Fixing the debian-installer/Sven Luther situation
[For background information on the whole debian-installer/Sven Luther situation, please read the Debian wiki.]
The whole debian-installer/Sven Luther issue has been running for months now, and has seen little to no progress. A number of DPL mediation attempts have utterly failed, and there’s just no authority whatsoever above the debian-installer people that could help settle the issue.
I’m just not interested in discussing who’s at fault, as both sides are at fault for something or something else.
Now, looking back, there is something that bothers me. It makes me sick, even.
At the end of march this year, Sven lost his mother in very difficult circumstances, in the middle of the flamewar opposing him to the debian-installer team. He sent a private mail to Frans Pop which you can read on this wiki page explaining what was happening to him, and asking him to give him a break.
Reading this mail, it’s pretty clear that Sven was in shock when he wrote it. It’s so obvious that you can’t miss it, it doesn’t take a psychologist to tell you that. Nonetheless, the bashing went on, and nobody cared about what was happening to him.
Now, compare to what happened to dato. How did the DDs react to that ? They rushed to debian-private, both the mailing-list and the IRC channel, to get an update on his condition, for something like two weeks.
In both cases, some people knew what was happening (in Sven’s case, others DDs knew what was going on too, Frans Pop wasn’t the only one). I just can’t explain why the reaction was different, and it really bothers me.
I spoke IRL with Sven about the debian-installer situation. We rehashed most of what had been told already, and he mentionned the death of his mother just as he did mention it on the mailing-lists. He has been and still is very affected by what happened to his mother. Reading his mail to Frans Pop, it’s pretty easy to understand I think.
The behaviour of some DDs in this flamewar, knowing that Sven was deeply affected by this event, is inexcusable. You really should be ashamed of what you’ve done to him. He needed the kind words from the Debian family, the same kind words the Debian family told to dato, his friends and family.
It’s time to clear up the mess, folks.