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Debian votes to make no statement regarding RMS readmission to the FSF board

vote.debian.org

21–30 of 123 posts

Re: Debian votes to make no statement regarding RMS readmission to the FSF board

#21
post #12

Can someone fill me in on the RMS drama/politics? Is this because he was cancelled due to (supposedly) defending Epstein and he's now trying to uncancel himself?

According to some, he's been an out-of-touch, controversial, abusive voice for FSF for a while. The MIT/Epstein stuff is what gets talked about, and might have been what brought this to a more general public attention, but it's not specifically what the calls for resignation are about.

Re: Debian votes to make no statement regarding RMS readmission to the FSF board

#22
post #13
post #6

If you look at the results they link, the picture becomes clearer. They proposed 8 options. 2 directly called for resignations at FSF, 2 directly supported RMS, one said to stop working with FSF, one said to call for governance improvements at FSF, one was no comment, and one was discuss further. The two options in support of RMS were not majority held opinions, and were held by ~1/6-1/3 of voters. No comment beat "c…

> Debian will issue no comment, 2/3+ of voters in Debian supported calling for RMSs removal. It's clear which way the tide is moving, even if Debian says nothing. FWIW, some people didn’t want to vote because the results would be publicly with names. So the result of a secret vote might have been different.

Your hypothesis is that people voted opposite of their beliefs? Or that they chose not to vote at all?

Both of those feel like possibilities, but probably not in any significant number. In absence of evidence to the contrary, I'd say it's reasonable to look at the results of a vote as evidence of how people actually feel.

Edit: Vote numbers seem consistent with other votes in Debian's history, so it does not appear that a large number of people elected not to vote.

Re: Debian votes to make no statement regarding RMS readmission to the FSF board

#23
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Debian will issue no comment, 2/3+ of voters in Debian supported calling for RMSs removal. It's clear which way the tide is moving, even if Debian says nothing. FWIW, some people didn’t want to vote because the results would be publicly with names. So the result of a secret vote might have been different.

They should have gated this vote with a yes/no vote on whether to vote.

No, it simply shouldn’t have been public. The DPL elections aren’t public either.

Re: Debian votes to make no statement regarding RMS readmission to the FSF board

#24
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Debian will issue no comment, 2/3+ of voters in Debian supported calling for RMSs removal. It's clear which way the tide is moving, even if Debian says nothing. FWIW, some people didn’t want to vote because the results would be publicly with names. So the result of a secret vote might have been different.

They should have gated this vote with a yes/no vote on whether to vote.

The "Further discussion" option is meant to allow for that. Note that the options calling for a statement in support of RMS were even less preferred than "Further discussion", which is quite weird given the context so GP may well have a point.

Re: Debian votes to make no statement regarding RMS readmission to the FSF board

#25
I don't get why organizations feel they need to weigh in on this so much. The FSF has a code of conduct (https://fsfe.org/about/codeofconduct.en.html), so it's pretty clear what the conditions are for removing someone.

Either remove him according to the rules of the code of conduct, or leave him be. That's what COCs are for.

If you're not happy with the COC, push for changes.

Re: Debian votes to make no statement regarding RMS readmission to the FSF board

#26
post #15
post #12

Can someone fill me in on the RMS drama/politics? Is this because he was cancelled due to (supposedly) defending Epstein and he's now trying to uncancel himself?

He continues to do intolerant stuff: https://rms-open-letter.github.io/appendix

is this the "we don't tolerate intolerance" logic?

Re: Debian votes to make no statement regarding RMS readmission to the FSF board

#27
post #15
post #12

Can someone fill me in on the RMS drama/politics? Is this because he was cancelled due to (supposedly) defending Epstein and he's now trying to uncancel himself?

He continues to do intolerant stuff: https://rms-open-letter.github.io/appendix

The only intolerance here is on behalf of a viciously ableist movement which does not allow for purely rational opinions from someone clearly on the autistic spectrum. Making women "uncomfortable" without making or implying advances is purely intolerant of those who fall slightly outside of social norms; I haven't seen any evidence that he actually did or said anything predatory or sexual.

It's the same implicit social shaming that socially awkward "nerds" and "geeks" receive in highschool, except turned up to 11 because of a vicious social movement which explicitly targets outliers. The open source community was far more tolerant when it was merit based and race/gender blind, before it was infested with ideologues and the social contagion that is the social [in]justice movement. Frankly, normies are ruining programming communities by demanding that the culture change to be inclusive of their norms, to the detriment of the very people who founded the movement. It's painfully ironic, and the people leading this charge are simply grabbing at power justified by self righteousness.

Re: Debian votes to make no statement regarding RMS readmission to the FSF board

#28

I don't get why organizations feel they need to weigh in on this so much. The FSF has a code of conduct ( https://fsfe.org/about/codeofconduct.en.html ), so it's pretty clear what the conditions are for removing someone. Either remove him according to the rules of the code of conduct, or leave him be. That's what COCs are for. If you're not happy with the COC, push for changes.

FSF and FSFE are different organizations.

Re: Debian votes to make no statement regarding RMS readmission to the FSF board

#29
post #6

If you look at the results they link, the picture becomes clearer. They proposed 8 options. 2 directly called for resignations at FSF, 2 directly supported RMS, one said to stop working with FSF, one said to call for governance improvements at FSF, one was no comment, and one was discuss further. The two options in support of RMS were not majority held opinions, and were held by ~1/6-1/3 of voters. No comment beat "c…

Was it an anonymous vote?

Re: Debian votes to make no statement regarding RMS readmission to the FSF board

#30
post #6

If you look at the results they link, the picture becomes clearer. They proposed 8 options. 2 directly called for resignations at FSF, 2 directly supported RMS, one said to stop working with FSF, one said to call for governance improvements at FSF, one was no comment, and one was discuss further. The two options in support of RMS were not majority held opinions, and were held by ~1/6-1/3 of voters. No comment beat "c…

> It's clear which way the tide is moving

It's only clear that the way this is measured is heavily biased: 4 options out of 8 are against current FSF/RMS' statu quo. Only 2 are for supporting the statu quo. And 1 is for indifference, and the last one for more discussion needed.

If you overcharge the negative choices, it's kind of given most of the answers will fall in them. Survey design 101.

For reference:

- Option 1 "Call for the FSF board removal, as in rms-open-letter.github.io"

- Option 2 "Call for Stallman's resignation from all FSF bodies"

- Option 3 "Discourage collaboration with the FSF while Stallman is in a leading position"

- Option 4 "Call on the FSF to further its governance processes"

- Option 5 "Support Stallman's reinstatement, as in rms-support-letter.github.io"

- Option 6 "Denounce the witch-hunt against RMS and the FSF"

- Option 7 "Debian will not issue a public statement on this issue"

- Option 8 "Further Discussion"

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