Re: removing toxic emailers

[Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com>]

On Thu, Apr 15, 2021 at 4:29 PM Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com> wrote:
>
> *grumble* Get *over* yourselves.  You want to be "welcoming" to
> women?  Don't patronize or infantilize them - respect their ability to
> tell off RMS for themselves *and then keep working with him*!

Thank you for sharing your experiences.

I just want to note that I think this last paragraph misses the point.
Patronizing or infantilizing anybody doesn't come into this at all.

This is about work.  There are social aspects to free software, but
it's not fundamentally a social activity.  It's about getting
something done, and for many people it's their job.  For the sake of
argument, I'm going to temporarily set aside all consideration of how
people should behave in a professional setting, not because it doesn't
matter, but just to try to clarify matters.  Let's just think about
the project.

We want free software to succeed.  Free software is more likely to
succeed if more people work on it.  If you are a volunteer, as many
are, you can choose to spend your time on the project where you have
to short-stop unwelcome advances, where you are required to deal with
"men with poor social skills."  Or you can choose to spend your time
on the project where people treat you with respect.  Which one do you
choose?

Or perhaps you have a job that requires you to work on free software.
Now, if you work on a project where the people act like RMS, you are
being forced by your employer to work in a space where you face
unwelcome advances and men who have "trouble recognizing boundaries."
That's textbook hostile environment, and a set up for you to sue your
employer.  So your employer will never ask anyone to work on a project
where people act like that--at least, they won't do it more than once.

In other words, having people who act in the way that you describe RMS
as acting is actively harmful for a free software project, because it
will discourage people from working on it.

(Entirely separately, I don't get the slant of your whole e-mail.  You
can put up with RMS despite the boorish behavior you describe.  Great.
You're a saint.  Why do you expect everyone else to be a saint?  I
don't meet with people who act like that, not more than once.  Life is
too short.  I'll work with them if I must, but not if I don't have
to.)

Ian