Linux users and advocates like to think of themselves as a community bound by the common values of fair play, honesty and open communication -- even between rivals.
But today penguins are hanging their heads in shame: One of their own stands accused of breaking the unwritten code of conduct, of attacking fellow Linux community members under the cover of anonymity.
Paul Ferris, a former IT director at Linux Today, has accused that site's executive editor, Kevin Reichard, of using aliases to anonymously bash rival publications and members of the Linux community on Linux Today's message boards.
Linux Journal published Ferris' account on Monday. According to Ferris, between December 1999 and May 2001, Reichard posted at least 100 messages to the "feedback" boards on Linux Today under numerous aliases, including "Tom Dooley", "Will Smith," "Clark Addison" and "George Tirebiter." Some of the posts allegedly made by Reichard bashed rival tech publications like Newsforge, columnists who write about Linux for other publications, and prominent members of the open-source movement, like Alan Cox and Eric Raymond.
Linux Today feedback posts can be searched. Keyword "Tirebiter" returns 107 matches. In a comment posted on May 4, Tirebiter takes a swipe at Alan Cox, co-keeper of the Linux kernel, for a commentary Cox wrote critiquing some things Craig Mundie of Microsoft had to say about open source development. The details aren't important. What matters to some in the open-source community is the idea of an editor taking clandestine pot shots at his rivals through anonymous posts.
The irony of this particular post is clear. "I woulda thought better of Alan," the comment reads. "But then again, he's the only one not to release his opinion to the public, preferring to retain ownership on a closed-source Red Hat site."
On December 14, "George Tirebiter" posted five comments on an editorial that Reichard wrote for Linux Planet, another internet.com site. If Ferris is right, Reichard was posing as a reader in order to participate in a discussion about his own story. Tirebiter basically ridicules other posters who had criticized the piece.
Linux Today is part of internet.com, a network of IT related websites served on 16 different "channels." LT is part of the Linux/open-source channel.
Reichard could not be reached for comment. An editor at Linux Today said Reichard was on vacation. Internet.com editor in chief Gus Venditto did not deny that Reichard had been posting anonymously to the LT message boards. He defended anonymous posting.
"The practice of posting under pseudonyms is a time-honored tradition," Venditto wrote in an e-mail. "It's practiced by just about every site that has a public forum on the Internet. The person who used the pseudonym 'George Tirebiter' seems guilty mainly of showing his age: He assumed the readership shared his intimate knowledge of the Firesign Theater."
Reaction to Ferris' revelation from other journalists and editors who cover Linux and open-source issues was subdued, even grim.
It's something no one in the Linux community savored coming to light. "It's a sad story," said Joe Barr, a columnist at LinuxWorld. "I feel dirty having been associated with it. I thought we were better than this. Nobody in the Linux world wants to write about this. It's a loss of innocence for the community."
Barr was a target of criticism, as was Robin Miller, editor in chief at Slashdot and Linux Today rival Newsforge.
"I'm sad," Miller said. "I've been the subject of some of those attacks. It's bad journalism. It calls all of us (online journalists) into question." He had known about the story for some time, but didn't want to write about it, he said.
Venditto would not confirm or deny that Tirebiter was indeed Reichard, writing that he had never tried to track the identity of a message board poster.
Ferris, however, has no doubt in his mind. As webmaster, he could see where posts came from. "It involved information that was easily correlated by any administrator that had access to the site," he said.
Ferris first blew the whistle on Reichard in December, leaking the news to Barr. But he feared for his job, and asked Barr to sit on the story. Some of the anonymous postings attacked some things Barr had written, and Ferris thought he should know what was going on.
Linux Today gave Ferris six weeks notice on May 15; June 29 was his last day. Ferris had confronted Reichard about the posting (he denied it), and even went over his head about it, but did not get a receptive response from management. Nevertheless, he did not feel the issues had cost him his job. He attributes his termination to budget cuts.
But getting fired meant he could speak up without fear. He declined to sign the standard non-disclosure agreement, giving up two weeks severance pay as a result. On July 18, he consented to let Barr write a short story about it, attributed to an anonymous source. Then, after consulting a lawyer, he wrote the full account published in Linuxjournal on Monday.
Even with a new job secured, coming forward wasn't easy. "Two things held me back from telling my story," Ferris said. "One was legal counsel. The other was just whether or not this was something I should bring to light. It is a painful thing, as Linux Today was something I was involved with for over two years and my heart and soul were in it."
In addition to its own original content, Linux Today features links and brief descriptions of Linux-related stories from other news sources, including rival publications. Beneath each linked story, readers can post comments. The discussion format is similar to Slashdot and rival open-source news portal Newsforge.
Editors at these publications often participate in discussions, but generally use either their own names or a well-known alias, Robin Miller said.
