* Eich to be stabbed with a pitchfork
* His family to be threatened
* Protests outside his home
* Harassing phone calls
* A Firefox boycott
* His termination
* His demotion
What the HN comments are doing:
* Quietly acknowledging that the donation happened
I think it's a far cry from a witch hunt.
Calling for:
✔ A Mozilla boycott
✔ His termination
✔ His demotion
> * Quietly acknowledging that the donation happened
With all due respect, this is not an accurate summary. What many comments including the original comment have been doing is seriously broaching the idea that an anti-Prop. 8 vote is a serious grounds to disqualify someone from being Mozilla CEO. Sometimes a bit coyly, in a "nice car, shame if something happened to it" manner, but that's immaterial.
Wrt to Eich and his donation, I'm on a the fence about it. I don't like mobbing on people, especially on the Internet. Especially when the people concerned have not made their reasons public. On the other hand, upon reading Proposition 8, it's difficult to imagine many other reasons than deep conservatism or homophobia for supporting it.
Ah well. I suppose Brendan will trend very carefully, and he certainly has enough technical credibility that nobody will attack him from this angle. I'll also note that a number of figures popular on HN are more well-known for their amount of wealth than their moral character. Maybe one of his crimes is not being rich enough?