this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2026
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Some of you need to watch this video, and hang your head in shame.

Dylan Taylor has been receiving constant harassment, including threats to his life and safety, for actions done collectively by SystemD. The article by Sam Bent was explictly mentioned as part of the harassment campaign, and rightfully so.

I don't think enough people realize that this is catastrophically bad. It'll discourage people from becoming open source developers, it'll discourage people from using Linux, and it'll discourage legislators from taking the Linux community seriously.

If you ever wished ill upon another human being for complying with a relatively inconsequential law, you are better off never touching a computer again. The Linux community has collectively gone so far beyond what is acceptable here.

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[–] kogasa@programming.dev -2 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

what is stopping him

The pull request approval process? It's quite easy to recognize that one change is harmless and another is not. The slope is not THAT slippery.

I completely understand objecting to the systemd change, I also object, but acting like the fascists have already won is a bit crazy.

[–] Professorozone@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

No, let's wait till we're at the bottom of the slope. Then start objecting.

[–] kogasa@programming.dev 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

As I said, I also object, but you have to realize you're literally just doing the slippery slope meme unironically. The part that makes it a fallacy is the unjustified assertion that more egregious changes are the inevitable result of the first one, except the first one is materially harmless and in line with existing PII fields in userdb. It's completely reasonable to expect systemd to go no further than it already has.

[–] Professorozone@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

You say that like it's a bad thing.

[–] StealthLizardDrop@piefed.social 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It is slippery, I have described the process UK is taken here https://piefed.social/comment/10693725

[–] kogasa@programming.dev 2 points 2 weeks ago

Age verification laws: slippery slope. Sure. I agree.

Adding optional age field to systemd userdb: not slippery. Systemd isn't being weaponized as an age verification suite. It's just not happening.