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> a communal MIT project, and made some edits

The Jargon File had been dead and dated for nearly a decade when he picked it up. His maintenance and publication was an important part of making this content relevant and accessible to future generations.

Eric Raymond's work is a mix of good and bad-- like you could say about anyone.

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Oh interesting -- I didn't know any of the above Raymond controversy (or even really who he was; the name just is etched in my brain from that book)

As a guy who found the Jargon File via that book, I'm grateful he did it. But I can see how publishing an edit of an online forum would ruffle a lot of feathers: 30 years later you get guys like me attributing it all to him.

The introduction makes it pretty clear the sourcing: http://catb.org/jargon/html/revision-history.html (This appears in the printed book, too).

Most of the criticism of his stewardship of the jargon file and the publication as N.H.D. by MIT Press comes after other controversies.

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