

Gnome devs ban Bugzilla user for complaining on separate website - kintamanimatt
https://plus.google.com/100013123247538791993/posts/2W2onvw3Ly5

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kimmel
The title should really read "GNOME dev bans bugzilla user for drawing
attention to bad GNOME developer processes"

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u2328
This is a silly controversy that keeps getting taken out of context. A bug
tracker is not a forum to discuss the direction of a project; there's other
avenues for that (blog posts, etc...). Spam posting the link to the bug report
to all the social media sites you can think of is anti-social behavior, and is
indeed worthy of a ban of your bugzilla account.

Yes, the GNOME dev that closed the bug with a blunt "No." response was rude,
but that doesn't give you the moral authority to rally the outrage police and
incite Internet riots.

~~~
wwwtyro
> rally the outrage police and incite Internet riots

Wait -- how was this done, exactly? Are you referring to the HN post? Because,
unless the title was changed, it was simply a statement of fact.

The real problem seems to be that some Gnome dev thinks they can be rude and
expect zero backlash.

~~~
u2328
Right. But, does that then also entitle people who only saw this bug report
through social media (mostly Reddit) to make accounts so that they can make
posts on the bug report like:

> And this is why people don't use GNOME. What a joke.

> where is christian persch hiding now?

> Time to move to KDE or XFCE

Keep in mind this is a bugtracker, which is used for technical discussions for
devs and users, not a forum for people to express their opinions about how
terrible GNOME is.

~~~
wwwtyro
I don't think people need any kind of entitlement to say things on the
internet. It's kinda what we do here.

~~~
u2328
Really? Do you have a website? Can I make a hyperbolic post on it about you
terrible you are? You won't remove it?

~~~
wwwtyro
I'm not following your logic.

~~~
u2328
I can tell. Let's lay it out:

I said, (paraphrasing here), "yes, the GNOME dev was rude, but posting the
link to the bug report on a bunch of social media sites _without context_ was
intended to illicit a reactionary response from the Internet, and a bug report
is not the proper place for that response."

The, you said, "The real problem seems to be that some Gnome dev thinks they
can be rude and expect zero backlash."

I replied, "The real problem seems to be that some Gnome dev thinks they can
be rude and expect zero backlash."

I agree with you on that point, but still raised an objection to the fact that
a direct link was posted everywhere to the bug report: "[...] does that then
also entitle people who only saw this bug report through social media (mostly
Reddit) to make accounts so that they can make [malicious] posts on the bug
report [...]". I again pointed out the fact that this was a bugtracker.

You then said, "I don't think people need any kind of entitlement to say
things on the internet. It's kinda what we do here."

That's the issue though; the GNOME has a code of conduct
(<https://live.gnome.org/CodeOfConduct/>) and they're clearly allowed to
enforce it and regulate speech on their website. It's a website that intended
for technical discussions between developers and testers. And that's the
controversy, right? That GNOME banned someone's bugzilla account by spam
posting the link to the bug report to a bunch of social media sites, even
after they were warned about that behavior. It's their website, and they have
a clear code of conduct, intended to prevent the exact sort of thing that
happened (the posting of those malicious posts I pointed to earlier). GNOME is
just enacting their 1st Amendment right to maintain order in a bugtracker.

So, yeah, you can say what you want on the Internet. That doesn't mean you're
immune from repercussions either. So, sure, you can spam post a link to a bug
report, out of context, in an attempt to gather collective outrage, but GNOME
or anyone else for that matter has just as much right to enact their 1st
Amendment rights by banning your account for anti-social behavior.

