Maybe but he was going to get the pile-on no matter what he actually said so long as he stood firm on his decision so I'm not sure that's relevant. Yes he was a jerk in the Github issue, not defending that, but people didn't pile on because he was rude, they piled-on because of the actual change.
The post wasn't "hey look at this rude asshole" but "rogue Debian maintainer $makes_change." I would bet that most people aware of the story never even clicked through to the GH issue to see the tea.
The post wasn't "hey look at this rude asshole" but "rogue Debian maintainer $makes_change." I would bet that most people aware of the story never even clicked through to the GH issue to see the tea.