The debian-private mailing list leak, part 1. Volunteers have complained about Blackmail. Lynchings. Character assassination. Defamation. Cyberbullying. Volunteers who gave many years of their lives are picked out at random for cruel social experiments. The former DPL's girlfriend Molly de Blanc is given volunteers to experiment on for her crazy talks. These volunteers never consented to be used like lab rats. We don't either. debian-private can no longer be a safe space for the cabal. Let these monsters have nowhere to hide. Volunteers are not disposable. We stand with the victims.

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Re: Open letter to Martin Schulze



Ian Murdock <imurdock@lib.purdue.edu> wrote:
> I've been reading debian-private again for a few months; the hostility
> and downright nastiness exhibited by some of you greatly saddens me.
> During my tenure as Project Leader, I locked horns with a number of
> people on a number of occasions, but there was always a sense of
> respect for one another no matter how big the difference of opinion.
> I just don't see that from some of you.
> 
> Bruce has done an outstanding job as Project Leader.  He has donated
> countless hours of his time for the good of the Project and has taken
> it to a higher level.  Please show him the respect he deserves!  If
> you have an opinion, please voice it respectfully.  If you're
> incapable of doing that, please go away and stop making trouble for
> the rest of us.
> 

I agree that the current situation is a disgrace, and that Bruce has made huge 
contributions (and I would guess sacrifices for the Debian project) however I 
think Bruce needs to accept some responsibility for the current situation:

On the 26th of February Bruce Perens wrote the following on debian-devel:

+Guys,
+
+I'm sick of being the den mother for a pack of unruly kids. As of this
+moment I have nothing more to do with Debian. I am going to put 100% of
+my hobby time into Linux for Hams, which will be based on Red Hat.
+I'd like to send you all a hearty fuck you for all the abuse I've suffered
+for two years.
+
+Don't call me. I won't call you.
+
+	Bruce Perens

Bruce after sending this message then in an action which I think can be 
accurately characterised as childish and tantrum like deleted his home 
directory on master , trashing the mailing lists in the process (which I think 
everyone accepts was an accident).


Now I agree that there was discord occuring before this event, however IMO
it was only after this announcement that discord became disrespect.  I 
personally was shocked by this announcement, more for what it said about the 
professionalism of the person chosen to lead Debian than Bruces actual 
"resignation".  Statements such as "fuck you" and "I'm going to move to a 
system that is ostensibly our major competitor" were obviously made out of 
great anger at the time, but especially the "I'm moving to RedHat" appeared to 
me to be very distructive towards Debian in general, I mean this is the 
*President* saying that he'd rather use another system.  Now some may be 
asking at this point , "Why bring up this old news now", well I think this 
issue was never properly discussed, partly because the majority of the 
developers were (IMO) far to forgiving of this outburst. I believe it is 
possible that those who have become the most disenchanted may have felt more 
strongly about the inapproriateness of the February the 26th message than 
others, and what appear to some to be their "harsh" treatment of Bruce should 
be seen in context of this message.

Speaking personally, the message from Bruce above has discouraged me from 
contributing the time I had planned to give to the project, which appeared to 
be led by what I saw at the time as a pedantic child.  Please note that 
Bruce's message came shortly after my addition to Debian private, so I was not 
able to directly see the huge amount of good work Bruce has done in the past, 
and this being one of my first experiences of Bruce "In action", I'm hope you 
can forgive the harsh nature of this view.


> This isn't anything more than symbolic, since I'm in the process of
> coordinating a move across the country and haven't had much time to
> be involved, but if Bruce goes, I go too.

This would be sad.

I think that possibly a split would be good.  Clearly many people have no 
problem with their leader giving them a hearty "Fuck You".  Personally I found 
it distasteful.  Whatever happens I thank Bruce for getting Debian to where it 
is, but I suggest he needs to reach a concrete decision on what his plans are, 
since the resignation I have seen him flip-flop between various stances, in 
fact so many times that I am unsure of his current position.

Hoping things turn out for the best,
Richard Jones.