Original blog post

At the advice of friendly FSF board members, I turned in the following letter to the FSF president, asking him to pass it on to directors and voting members at a suitable time:

My dear colleagues,

I'm very sorry for the trouble I've caused. My participation in the fundraiser was intended to restore the trust and support from people who'd grown suspicious of us, and whom we were failing to communicate with. I figured they might listen to me, and I was very hopeful of our future. Alas, I understand it didn't come across this way, and I admit that posting it was a big mistake, one that I regret deeply.

My inability to predict unintended reactions to my writings led me to realize and accept how badly I need feedback from others before publishing on sensitive topics, and how much I still have to learn about effective communication.

As much as I wish I'd had a chance to contribute to the FSF during my tenure, the way for me to learn what I still need to learn is through practice, not inaction, and I do not wish to impose on the FSF any more of the risks and pitfalls of my learning process.

I therefore offer you, Geoffrey Knauth, FSF President, my resignation from the FSF Board of Directors. Please let me know when it becomes effective, if you choose to accept it. I hope that some day, after learning what I need to learn (and, if I may say, at more fortunate timing), I get another chance to support the FSF from the inside again.

Meanwhile, I look forward to other ways to cooperate from the outside.

Thanks for bearing with my shortcomings, and for your continued work to keep the FSF fighting the good fight,

It was accepted immediately, but the response did not specify when it becomes effective. I'm not sure what that implies.

Anyway, I suppose I'm no longer a member of the board of directors of the FSF.

So blong,

---

Copyright 2007-2020 Alexandre Oliva

Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this entire document worldwide without royalty, provided the copyright notice, the document's official URL, and this permission notice are preserved.

The following licensing terms also apply to all documents and postings in this blog that don't contain a copyright notice of their own, or that contain a notice equivalent to the one above, and whose copyright can be reasonably assumed to be held by Alexandre Oliva.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons License BY-SA (Attribution ShareAlike) 3.0 Unported. To see a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA.