Despite relentless media and political efforts to demonize the digital world as being filled with perverts, thieves and hackers, those of us who work online every day understand that these are hideously inaccurate stereotypes. Websites bristle with personality, values, identity. So in one sense, this flap about me has to do with the kind of place Slashdot decides it wants to be. Whatever it collectively decides is valid. It often has a lot to do with alienation and exclusion.
All geeks are by no means alike, but most have brushed against some form of rejection.
The geeks I admire most take care about doing it to anybody else. It has distasteful echoes for anybody, writer or not. As long as Rob Malda is happy with my work, I plan to stay. The values I see expressed here are my values, even when they are sometimes expressed differently and in different contexts, and if I have things to learn, I also have things to pass along. Technology is a metaphor for values and technical dramas are often representative of other kinds.