“I am announcing my resignation from the FSF board” • Hacker News Board

Re: “I am announcing my resignation from the FSF board”

#41

Post by lawtalkinghuman » Thu, Mar 25, 2021, 11:38 AM UTC

ekianjo wrote: post #26

dsr_ wrote: post #7

When an organization, that you have a leadership position in, does something that you believe is wrong, and you have failed at preventing it and correcting it, then resignation is an entirely appropriate option. Walsh has integrity.

Using twitter to bitch at large about your former employer is integrity? Thats a new one.

Board of directors, not an employee.

"FSF board members are not compensated for their board service, and are not permitted to receive any personal financial benefit from FSF funds or other assets."

https://www.fsf.org/about/the-role-of-the-fsfs-board-of-dire...

It is completely reasonable for a member of a board of directors (or advisors or trustees) of a non-profit to resign if they think the non-profit is going in the wrong direction.

Re: “I am announcing my resignation from the FSF board”

#42

Post by gurleen_s » Thu, Mar 25, 2021, 11:39 AM UTC

rich_sasha wrote: post #31

I don’t know much more than superficial things about either FSF or RMS. I read the things he said, they sound reasonable, but very prone to misinterpretation. I won’t jump to his defence, I think not offending people even through their misunderstandings is a key skill in public speech. I do find it terrifying though how he is lynched for what is essentially rational and permissible speech in an ugly wrapper. I don’t…

It’s not just the opinions he’s held (some of which are incredibly disgusting) but it’s also the things he’s done at MIT. I encourage you to read the stories [1] of those who have interacted with him. This isn’t “cancel culture gone mad”, this is a terrible person being held accountable for their actions.

[1] https://selamjie.medium.com/remove-richard-stallman-appendix...

Re: “I am announcing my resignation from the FSF board”

#43

Post by gurleen_s » Thu, Mar 25, 2021, 11:46 AM UTC

I genuinely cannot believe the number of people who are equating the actions of a private organization to authoritarianism and “cancel culture”. Is this not the free market working as intended? That the public has a voice in who/what succeeds?

Re: “I am announcing my resignation from the FSF board”

#44

Post by threatofrain » Thu, Mar 25, 2021, 11:48 AM UTC

roenxi wrote: post #24

cehrlich wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RMS's role in the FSF was president, and now Member of the Board of Directors. Sure this requires some technical skills, but the main factor is leadership and the ability to bring people together. If anyone believes that RMS is fit for that role, that says a lot about the state of FOSS.

Disagreeable people have done amazing things for the Free Software movement. It is, at heart, a highly intolerant movement. It does not care about compromise, it cares about principles. It does not tolerate half-hearted attempts and lip service. Compromise and bringing people together is the slow track to becoming subservient to corporate interests. Mozilla works with people and we end up with an OK browser that is s…

Brave's main distinction is the cryptocurrency thing... as a browser it doesn't offer an interesting difference over the competition for privacy. And as privacy is a cat and mouse game, I'm not sure that Brave has developed the reputation that they get an edge on this problem over Apple or Mozilla.

After that I'm not sure what it's offering. What is the eye opening factor here? In what ways has Brave really taken leadership?

If Google or Apple did the same things Brave did with their cryptocoin donation scheme it would seem incredibly abusive. Also, if Apple promoted that they used local machine learning to develop profiles for optimal ad placement on you, it would only damage their brand.

Re: “I am announcing my resignation from the FSF board”

#45

Post by m000 » Thu, Mar 25, 2021, 11:50 AM UTC

inopinatus wrote: post #22

ekianjo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So would you rather want someone who cancels or censors disenting opinions? Dogmatism has bright days ahead apparently. Diversity was never meant to be that everyone was supposed to think the same way, as far as I recall.

This false dichotomy is equally toxic. Leadership always means bringing people together, not imposing one or other set of idiosyncrasies.

Roman emperors brought people together by throwing other people to the lions. So I'd guess throwing RMS to the mob would also count as good leadership?

Re: “I am announcing my resignation from the FSF board”

#46

Post by ktpsns » Thu, Mar 25, 2021, 11:54 AM UTC

curtisblaine wrote: post #23

As always with RMS, this post has reached the front page, then it has been silently pushed off it. It will be in the next issue of https://rejected.substack.com/ - the newsletter / repository of stories prevented to reach the front page of HN.

Interesting site. I can't follow the reasoning. How do you think posts are prevented from reaching the front page? Do you claim they did reach front page but were then ... magically deleted? Or got more downvotes? Or where just [flagged] by the admins?

Re: “I am announcing my resignation from the FSF board”

#47

Post by curtisblaine » Thu, Mar 25, 2021, 11:58 AM UTC

ktpsns wrote: post #46

curtisblaine wrote: post #23

As always with RMS, this post has reached the front page, then it has been silently pushed off it. It will be in the next issue of https://rejected.substack.com/ - the newsletter / repository of stories prevented to reach the front page of HN.

Interesting site. I can't follow the reasoning. How do you think posts are prevented from reaching the front page? Do you claim they did reach front page but were then ... magically deleted? Or got more downvotes? Or where just [flagged] by the admins?

I track the front page every fixed interval and do a diff. Some of them get pushed off quickly (say < 30 minutes). I also track, secondarily, all the other stories with a lot of points and comments that don't get to the front page.

Re: “I am announcing my resignation from the FSF board”

#48

Post by swebs » Thu, Mar 25, 2021, 11:58 AM UTC

krapp wrote: post #16

swebs wrote: post #4

The idea of free software is a very libertarian one. You have freedom. Its the same ideology that drives concepts such as freedom of speech. It is not compatible at all with the authoritarianism that drives cancel culture. Maybe these people should get together and form their own authoritarian-left software foundation. Call it the People's Software Foundation or something. No Dang, I'm not being snarky. This is a leg…

It's ironic that you're claiming free software isn't compatible with authoritarianism while suggesting that anyone who doesn't support the Great Leader isn't welcome and should voluntarily purge themselves from the movement.

That's a real stretch. "Voluntarily" and "authoritarianism" are opposites.

But that's beside the point. I'm not saying anyone is unwelcome or should leave. In fact, I think it would be best if people could coexist in the same organization while agreeing to disagree.

But the fact of the matter is that these people already resigning. So instead of just doing nothing after they resign or working for some company, they should create their own group that's more in line with their ideals.

Re: “I am announcing my resignation from the FSF board”

#49

Post by curtisblaine » Thu, Mar 25, 2021, 11:59 AM UTC

ktpsns wrote: post #46

curtisblaine wrote: post #23

As always with RMS, this post has reached the front page, then it has been silently pushed off it. It will be in the next issue of https://rejected.substack.com/ - the newsletter / repository of stories prevented to reach the front page of HN.

Interesting site. I can't follow the reasoning. How do you think posts are prevented from reaching the front page? Do you claim they did reach front page but were then ... magically deleted? Or got more downvotes? Or where just [flagged] by the admins?

To answer your other question: stories are pushed off the front page either by users flagging them or admins manually removing them. In any case, I'm interested in stories with a lot of activity that get thrown off the front page. I often find them insightful and it would be a pity if they were lost.

Re: “I am announcing my resignation from the FSF board”

#50

Post by lpsignal » Thu, Mar 25, 2021, 12:00 PM UTC

gurleen_s wrote: post #43

I genuinely cannot believe the number of people who are equating the actions of a private organization to authoritarianism and “cancel culture”. Is this not the free market working as intended? That the public has a voice in who/what succeeds?

The public in general does not have a voice. If you defend Stallman directly under your real name, you will be canceled as a fellow traveler.

In the cancel-rms petition everyone was posting under their real names. Being on that list probably has positive consequences for your career at Google or Microsoft.

The keep-rms petition was full of pseudonyms, only people from Eastern Europe dared to post under their real names.