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Drupal Developers Still Rebelling Against Drupal Leadership
New submitter cornholed writes: In an update to previous posts on Slashdot, prominent Drupal and PHP Developer Larry Garfield is still defending his reputation against allegations by Drupal leadership against sexual misconduct. As previously reported by a variety of news organizations, Larry was exiled from the Drupal project for adherence to the Gor sci-fi lifestyle.
In the latest round of allegations, Garfield was reportedly asked to resign because an autistic "woman who attended Drupal community events ... was allowed to contribute by him". While some have accused Dries Buytart and the Drupal Association of "Autism Shaming", the leader of the Drupal project claims "this person could be vulnerable and may have been subject to exploitation", hence raising the risk of legal damage to the Drupal project. Larry refutes these allegations, saying these claims are post-hoc and has shared police reports purporting his innocence.
There is still much debate in the Drupal community around why Larry was ejected from his leadership positions. While there's much speculation over Larry's ouster, there is one thing for certain: become a leader in the OSS community and a dossier on your public statements just might be made about you.
In the latest round of allegations, Garfield was reportedly asked to resign because an autistic "woman who attended Drupal community events ... was allowed to contribute by him". While some have accused Dries Buytart and the Drupal Association of "Autism Shaming", the leader of the Drupal project claims "this person could be vulnerable and may have been subject to exploitation", hence raising the risk of legal damage to the Drupal project. Larry refutes these allegations, saying these claims are post-hoc and has shared police reports purporting his innocence.
There is still much debate in the Drupal community around why Larry was ejected from his leadership positions. While there's much speculation over Larry's ouster, there is one thing for certain: become a leader in the OSS community and a dossier on your public statements just might be made about you.
I think it's impossible to judge in this case, because we don't have the full facts.
What is hinges on is if the woman in question fully consented and how Garfield treated her. It's entirely possible that it's all perfectly innocent and the use of the world "allowed" by someone who likes to roleplay an extreme male dom/female sub lifestyle is just a poor choice of words.
But on the other hand, if there is any issue there than Drupal could have legal problems. If he used allowing her to contribute to the project as part of some kind of abusive relationship, they could be caught up in any resulting lawsuit or prosecution.
We don't have enough information to know if they made the right decision. Maybe they were being over-cautious, acting unfairly out of fear of legal problems. Maybe they have more convincing evidence of something being wrong that they have no published.
There does not seem to be a good solution here, the system has no way to adequately deal with it.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC