On Wed, Aug 8, 2018 at 2:48 PM bawolff <bawolff+wn(a)gmail.com> wrote:
MZMcbride (and any other individual contributor) is at
a power
disadvantage here relative to how the foundation is an organized
group
Have you *been* on the receiving end of an MZMcBride diatribe? I was, when
barely two months into my role as a software engineer at the Wikimedia
Foundation (and newly transplanted in the Bay Area), MZMcBride wrote a Signpost
op-ed
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2012-08-20/Op-ed>
centered around an inconsiderate remark I made on a bug that I closed as
WONTFIX. The responses to that included on-wiki comments telling me to go
fuck myself
<https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk:Wikipedia_Signpost/2012-08-20/Op-ed&type=revision&diff=508453894&oldid=508453261&diffmode=source>,
calls for my immediate resignation, and unbelievably vicious anonymous
hate-mail. My mental state after that was bordering on suicidal.
I hope that you are struck by the parallels between that affair back in
2012 and the one we are presently discussing. The germ-cell of both cases
was a legitimate grievance about Foundation engineers being dismissive
toward a bug report. MZMcBride has a very good ear for grievances, and he
knows how to use his considerable social clout to draw attention to them,
and then use words as a kind of lightning-rod for stoking outrage and
focusing it on particular targets. I don't know why he does it and I won't
speculate, but I am convinced he knows exactly what he is doing. How could
he not? This has been going on for nearly a decade.
When I saw MZMcBride's "what the fuck" I *instantly* knew what was coming.
After it happens to you, you never forget the sensation of instant regret
and absolute panic as the Eye of Sauron fixates on you. It is a
*miserable* experience
and I understand completely why the CoC might feel compelled to intervene.