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Comment by roenxi | Hacker News Reader

Something like 50% of that article isn't Stallman related, and some of the choice quotes are a bit unbelievable. Eg:

> I recall being told early in my freshman year “If RMS hits on you, just say ‘I’m a vi user’ even if it’s not true.”

That sounds like a joke. I mean, it is a joke. That isn't a serious comment/strategy on harassment. No creep has ever been forestalled by someone claiming to be a vi user.

1 stupid opinion and 3 negative comments, one of which looks like a joke, from 1980 to 2019 isn't evidence of a problem with Stallman.

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I don't know. Have you ever read Stallman's appearance requirements[1]? I mean, yeah, it's probably a joke. But I wouldn't be shocked it it were true either.

[1] https://github.com/ddol/rre-rms/blob/master/rider.txt

Yes I have. It is more reasonable than people give it credit for. If most of the people honestly catalogued all their quirks they'd end up with something fairly similar. Usually the courtesy when travelling is to put up with whatever the host provides, but that is less realistic when someone spends a lot of time travelling.

How is a host meant to figure any of the details in that rider out ahead of a Stallman visit without him telling them? It could easily be a log of all the things that have gone wrong for him in the past.

People like to go to the parrot quote. It wouldn't at all surprise me if a Stallman fan who was putting him up the the night tried to buy a parrot if they thought it would make him happy. The man's selfless dedication to the public good has earned him a couple of true believers over the years.

It is also comprehensive and doesn't mention anything about Vi.

This is hilarious. This Selam G. is full of bullshit.

It's in the sphere of believability when it comes to Stallman. He's a pretty eccentric bloke.

He's been forced to resign from 2-3 organisations and we've got an article here that says he might be homeless and a suicide risk.

"He's a pretty eccentric bloke" is not enough to justify using something that looks like a joke as evidence of problems stretching back to 1980. That quote is 33% of the shocking evidence mentioned in this link section 2.

The vi vs emacs 'holy war' is also a long running joke that Stallman gets involved in sometimes. He doesn't actually object to vi.

see, they use the joke an abbreviation of all the problems. they've been living it, this isn't a new thing like it seems to be for many here; for them, summing up with one joke is far more efficient than listing off all the incidents that are just facts in their world.

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