Recently a big controversy surrounding the Free Software Community appeared and cut deep into the community when it was announced without warning that Richard Stallman (RMS) had returned.
This controversy reached a boiling point, as we covered before with a petition to have Stallman removed. Since then, the FSF repeatedly put out statements about their policies, things that will change, people resigning, a Twitter post and more - but not once did the FSF mention Stallman or what the heck was going on. Finally, multiple weeks later, both the FSF and Stallman have released new statements.
In the FSF statement, it's mentioned that FSF staff had no idea what was going on and neither did organisers of LibrePlanet where RMS returning was announced. RMS was voted back in by voting members and the board of directors after "several months of thorough discussion and thoughtful deliberation". The FSF acknowledge how "badly we handled the news of his election to a board seat" and take "full responsibility". With RMS back on the board as an "unpaid volunteer" the rules still apply including "prohibitions against conflicts of interest and sexual harassment and those outlining whistleblower processes and fiduciary duties". The FSF linked to the changes the organisation is committed to implementing and will "continue to pursue additional ideas and actions designed to improve transparency and accountability".
RMS clearly isn't going anywhere, as the FSF see "his views will be critical to the FSF as we advance the mission and confront the challenges that software freedom faces".
While it took a while, it seems like the FSF are fully aware of their need to improve everything surrounding this. We should give them some points on that.
As for the statement directly from Stallman, it goes over and actually acknowledges some real personal issues and social problems. Then leading into the comments Stallman made about the likes of Marvin Minsky and Jeffrey Epstein, mentioning how the comments were "tone-deaf that I didn't acknowledge as context the injustice that Epstein did to women or the pain that caused". Stallman ends the post with "I've learned something from this about how to be kind to people who have been hurt. In the future, that will help me be kind to people in other situations, which is what I hope to do.".
It will be interesting to see what happens as a result of the public apologies from both Stallman and the FSF. Let's hope that all of this can lead somewhere productive and have less in-fighting with more fighting for software freedom.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Pretty incredible really. I don't trust them to represent my interests in free software at this point.
Quoting: scaineI'm not outraged, but Stallman, and hence the FSF, can definitely get in the bin. The fact that they took weeks to address something as simple as voting back in a confirmed abuser to their board shows me all I need to know about this organisation.
Pretty incredible really. I don't trust them to represent my interests in free software at this point.
Pretty much the entire rest of the industry has stopped trusting them, too. At best, we'll see another org fork in the vein of OpenOffice/LibreOffice, ffmpeg/libav, etc.
rustybroomhandle Apr 12, 2021
Quoting: tomaszgSad he had to apologize. It's only encouraging more attacks of this kind on other people.
I think he needs to apologize more, perhaps a bit of groveling thrown in. And sheesh, the wording. "Women" Stallman, seriously? Stallman's rap sheet is long, ranging far beyond just comments about a pedophile.
PublicNuisance Apr 12, 2021
Quoting: tomaszgSad he had to apologize. It's only encouraging more attacks of this kind on other people.
Agreed. Apoligizing to the mob will only make it worse, never better. Forgivness will never be on the table with these people.
Quoting: tomaszgSad he had to apologize. It's only encouraging more attacks of this kind on other people.Well, he did something that one should actually apologize for. It's not one of these situations where some bored blue checkmark dug up some ancient tweet or forum post, removes all context and starts going on a crusade for virtue currency.
He made really bad comments on topics he didn't know much of anything about - on a public space.
Like... stuff that makes casual N-wording seem innocent (IMO).
But it was so odd and so out of touch, it's easy to see how if that wasn't edgy satire, he simply didn't know any better (and his general social awkwardness is well known, not all people are aware of all things social), so an apology and quite a loss of power is fine.
Of course, to the cancel and outrage mob, an apology and sensible consequences is never enough and once they smell blood, they'll keep at it until the target has been properly removed from society or they get bored and move on to their next ritualistic public hanging.
It definitely speaks against the FSF that they were unaware about the uproar this would cause in modern times.
But their handling of the situation - from not letting a member getting cancelled to seeking to improve their structure to prevent further similar incidents, it's all just very level-headed - definitely made me a supporter.
Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 12 April 2021 at 5:51 pm UTC
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