Re: Is negative publicity always harmful?

[Jean Louis]

* Thompson <Thompson> [2019-11-06 14:01]:
> Hello moderators,
> 
> On Tue, Nov 5, 2019 at 9:56 PM Ruben Safir <ruben@mrbrklyn.com> wrote:
> >
> > there has been NO problematic behavior by RMS.  You would never have
> > survived 30+ years in the spotlight like he has.  He has been rock solid
> > and saying otherwise don't give it any ground.
> 
> This message has made it through moderation and onto the list which I
> believe is a mistake.
> 
> Is gaslighting against the rules here?  I believe it should be.

Gaslighting is a term used to manipulate victims by insisting that
somebody is mistaken or delusional. Reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslighting

As purpose of GNU Kind Communication Guidelinesis to encourage
contributions to GNU project, and that is also one of overall purpose
to support GNU project -- there is no use of pointing out to fictional
victims and continuing with apparent victimization.

If there is a victim of anybody's actions, let the victim handle that
directly. If you are standing and speaking for some particular victim,
then maybe you could tell who is the victim by naming the person
specifically and showing evidences of any crime.

If you got a power of attorney to defend the victim, then such issues
shall be handled in courts, present your case properly. Anything else
creates fears, uncertainties and doubt.

That is media's business to create fears, uncertainties and
doubts. They profit on that.

That is not business of GNU, which should be creation of new free
software and spreading free software philosophy.

GNU does not profit there. In fact some contributors got discouraged.

By generalizing that there are victims, while there are none, by
inflating accusations while RMS is innocent, this does not create new
contributions to GNU.

>From my side I have not got enough time these days to successfully
encourage few software projects to join the GNU project. There are two
attempts from last days, weeks. I will look into list of priorities as
stated on GNU/FSF pages, and will advocate for projects to join.

I would propose to you to remove your signature and the page from
Guix' published public shaming page about RMS, that way you can
minimize the number of discouraged developers.

Instead create a page to welcome new people and more contributions
into GNU project, do some free software philosophy speeches, welcome
women and all kinds of genders and people into GNU project.

Let's see a number of contributors growing. If one uses features of
versioning systems, that number could be used as statistics of
progress.

You are welcome.