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by TheSpiceIsLife 485 days ago
There’s an argument to be made that if you’re not prepared to deal with all of that, don’t become popular - either online or in meatspace, because it will happen.
2 comments

Becoming popular isn’t generally something an open source developer chooses to do or not do.
It's something a developer chooses to do or not do though. No need for a public repo to do development.
It's a reasonable argument that, if you don't want to deal with some of the inevitable consequences of popularity, basically don't put yourself out in public at all. It's rarely an actual requirement for a lot of things. You can make videos for yourself without posting on YouTube for example (as most people who historically made hobby videos did).
That’s a wild argument, up there with “if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.”

People should be able to produce and publish content without being harassed.

>People should be able to produce and publish content without being harassed.

I don't disagree. (Assuming the content isn't of a nature that deserves a lot of criticism though that's in the eye of the beholder and is a matter of degree of course.)

But there's also the real world where putting yourself out in public can have consequences, especially if you become particularly popular. You take the good with the bad and decide if the tradeoff is worth it.

> Assuming the content isn't of a nature that deserves a lot of criticism though that's in the eye of the beholder of course

The fact that people think there are kinds of content that warrant harassment is kinda the root of this whole problem.

Not to make this political but you don't think there's a lot of content being thrown around at the moment that warrants criticism? Generally speaking I'd draw the line at outright personal harassment although I suppose that's again in the eye of the beholder.
I think there's tons of content that warrants criticism, but no content that warrants harassment.