Hacker News Reader

Comment by A_COMPUTER | Hacker News Reader

Torvalds is being dogpiled . This is the third or fourth article I've read in the last month that has tried to conflate Linus Torvalds sometimes being rude with the horrendous, persistrent, ongoing harassment/abuse that is being carried out by completely different people, in completely different industry.

If Torvalds is going to be used, is it too much to ask to stick to the things he has done and not lump him together with death threats, SWATing, etc? Like, catalog what HE said, in their context, and discuss those? Because I really don't think they are comparable, and the conflation is disingenuous.

View on HN

If he is, it's pretty tame compared to the treatment of those who criticize him, and those who claim to support those who criticize him.

That is one of the scariest aspects of all this: there is an aggressive Internet mob that does nothing of value for Free SW, but will come in full force any time that an issue like this one is debated in the open, and will stop at nothing to ruin the life of those they identify as enemies.

Encouraging civility and attracting new contributors are very important goals for the future of Free SW. Achieving that will help us create better products that can be useful for more people.

Therefore, having all this harassment and hate come up whenever there is talk about improving the community is tremendously hurtful. It is sabotage, that's what it is.

> Torvalds is being dogpiled .

Since he isn't a nice person and likes arguing, in his own words, why would he care? And why are so many white knights worried about his precious fe-fes? That's what Linus is arguing for, feelings don't matter, only ideas, right?

Has he condemned his supporters' treatment of Shanley and other critics? If they're doing it in his name, his silence implies approval.

As far as I can tell, the abuse all originated from a board on 8chan. As I said, I that is so far away from what he does that I don't even see them on the same continuum. Also,

>his silence implies approval.

No it doesn't. He probably doesn't even know about this. If he did, have you considered he might be scared to speak up?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com