On Wed, Aug 8, 2018 at 2:48 PM bawolff bawolff+wn@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.