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.

I was like. Hmm, they know we can't fork alone, that much is clear.

It's the typical "If you think you can do it better yourself then go and do so", comes with gaming as well.

What can I do well though, what has been my contribution to Mastodon? It's organizing people and listening to the community.

Huh. So I decided to reach out, and ask the community, who probably went through similar feelings as me today, what they want.