
Richard Stallman's 22-Page Rider (2011) - speps
http://waronpants.net/article/richard-stallmans-22-page-rider/
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simonvc
As someone who's hosted RMS for a week, i appreciated having this information
available.

I find websites that call out Richards eccentricities to be in extremely poor
taste. It's no-ones business but Richards, and the people who choose to host
him. To put it delicately, having a clear user manual for a non-neurotypical
person helps immensely.

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J-dawg
Is Richard Stallman known to be 'non-neurotypical'? Can anyone be described as
neurotypical?

Everything quoted in the article seemed perfectly reasonable to me, even if I
wouldn't make the same requests myself.

I'd love to be able to give a 'rider' to everyone I work with.

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jimmytidey
Hasn't this been round loads of times? Shouldn't we have the video of him
eating something off his shoe too?

Even though the rider is incredibly extensive, I don't think any of it is
particularly unreasonable. He's just specifying exactly how he wants things to
work, just like you might other kinds of protocol.

Friend of mine looked after RMS at an event. RMS was one of his heroes, he
said it was very humbling to discover that they didn't get along at all.

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larrydag
Sometimes high profile presenters and event coordinators put rather odd things
in riders as a quality control check to make sure the sponsor is being
thorough. I'm not sure if this is Stallman's intent but it sure sounds like
it.

There is a famous rider meme concerning Van Halen. When they toured they
required M&M's in their dressing room with the brown ones taken out. They
didn't particularly care about M&M's. They just wanted to make sure the
organizer was reading the rider.

~~~
smeyer
I don't think that's the case with Stallman. That makes sense when you put in
one thing as a quality control check, but he seems to genuinely just be very,
very particular about lots of things.

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pieter1976
_I do not eat breakfast. Please do not ask me any questions about what I will
do breakfast. Please just do not bring it up._

It's one thing not to want to eat breakfast, but making it a taboo subject
seems extreme.

~~~
jpablo
I'm guessing that was added the 1000th time he was asked about breakfast, this
one last host being very pushy about it.

~~~
jon-wood
There's so much in there that I can't help thinking got added because it
happened at some point in the past, like his demand that you not buy a parrot
just because he's visiting and like parrots.

~~~
rebeccaskinner
We have a parrot; they are really amazing animals and we've had people ask us
about getting one after they've visited ours. People really underestimate how
much work and knowledge is required to take care of one. The longer lived
species can live 60+ years, and they require an enormous amount of attention
and enrichment to help keep the mentally and emotionally healthy. He may just
want to spare a bird from the harm of being bought by someone who is
unprepared to properly care for it.

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nateberkopec
> In some places, my hosts act as if my every wish were their command. By
> catering to my every whim, in effect they make me a tyrant over them, which
> is not a role I like. I start to worry that I might subject them to great
> burdens without even realizing.

Then:

> I do not eat breakfast. Please do not ask me any questions about what I will
> do breakfast. Please just do not bring it up.

~~~
elthran
> By catering to my every whim, in effect they make me a tyrant over them,
> which is not a role I like.

Exactly - so by this logical path, should we just ignore the rider, if he
doesn't want us catering to him?

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Grue3
>Please call the hotel and ask whether they will demand to see my passport

I've yet to stay in any hotel that wouldn't demand to see my passport. I think
in many places they're required to by law.

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joesmo
These are some of the blandest, most routine requests someone can make. There
isn't a single one that's weird, especially given Stallman's background. If
this is the most "weird" the OP could find out of 22 pages, those are some
boring-ass 22 pages.

