stop using politics as a cudgel to discourage experimentation

Signed-off-by: Xe Iaso <me@christine.website>

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+---
+title: Stop Using Politics As A Cudgel To Discourage Experimentation
+date: 2022-04-21
+tags:
+ - rant
+ - systemd
+ - communityhealth
+---
+
+So let's say you get bored one day and you decide you want to do things that god
+and man have decreed impossible. Let's also say that this exact thing involves a
+tool that just happens to rustle all of the jimmies (for reasons that are not
+entirely clear). Then you get it all to a point where you want to submit it
+upstream so you can get help experimenting with this tool.
+
+So you submit it to upstream in the experimental branch, expecting very little
+pushback so you can get help tinkering with things. But once you submit it
+upstream, [all hell breaks
+loose](https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/aports/-/merge_requests/33329).
+
+Stop using politics as a cudgel to discourage experimentation. Yes it involves
+systemd. Just because you think that the tool is overcomplicated doesn't mean
+that other people don't find it useful. Trying to shut down experimentation is
+how you get people to leave the community or give up participating in open
+source altogether.
+
+The reactions in that thread are both disappointing and somewhat to be expected.
+I don't know why people have such a negative reaction to systemd. It's just an
+init system, not a religion. It wouldn't have become a good choice for so much
+of the Linux ecosystem without it having solid technical merits. If it is really
+that bad then the mantle of responsibility is on you for coming up with a better
+option.
+
+[No, OpenRC is not that option. It can be PART OF an option, but it is not a
+competitor by itself.](conversation://Cadey/coffee)
+
+I know I said I'd stop ranting on this blog as much, but really this stuff
+grinds my gears and I feel that I should use my platform for good in this
+regard. This is inexcusable. I want to reiterate that I have _no_ power in this
+regard. I am just some random person on a blog that got frustrated at the
+reactions to this contribution. Some pushback is acceptable. Accusing a
+contributor of ignorance is inexcusable. Comments like this have no place in
+open source contributions:
+
+> SysTemD is the STD of operating systems. There is no "one little poke", you
+> can't be a little bit pregnant.
+
+Jake, if you're out there reading this: keep doing this thing. It is a fantastic
+creation that I thought was impossible. You may have to soft-fork the
+distribution to get this to work reliably, but I really want to see where this
+rabbit-hole goes.
+
+Keep hacking.