I believe this represents a reasonable request for review of the activity. I don’t sit on the irc channel - I’ve personally found that medium too time consuming and too often frustrating. But perhaps Dan and anyone else involved with moderation can review the activity to determine whether it was in violation of the guidelines. I don’t think bans should be applied or enforced by just a single person, not done so without right of appeal.
The other side of this is that the above message also treads over the line of violation by making personal attacks against community members. I know on the mailing list discussion had overstepped the limits of polite conversation and I presume the warning you were issued was in response to that. As for anyone else involved - my recommendation is not to engage unless you are prepared with a thick skin. Or fire retardant attire. On some meta notes. It is true that historically Joyent has employed a larger than proportionate share of illumos contributors and that now many (but not all!) of those same members are now at Oxide. That does give cause for concern about undue corporate influence but at the same time I’m not sure how that can be solved except by getting more people involved. I think we all would like that but I also think we all know how hard it is. Which leads to the point that when conversations step beyond the bounds of civility, they can be a detractor for new people and impair the goal of further outreach. Which is why I endorse the efforts to moderate the community provided it is done reasonably. I also would say it is vitally important to keep topics unrelated to the core interests of the community out of our mailing lists. Politics (and attacking a members political position) is definitely out of bounds, as is religion, discussion of race, etc. There are other and better fora for those discussions. (I will also point out that political leanings here are quite a bit more diverse than you suppose.) Get Outlook<https://aka.ms/qtex0l> for iOS ________________________________ From: [email protected] <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, August 7, 2021 3:24:34 AM To: illumos discuss <[email protected]> Subject: [discuss] Authotarianism within the community Hello, In contradiction to my previous email regarding leaving the illumos community over a debacle with Joshua Clulow on the illumos IRC channel at Libera Chat, I've decided to return. I believe that the community at large should be afforded the whole picture. I have been consistently demonized by the left-wing, authoritarian attitude of the snowflake-sympathizer, otherwise known as Joshua Clulow. Yes, this is a direct contravention of the illumos "code of conduct" because I've pointed my vitriol towards my offender. Joshua Clulow wrote-in a private email to me around 10 days back with a veiled threat about consequences I might face if I don't tone down across the illumos forums. After that I did rein-in myself to avoid being harsh towards certain people on the illumos IRC channel with fragile egos, like "dangergrrl/anathaema", who keep badgering me (personally) with messages which have not only been irrelevant but also outrageous in nature (it's all in the log). But, Joshua Clulow has not taken any note of that, and instead unilaterally decided to "ban" me from the IRC channel of illumos after I directed healthy criticism at Robert Mustacchi's views on the further evolution of illumos. I can't have any objections of any kind as to which direction commercial entities like the Oxide Computer Company take vis-à-vis their usage of illumos technologies, but I do believe that commercial entities like the Oxide Computer Company's employees are exerting disproportionate influence over the direction of illumos itself to the extent of flagrantly disregarding it's heritage and tradition rooted in the UNIX philosophy, this is absolutely unacceptable from my viewpoint. And it was this particular point in my criticism directed at Robert Mustacchi, who by the way, too is an employee of the Oxide Computer Company, which was considered offensive by Joshua Clulow. If there's any other reason for my ban, I would be glad to understand it, but you would be unable to find anything offensive and/or distasteful from me on the illumos IRC channel and/or the illumos mailing lists after the criticism directed at Robert Mustacchi and just before the ban was imposed on me. Given the above, I believe it's pertinent that the larger illumos community take cognizance of the gravity of this situation and prevent any individual affiliated with any commercial "enterprise" which uses illumos to as large an extent as the Oxide Computer Company, to bear any kind of administrative position within the illumos community forums, mailing lists, IRC channels and/or other such communication mediums. I would be happy to engage anyone who can provide concrete evidence countering any of the points mentioned above. Though I believe it would have to be done in private since Joshua Clulow is now going to ban me from the illumos mailing lists too due to his sense magnanimity. Best regards. ------------------------------------------ illumos: illumos-discuss Permalink: https://illumos.topicbox.com/groups/discuss/T9ccc1e715f80e977-M36da21655865d72a4266c04a Delivery options: https://illumos.topicbox.com/groups/discuss/subscription
