Talk:Richard Stallman/Archive 1

message: I spoke with him once, complimenting him on his work. In our discussion, he seemed to be a somewhat irrational anti-Communist (that is, seeing communism in more places than would be reasonable to expect).
Is this one of his controversial characteristics? If so, should it be mentioned in the article? Does anyone know more about him personally than I do? And do personal characteristics belong in an encyclopedia at all? What do others think? --David 18:55 Dec 10, 2002 (UTC)
:I think Richard is known to be somewhat eccentric in a variety of ways, and I don't think a fair account could be given in the scope of just this article (not one people would agree is fair, at least).  If people want to know more about this, they should read the Free book linked at the bottom of the article.  --Fcrick 10:39 Jan 30, 2003 (UTC)
::I think it's entirely fair to call RMS eccentric, and point out that he has a reputation for a total inability to compromise and a lack of people skills.  The point of contention is that some people recognize the above and accept the good with the bad, others in the free software/open source community regard him as a liability that interferes with getting it accepted in the wider world, and still others regard him as a loony Commie. --Robert Merkel
:::RMS is not a communist, really. He's said before that he's been inspired by leftist anarchists, which is not at all the same thing. As for his lack of people skills, well, that's to an extent true, but it's also been exaggerated a lot, RMS is very principled, and refuses to compromise on his principles. He's perfectly willing to compromise on practical issues to achieve those principles, though. --Joakim Ziegler
::::For this particular case, I dont think we should include information which is not published somewhere. Wikipedia is not original research. Optim 15:10, 2 Mar 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: For what it is work, I wouldn't be surprised if Stallman was vociferously anti-Communist, as the whole point of his crusade is freedom, right?  And there are few political philosophies more antithetical to his conception of freedom than Communism. --Maru (talk) 18:17, 15 October 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Replying to Robert Merkel.  I think people should be careful about this "inability to compromise" phrase.  Richard has compromised many times.  The LGPL is a compromise.  The GFDL is a compromise (too much of a compromise in many people's books).  On certain things, he may be unwilling to compromise - but calling this an inability is a mis-phrasing. Gronky 20:24, 15 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Communism 

message: I protected the page since there was an edit war over the image's caption. I reverted to the "(cur) (last)  . . M 09:20, 27 Feb 2004 . . Sj" version which is the last one prior the edit war, If I am not mistaken. Please resolve the dispute and develop a consensus over which caption to use - then inform me or another admin to unprotect the page. --Optim 17:02, 2 Mar 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Protected 

message: After about 24 hours I unprotected the page because Protected pages are considered harmful and I don't like not letting hundred of people edit the page because only two Wikipedians had a dispute over the caption of the photo. Also note the photo is now changed by Eloquence. If I see more edit wars here, I will re-protect it. So be careful :) --Optim·.· 20:04, 3 Mar 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Unprotected 

message: I snipped this ref from the Westchester County/Eben Moglen anecdote: Complete transcript of interview with Eben Moglen: The Encryption Wars
I also snipped the HTML comment ("info from first paragraph of Moglen's last answer on the page I linked to"). It's hardly a controversial addition that needs to be motorcaded with caveats and citations.  --chocolateboy 14:25, 8 Jul 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Eben Moglen 

message: Since the page is protected, could one of the Admins please add the Interwiki-Link to the Luxembourgish Wiki ? lb:Richard Stallman
:Thanks :) --Briséis 12:06, 8 Sep 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Interwiki Link