GNOME Has a Long History (Over a Decade) Misusing the Code of Conduct (CoC) to Censor (Cull) Legitimate Technical Criticism
This has nothing to do with manners, it's about control (by cover-up)
Having just mentioned GNOME in relation to SLAPPs, consider what GNOME did 10 years ago, as chronicled by IgnorantGuru:
I submit the following for your review because it’s an interesting case study in how Red Hat developers are running the GTK+ bugtracker, censoring non-flattering input, and misusing their code of conduct. Since they deleted several of my comments, and threatened another participant merely for using the word “overengineered” (lol – if the shoe fits…), I thought it might be valuable to bring what they deleted to larger attention.I and the others involved are not the only people who are treated this way by these developers. But most people will back down because they don’t want to be banned and censored, which I can understand, but it creates an atmosphere where there can be no open discussion of larger issues facing GTK+. But I don’t have to kiss ass, and they have never once done anything useful in response to bugs I have tried to get them to fix. In fact I don’t think they’ve ever taken an action that has benefited libre software at all. They are an obstacle – some great upstream to have on your GUI toolkit.
If you plan to use GTK on a new project, don’t. Unless you’re part of Gnome, this is the kind of support environment you can now expect. And do not be fooled by their “please submit a patch”. First, why are they demanding that API users fix their low-level I/O bugs? Second, even the person asking for the patch has no authority to include it – they are more like (ARE) a corporation’s customer service representatives that are there to merely give people the runaround.
The case in study is a bug report regarding the way the GTK+ file chooser (file browser) only shows FUSE mounts made by gvfs, and is blind to those made by almost all other file managers. This is a simple bug. All that needs to be done to fix it is add the traditional location used for fuse mounts to the heuristics – a 5 minute job. Yet instead of simply fixing it, first a Red Hat employee immediately closes it as “RESOLVED WONTFIX” with a “No.” Then after I point out some details, they reopen it, but embroil it in a huge debate about gvfs dependency and udisks, which has nothing to do with this simple bug. As such, they are obstructing, not resolving anything. When their inaccurate gvfs dependency information is pointed out, they delete the comment. Further, it’s revealed that it’s broken in the first place because someone inserted a hack for gvfs into gio, breaking the chooser for non-gvfs use. When this is pointed out, they delete the comment.
You should recognize some of the names involved from previous articles on this blog. Emmanuele Bassi states he doesn’t work for Red Hat. I don’t know who he does work for, but he is very prominent in Red Hat’s projects (allegedly open and free projects, but in which Red Hat dictates all decisions), and he seems to be given carte blanche by them administratively, for whatever reason.
Here is the full thread, with comments deleted by Red Tape restored and indicated.
[...]
Editorial: Personally, I don’t see discussing Red Hat’s motivations and history of involvement in this area as irrelevent or as a personal attack. There was no name calling here by anyone, really no references to any person in particular. In my view they are using their code of conduct (which also specifies that we must assume they mean well!) merely to hide misinformation they’re spreading about gvfs, and to hide the involvement of Red Hat and their history and agendas with regard to gvfs dependency. When a person uses the word “overengineered” to justify why they’re not using udisks (which they shouldn’t have to justify at all, as it’s a valid choice and nothing to do with this bug), and they are threatened with a code of conduct for using the word, there is something seriously wrong. So effectively, none of these central issues can be discussed on a GTK+/glib bugtracker without heavy-handed censorship and threats.
I feel personally attacked because Emmanuele Bassi called us “not really cool” for thinking we can pick and choose components in Linux.
Some of the above-mentioned people actively support the person who harassed me for 13 years [1, 2]. It's quite revealing. They have zero belief in free speech, they believe in punching people they disagree with. If the CoC was about manners, they're get kicked out. But in reality the CoC is promoted by violent people and sometimes pedophiles (coming to our IRC channels to demand a CoC while they literally put their cock inside little children). █