[matthewowen]

His comment wasn't an ad hominem. An ad hominem would be 'this person isn't smart and wise, so his decision's are wrong'. The poster's comment was of the following implicitt form:

* These sort of packages should be run by people who are smart and wise * The fact that this happened suggests that this person is not smart and wise * It is unfortunate that he is running a project used by many people.

It's perfectly valid to criticise a person (or a person's fitness for a responsibility) based on their actions. An ad hominem is the opposite - it is criticising a persons actions or arguments based on who the person is (rather than the actions or arguments themselves).