[OpenAFS] Funding the formation of an OpenAFS Foundation

Troy Benjegerdes hozer@hozed.org
Fri, 28 Sep 2012 21:27:01 -0500


> The actual reason why so much open source work is done by such people is
> not because they're better at it.  It's because they drive off everyone
> who doesn't "have thick skin" or "enjoys robust exchanges of views" or
> whatever today's euphemism is for tolerating abusive behavior, and then
> use the fact that all surviving project members interact like they do as
> proof that their social behavior is acceptable.  It's a self-selecting,
> self-perpetuating ecosystem that I'm increasingly uninterested in
> tolerating. 

Now this is an interesting discussion.

I think you described OpenBSD and qmail quite well.

Is there any way you can imagine to quantify the 'abuse quotient' for a 
particular project or mailing list? Someone, somewhere has got to have a
natural language analysis tool, and some sort of metrics for what 
constitutes abusive behavior.

I was thinking while first reading your message that the reason lots of 
open source projects are run by assholes is that the assholes are better 
at getting funded to continue to lead open source projects. The nice guys
end up taking other jobs to pay the mortgage, while the assholes can be
obnoxious full time.

And, as you alluded to, it DOES have something to do with gender..
http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2011/11/03/workplace-jerks-make-more-money/

'assholes make more money' is an interesting google search.

> Besides, whether one attracts more developers that way or not, it's simply
> the right thing to do, at a level that's considerably more important than
> whether AFS survives as a technology or not.

Now this is a very good social/ethical goal.

So with that, I want to apologize for anything I've written that comes 
across as abusive, jerky, or obnoxious behavior. It may also very well be
my mood in september and october is highly correlated with the price of
corn and soybeans, and the market is up today, so I should probably avoid
posting on a down market.