"WTF, [rms] can't maintain his own damn website?" | Hacker News Reader

"WTF, [rms] can't maintain his own damn website?"

lists.nyhacker.org

44 pointszmitri34 comments

Important context: Stallman's setup and his work process don't involve being online very often. He thinks and writes emails: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1071558

"I spend most of my time using Emacs. I run it on a text console, so that I don't have to worry about accidentally touching the mouse-pad and moving the pointer, which would be a nuisance. I read and send mail with Emacs (mail is what I do most of the time).

...

Most of the time I do not have an Internet connection. Once or twice or maybe three times a day I connect and transfer mail in and out. Before sending mail, I always review and revise the outgoing messages. That gives me a chance to catch mistakes and faux pas."

OK, but what does that have to do with whether he maintains his own website? He could code the site himself, if he wanted to, using Emacs, and without an internet connection most of the time.

In fact I think the context works the other way around. RMS maintains a complicated personal website, and apparently does it mainly by writing emails. That, with no other information, is something of a feat. The explanatory context is that he has a bunch of volunteers who mark up what he writes, and put it on the web for him.

I knew he was rarely on the web, and even when he is, he doesn't access it directly. Submitted because I thought the mailing list response was, well, funny.

I'm not sure if "funny" is really what HN is going for. This feels more appropriate on Reddit. But I digress.

Sounds like he needs a CMS. Out-sourcing maintaining your personal website: so? It's a waste of time when others are willing to do it for you, and you can afford their cost. Editing HTML files to do so: WTF.

Not a comment on the design, but rather just something that always bugs me when I see it:

Are you sure? If some of your content was written in 1996, you'd be trying to buy you extra protection by claiming that it's copyrighted in 2011. Not that it woud matter for another 70 years or so, but still...

Yeah, I'm sure. Copyright in the United States is implicit anyway and writing "I wrote this in 1996" isn't a form of legal protection.

dammit! and i was hopping to use his flute-playing picture as my own!

I'm more bothered by rms, being the face of the GNU project, FSF etc not making an effort to maintain personal grooming and also social skills.

To be honest I think the person he is is part of why the FSF GNU succeeded in some sense, he is a radical and often radicals can further change more quickly than any other kind of person.

That said he is very weird and some part of me thinks he would be annoying to hang around with but he always seem to be at least somewhat polite online.

RMS's forays into politeness are a rather recent endeavor. He used to be particularly nasty about stupid things like GNU/Linux instead of Linux.

Online, in my emails with him he has never been rude, always factual and not ignorant. In my discussions with those who've met him in person, paint a very different story. He does little towards the causes he believes in by being so anti-social as he has been renown for.

And? RMS is not a web designer. He has more important things to do.

From the looks of his site neither are any of his volunteers.

Nothing wrong with the basic design. It's functional, and conveys information....makes a change from rounded corners etc etc.

What fork of Emacs ships with this feature? I hate having to do work too!

And what an ugly web site that he has.

I remember reading somewhere that he can't type anymore (or barely write) because of some problems with his hand. That's why he charges for autographs too...

That might explain GNU Hurd's development pace

Do you have a source for that? If true, I am a lucky guy - having received his "Happy hacking" signature six years ago. It's still watching proudly from my blackboard.

Emacs will do that to you.

I've had the pleasure... of inviting him to talk at UC Berkeley Linux User Group. He made us change the name of the group to the UC Berkeley GNU/Linux User Group. During dinner, he also likes to stick his hair in the communal food. When I invited him a second time to speak, I avoided him like the plague.

Looking at many of the comments, I wasn't aware that HN was for personal attacks on various people.

It's not -- or at least it wasn't. Nearly all the rude comments (and the rudest of them, I might add) are all from new users. We know where they come from.

Maybe someone should write an email based CMS system.

WordPress allows post by e-mail. http://codex.wordpress.org/Post_to_your_blog_using_email

Generally you set it up to access an account by POP. Each time WordPress finds a new item while polling, it will create and publish a new post.

pretty sure that's posterious or however you spell that

Isn't that what Tumblr is?

Free as in freeloader.

Genius! In the future he can replace himself with email generating machines and nobody notices.

Looks like someone hasn't heard of CMSes, for example wordpress.

"Richard sends a bunch of emails every day and someone needs to edit the html files on the site with those updates"

Seriously?? Really, get a wordpress or squarespace account.

Maybe it's just me, but there's this one YC-funded startup that I think could really help with this exact problem...

Pfft, rms can't maintain his own personal hygiene either.

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