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Prominent Drupal, PHP Developer Kicked From the Drupal Project Over Unconventional Sex Life (techcrunch.com)

An anonymous Slashdot reader writes: Last week the Drupal community erupted in anger after its leader, Dries Buytaert, asked Larry Garfield, a prominent Drupal contributor and long-time member of the Drupal and PHP communities, "to leave the Drupal project." Buytaert claims he did this "because it came to my attention that he holds views that are in opposition with the values of the Drupal project." A huge furor has erupted in response -- not least because the reason clearly has much to do with Garfield's unconventional sex life. [Garfield is into BDSM, and is a member of the Gorean community, "a community who are interested in, and/or participate in, elaborate sexual subjugation fantasies, in which men are inherently superior to women."] Buytaert made his post (which is now offline) in response after Larry went public, outing himself to public opinion. Buytaert retorted (excerpt available via TechCrunch): "when a highly-visible community member's private views become public, controversial, and disruptive for the project, I must consider the impact [...] all people are created equally. [sic] I cannot in good faith support someone who actively promotes a philosophy that is contrary to this [...] any association with Larry's belief system is inconsistent with our project's goals [...] I recused myself from the Drupal Association's decision [to dismiss Garfield from his conference role] [...] Many have rightfully stated that I haven't made a clear case for the decision [...] I did not make the decision based on the information or beliefs conveyed in Larry's blog post." TechCrunch columnist Jon Evans goes on to "unpack" the questions that naturally arise from these "Code of Conduct conflicts."

10 of 656 comments (clear)

  1. Re: Would femdom be OK? by Type44Q · · Score: 5, Informative

    Of course, just not the reverse - it isn't compatible with the current unofficial official narrative.

  2. Buytaert's post is not offline by MSG · · Score: 3, Informative

    The URL above is incorrect. Buytaert's response is here:

    http://buytaert.net/living-our...

  3. Re:While its not my cup of tea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    It says right there in the Techcrunch article, in a quote from Larry himself:

    ...someone, I do not know who, stumbled across my profile on a private, registration-required website for alternative-lifestyle people that information made it to the Community Working Group...

  4. Re:While its not my cup of tea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    Not really, it sounds like someone in charge didn't like the bad PR that public knowledge of a risque sexual proclivity by one of their higher-ups MIGHT possibly bring.

    More than you know.

    Dries and Acquia can't afford to have anything that could set off the SJWs near them as they rape what's left of the Drupal community during their impending IPO.

  5. Re:While its not my cup of tea by sexconker · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not a fair comparison. The BDSM community has Dominatrixes AND Dominants Male and Female. Gor has no such equality...that's the problem.

    You don't know what you're talking about. It's just a sub genre of dom.

  6. Re:While its not my cup of tea by Daemonik · · Score: 1, Informative

    No, it's not. Goreans are like the Scientologists of the BDSM community. The novels the philosophy is based on are very much an "all males are dominant, all females are submissives" fantasy. It was only after 30 or more novels that the author started trying to add balance to them and that after a lot of heavy criticism.

  7. Re:SJW purges in full swing now by thomst · · Score: 5, Informative

    He wasn't fired for participating in BDSM and talking about it. He was fired for participating in a specific type of BDSM that involves men subjugating women. If he had been blogging about gay or transsexual BDSM, the same guy who fired him would be likely be celebrating him for his "bravery."

    No, you're altogether wrong on the details. You really should read the TechCrunch column upon which this /. story is based. It's a (admittedly lengthy) thoughtful, detailed analysis of the acceptablility of the basis on which the decision to fire the guy was based. Rightfully, I think, he concludes that it was a completely unacceptable, star-chamber-style unilateral, decision by the fucktard who made it in COMPLETE contravention of the Drupal community's published, OPEN dispute resolution process.

    Just as importantly, it makes the point that the guy did NOT, EVER post any kind of public blog post about the practice or philosphy of the Gorean lifestyle. Instead, he was DOXXED by some shitheel who created an account on a PRIVATE social network of, by, and specifically for Goreans, for the purpose of gaining access to his victim's PRIVATE posts and profile thereon. The TechCrunch writer also makes the rather central point that the victim of this indefensible "process" has NEVER been accused of sexual harassment by ANY member of the Drupal community in the 12 years he has been a major contributor to that community, He has gone to great pains to keep his interest in Goreanism COMPLETELY separate from his fellow members of the Drupal development community. He has worked with female members of that community throughout as peers, and not one of them ever complained about his professionalism in that regard.

    He was OUTED by an ASSHOLE, and was FIRED by ANOTHER ASSHOLE, essentially for THOUGHTCRIME.

    Personally, I think he's not the one who should be "asked to resign" over this issue.

    --
    Check out my novel.
  8. Re:Crazy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    In a standard BDSM relationship, the sub has all the power. Anything the dom does is because the sub allows it, an abusive dom will quickly find themself without a sub (and generally ostracised from any community).

    A relationship where the "sub" is doing things against their will is not a BDSM relationship, it's an abusive relationship. Also I've left the subjects intentionally genderless because people seem to be okay with male sub/female dom but not the other way around, ignoring the fact that who gives a shit what people do in the bedroom if they're both consenting.

  9. Re: While its not my cup of tea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Someone found his profile on a site and outed him.

    If he were gay and outed in this fashion the SJW brigade would throw an internet tantrum.

    Double standards and hypocrisy is all me-llennials stand for.

  10. Re:While its not my cup of tea by Geeky · · Score: 4, Informative

    In that case it's invasion of his privacy. Someone's been cyberstalking him.

    If you're on a site like, say, Fetlife, that should be understood to be private. If you run a personal blog talking about that stuff, then fair game.

    Maybe he has a case for sexual discrimination - his sexual preferences, as long as they're acted out only with consenting adults - should not be anyone's business but his.

    --
    Sigs are so 1990s. No way would I be seen dead with one.