We: Look these concerns about harassment!

You: That's not so important, no one gets harassed here

We: look here, and here. This stuff.

You: Nah that doesn't happen to us, can't reproduce.

We: We really don't like that this happens, and we've put a lot of emotional labour into this project, we want to make it work!

You: Did you add code? No? Fork it! Bye Felicia!

We: OK! We're Forking it!

You: OMG FORKING IS SO FUCKING HOSTILE HOW DARE YOU!?

If Forking is Hostile, The Act of Telling someone to #ForkOff is equally hostile.

So. You know.

Gargamel asked us to #ForkOff, and here we are.

And if anyone needs receipts:

https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/100137040814277612

I struggled a lot with if I should in any way lead a charge for a fork, for governance.

I had just not had my contract renewed. It would seem petty and disruptive if I encouraged a fork.

So I bit my tongue, for the past 3 weeks.

I didn't want to rock the boat, I didn't want to be antagonistic. I didn't want to be "that person".

Eugen could manage this himself, he said so, I was willing to give him a chance.

I have never had so many people tell me to "Just fork it" as I had today. They told me my contributions weren't valued, because I hadn't contributed code.

What they all had in common? Seemingly Cis-het men, who I'd never heard about before, or seen in any of the discussions about the project. And none of them acted like they knew I had ever contributed to the project either.

But what spurred me on was the #ForkOff attitude.