I just got off the phone with Mark Shuttleworth. I was very grateful for this phone call as we managed to discuss the issue without the noise, nastiness and bad spirit which was ongoing during the initial posts here.
My sarcasm isn’t always understood by people and I think Mark was shocked at this, I have a wicked sense of humour at times and I understand that this isn’t always appreciated. Although after speaking with Mark I’m now quite impressed with his attitude toward upstream accreditation. The issue over the “About GNOME” menu item was actually trivial, in that someone had mentioned it to him as an option in passing to which Mark refused to budge. It seemed to me like a bad example, and this is yet another case of type being a less eloquent method of communication than talk.
The original issue which has caused this ruckas wasn’t such a big deal and it eventually came down to the way it was handled. Some have said I “demanded” accreditation, this simply isn’t the case. The fact of the matter is I asked if it could be attributed to me because that would have been a nice thing to do. The sequence of events disheartened me a bit, but in the end it wasn’t a big enough issue for me to blog about. It has actually been a fair few months since it occurred and there hasn’t been a peep out of me regarding this. Zeeshan asked me to blog it.
Mark seemed to agree that maybe things in this instance were a little suspect, and that came down to a lack of response regarding my email more than anything.
In the end things have blown up out of all proportion, a few days of getting attacked left and right from anonymous trolls can heat up a situation far beyond melting point. Its unfortunate that there is a massively polarised troll community out there. It seems that comment systems are now getting the slashdot effect all over the place, which to be honest I don’t care too much for. Too many people make a religion out of their software beliefs. I’ve been told that I shouldn’t contribute to open source again, I’ve been told that I shouldn’t ever post on a blog again, I’ve had people criticise and threaten me in various personal ways also… These comments and emails go to the trash as not a single one of the heavily polarised comments came with a name attached. Shame on you people!
However, on the flip side, over the last day or so I have seen a collection of emails come in, and some people even pinging me on various IRC servers in response to what has gone on. The content of these messages was simply, “not all of us are like that, and I’m sorry some of us have been…” these are the people, and you know who you are who should be awarded for their courage to come out and speak to me directly, apologising for other peoples behaviour not their own… I have tried to respond to you all, but I think one big thanks for all of you should be enough 
(I hope)
Yeah, I think whoever was trying to help you out started things rolling the wrong direction with his announcement that he was no longer ‘a fan of ubuntu’.
Once the tone is set like that, things kinda go downhill..
Never attribute to malice what can be attributed to oversight.
Yeah, I think whoever was trying to help you out started things rolling the wrong direction with his announcement that he was no longer ‘a fan of ubuntu’.
Correct! He should have realized that it’s very hard for many people to comprehend the big difference between “no longer a fan” and “hate”.
I don’t really have an opinion on whether all that happened was right, and I’m not completely filled out on everything that went on, but I think you handled it well. Personal attacks are never a good thing. I’ve received a few for opinions I’ve had, but I’ve also been on the other side (whether or not I posted an attack, I’ve felt like doing so).
Wow, mega kudos to Mark for calling you! Good thing he’s on our side; I don’t think there are many people as awesome as him
It is interesting how issues here get blown so much out of proportion. I have an odd hunch it has something to do with jumping messaging mediums between mailing lists, forums and planets. Anyone suspect there’s something between all those which magnifies these issues?
I agree kudos to Mark for a calling. It’s exactly the kind of thing I needed to dis spell any bad blood that had built up.
I am glad that things seem to have settled. Its disappointing when a community gets soo worked up over some details. Hopefully it results in some ground rules and a better understanding of the relationship between upstream and downstreams.
Karl: This whole situation is a bit funny in the light of the last paragraph in http://www.grillbar.org/wordpress/?p=277
Anyways, I am glad it is all sorted out now, and I hope that everybody can enjoy the summer a bit more now. Perhaps we may even come strengthened out of this.
And just because all blog comments *must* feature derogatory contents; I just want to say that all vi-users are total lusers.
Mikkel its always ridiculous to hear your comments, they are so simply utterly pointless… Why bring up vi, I mean its a tool, its an awesome tool, but emacs, I mean comeon, get yourself into the 20th century at least. My great grandfather was using emacs to code the software for the Babbage calculator.
/sarcasm
I think we could go at this kind of thing indefinitely…
P.S. Sense of humour is not mandatory