
"When dealing with RMS, keep the following things in mind" - fogus
http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/RichardStallman
======
sriramk
I know RMS is a special case but it annoys me when people say/act as if
they're too busy to properly respond.

One of my favorite people in Microsoft is Ray Ozzie. Every single time I've
mailed him, I've gotten a long, thoughtful reply. He is probably the best
email handler I've seen.

BillG is pretty good at email and sending you prompt replies.

~~~
jpablo
I'll say giving a thoughtful reply to every random person that emails you is
not really the best use of time.

Sure, it's great for you to get an answer and kudoz for the people who really
have the time to do that.

~~~
xenophanes
It depends on the type of email. In general, when I give people thoughtful
replies _I learn something_. But I can see this wouldn't be true for some
categories of email.

------
kleiba
I don't know how many of you guys have ever actually contacted RMS, but
whenever I did, his answers were quick, polite and to the point. Anecdotal, I
know...

~~~
pavel_lishin
I'm sure it depends on the topic of conversation, your stance on said topic,
etc., etc., too.

~~~
jerf
This is somehow different than other people?

------
mhd
Reminded me of this old Jamie Zawinski joke: [http://www.jwz.org/hacks/why-
cooperation-with-rms-is-impossi...](http://www.jwz.org/hacks/why-cooperation-
with-rms-is-impossible.mp3)

(ObOld: I remember the time when it was why-cooperation-with-rms-is-
impossible.au, not .mp3)

~~~
luigi
The applause he gets at the end of that "song" makes listening to the whole
thing worth it.

------
krelian
_He has very very little time, so his answers may seem impolite at times._

I always hear this but what is it exactly that he is doing that keeps him so
busy?

~~~
jessriedel
This is such a bad excuse. Being polite requires extremely little time, and
it's a requirement for interacting with humans.

In my experience, autistic-ish people (often geeks or nerds) sometimes confuse
being polite with being social, which _does_ take time. They then seem to
think that if they don't have time (or really, the skill and desire) to be
social, then they don't have to be polite.

This is a minority of geeks and nerds, of course.

~~~
jemfinch
I think the statement that his answers may seem impolite is more a commentary
on many people's inability to distinguish terseness from impoliteness. It's
not saying that he's rude.

~~~
ryanwaggoner
_many people's inability to distinguish terseness from impoliteness_

That's exactly it, though. Politeness and terseness are often diametrically
opposed in our society, and since there is no standard of politeness outside
what society finds to be "polite", I'm not sure how you can say many people
have an inability to distinguish.

If you email a long question to someone and they respond with "No.", many
people would find this to be impolite or downright rude. It might be the most
efficient thing and the hacker-type might think it's OK, but if most people
think it's impolite, _it is_.

~~~
jessriedel
That's because if it's a long question it generally requires a longish reply
to _explain_ to the other person why the answer is "no". Saying simply "no"
strongly suggests that the other person's understanding is not worth your
time, or that they should accept your answer without understanding it because
you are higher status.

------
brendoncrawford
Keep in mind that RMS' email policy should not be confused with his face-to-
face conversational style.

I ran into him at a train station in Milan, and completely commandeered his
time and attention for a good 30 minutes, despite the fact that he had a train
to catch. He politely answered all of my questions, and he even responded to
my criticisms with civility and respect.

If you ever get him in a casual, face-to-face conversation, you will find that
he actually comes across as quite meek and restrained, rather than the
arrogant blow-hard that he is generally portrayed to be.

~~~
jff
It may also be that face-to-face, he realizes it's a lot easier for someone to
haul off and smack a hippie than it is via the Internet.

On the other hand, I think just about everyone comes across a lot friendlier
in person, merely because it's easier to portray interest and friendliness
than over email.

------
cromulent
He is a fascinating creature. Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like
to be alive at the same time as various historical characters. With him, I
think I am. I believe history will treat him kindly, regardless of his
idiosyncrasies.

------
gaius
They forgot "his ideas about software economics only make sense if you have a
$1M grant from the MacArthur foundation and tenure at MIT".

~~~
m0th87
His ideas seem to be scaling pretty well. The GNU ecosystem is as big as ever.

~~~
gaius
... Thanks to IBM.

~~~
spinchange
Seems like you're having it both ways: Do his ideas only make economic sense
because he's an academic grant recipient or because one of the largest
commercial technology companies on earth has embraced the output of his work,
helping foster an ecosystem around it?

~~~
gaius
There's free as in speech, free as in beer, and free as in working for IBM
without getting paid.

------
atari
Has anyone else gotten unsolicited emails from RMS when you inadvertently use
one of his "words to avoid" on a mailing list or the like?
<http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html>

It's kinda fun.

------
bluesnowmonkey
Lots of famous and busy people manage to be approachable without needing you
to read a wiki page first. In fact it's really pompous to tell others they
need to follow special guidelines because you're so busy, as if the rest of us
sit around all day.

------
eru
RMS is a bunny ears laywer
(<http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BunnyEarsLawyer>).

~~~
8ren
tvtropes is NSFWorking. Tangent: I disagree with Jack Sparrow being Crazy
Awesome. He succeeds by the Rule of Cool, but I can't think of an instance
where his craziness _made_ him succeed (though that may be just because I'm
very tired right now.) eg. at the start of PotC, he looks completely freaked
as he flies up to escape from the pier. Or is the fact that he even tried it
Crazy Awesome? Great movie, anyway.

~~~
eru
I guess it's the new rickrolling.

------
djacobs
He doesn't have web access? Really? I don't think I understand.

~~~
mhd
From a post from 2007[1]:

    
    
        For personal reasons, I do not browse the web from my computer.
        (I also have not net connection much of the time.)  To look at
        page I send mail to a demon which runs wget and mails the page
        back to me.
        It is very efficient use of my time, but it is slow in real time.
    

[1]: <http://article.gmane.org/gmane.os.openbsd.misc/134979>

~~~
djacobs
Interesting, I'd never come across that quote before today. Anyone have any
idea why he doesn't like the WWW? Is he still on Gopher?

~~~
mhd
That piece of news was widely circulated back then, if I remember correctly it
even spawned a few RMS == Chuck Norris posts.

In a more recent article[1], Stallman voices his opposition to web-based SaaS
applications, as they take away your basic ownership of the data stored there,
limiting your freedom etc.

I can understand him in this regard. I'm not that idealistic and love the
convenience of some web apps, so right now that wins in the end. I think
that's one of the reasons why a lot of people seem to be annoyed of RMS – we
never like to be shown that we maybe compromise a bit too much. But I digress…

So you don't like webapps. You do most of your discussions in usenet or email
lists (this might sound sacrilegious here, but we I don't think
reddit/HN/4chan is a step up from moderated newsgroups). You can just download
news, either via the above-mentioned wget trick or via RSS. That does
eliminate most of your web-browsing needs, or am I missing something really
important? Especially if you live in Emacs, an don't care too much about
rounded corners, gradients and typographical text.

He's basically like the guy you know who tells you that he doesn't watch TV
and rather reads a book. You tell him that there's quality programming and you
read enough books, too, but then you remember this conversation and feel kinda
guilty while watching Castle.

[1]: <http://bostonreview.net/BR35.2/stallman.php>

~~~
djacobs
I kindof get that. But SaaS != WWW. What's more, some SaaS supports data
portability--as of yesterday, even Facebook does this! So I can't really
understand the concern, at least framed this way.

The web as a timesuck is I guess a good argument, but limiting yourself to
checking e-mail surely won't harness any inclination people have to read news
or watch media. Right?

