwaway that I hope won't irk dang. If this breaks the rules, I'm sorry and I'll stop. Richard Stallman single-handedly created the free software movement, and he's the reason we all have jobs. Google and Facebook might not have been possible in a world where you couldn't spin up a server for free and compile code without paying a license. Richard Stallman has said some sexist and edgy things. He als…

> American freedom of speech This specifically is such a weird expression. Other than that, just because Stallman did a good thing once, doesn’t excuse him from other mistakes. And making mistakes is not itself a problem, you can always own up to them and learn. But what I gather from the discussion is that there is a _pattern_ of bad behaviour.

what did he actually do that you would consider "bad behaviour"? I know he's widely regarded as a blunt/offensive speaker, willing to speak his mind on topics most sensible people just keep quiet on, but has he actually harmed anybody? Committed any crimes?

[edit] this is a genuine question. I've seen him write edgy things but am not aware of any harm he's done to others.

Re: John Sullivan resign as executive director of the Free Software Foundation

#50

Post by skissane »

Jonnax wrote: post #14
risky_opinions wrote: post #9

I'm creating a throwaway that I hope won't irk dang. If this breaks the rules, I'm sorry and I'll stop. Richard Stallman single-handedly created the free software movement, and he's the reason we all have jobs. Google and Facebook might not have been possible in a world where you couldn't spin up a server for free and compile code without paying a license. Richard Stallman has said some sexist and edgy things. He als…

Stallman has stated that he does not have Aspergers or Autism. But for some reason people online can't stop themselves from diagnosing him with it.

As I've said before, RMS obviously has a flawed understanding of ASD and so his "self-undiagnosis" of it shouldn't be given a lot of weight: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26537802

And I agree that nobody other than a professional personally evaluating him should diagnose him with ASD (or anything), but he displays obvious traits of BAP (broad autism phenotype, subclinical ASD) – https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26537443 – and that's not a "diagnosis" because BAP is by definition not a diagnosis.

Post reply on HN