[dalwk]

So some Twitter grand inquisitors, whose names always seem to appear if individuals are targeted, discovered some unpleasant details about someone's past.

Code quality (especially when written under pressure) is unrelated to that and I've seen horrible code from from model citizens who check all the Twitter boxes of goodness.

It seems very dangerous to contribute to open source these days if you are not in the right Twitter cliques.

The nice thing is that the FreeBSD developers who were interviewed apparently remained fair and said that the target had produced high quality code before.

[cmsj]

> It seems very dangerous to contribute to open source these days if you are not in the right Twitter cliques.

Nope. Lots of people contribute to Open Source without being in any Twitter cliques, they're just getting on with the work and doing their best.

One could also flip what you wrote, on its head and say "It seems very difficult to be visible in open source these days if you have been doing things that are illegal or frowned upon". It's the same thing, just without the persecution complex.

[jchw]

At least bad opinions on Twitter are not a crime... and you know, perhaps Ars shouldn’t bring it up, but it’s hard when they themselves refer to it as a personal set back. But even though I absolutely believe everyone deserves a second chance, I really find it hard to sympathize with a person who does what is alleged, doesn’t apologize (as far as I have heard), attempts to flee the charges, then has the gull to lament over how it has negatively impacted their career. At this point it feels like they are more upset about how they had to face consequences for their actions than anything else.

I don’t wish perpetual punishment on anyone for almost any reason. But still... it feels like some necessary self-improvement is sorely missing. I certainly say this as a person who is flawed and full of anti-patterns.

[michaelmrose]

Adults rarely change their essential character. Most criminals guilty of substantial predictable harm to others are unethical people. Those who integrate with society successfully learn not to do stupid destructive things. They are not likely to stop being terrible people.

Anyone who would try to drive people out of their homes by destroying them while they live in them is a terrible person without redemption.

His inability to turn away money to do work he had no intention or capability to complete just demonstrates this.

Perpetual punishment is pointless but everyone has a right to know the kind of person they are dealing with.

[Flex247A]

Best thing is to not use Twitter in the first place.