https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loaded_question
Changing passwords was the responsible course of action to protect Ruby users in light of the attack. Maintainers should act in the interest of the Ruby community, not in favor of usurpers with a vendetta.
Here's what I think: people are starting from a sympathetic principle (independent community-minded maintainers are better that corporations) and working their way back to what they've decided must have happened. The person we're talking about here tried to (quietly!) monetize the server logs for RubyGems. Don't even try to play the "that's what RubyCentral says" card --- they published the email.
The world doesn't always line up with the most sympathetic principles.
Personally I also think the monetization proposal was silly, but that was in August and Ruby Central rejected it.
He logged into the root account because he thought he was on call and that someone was taking over Ruby Central, so he reacted in real time. With the obvious chaos and incompetence in Ruby Central and the ill defined takeover that does not seem far fetched.
What exactly would he have gained by openly changing the root account for malicious reasons? He knows he would have been found out. It is not even a hack.
Shopify stole RubyGems from the maintainers, do you deny it? They tried to do so in secret, keeping the maintainers and the larger Ruby community in the dark. Their claim that the access revocations were a mistake was a blatant lie. Moreover, they spun even more conspicuous falsehoods in response to the public backlash.
When you twist protective measures against ongoing theft or shitty proposals that went nowhere into a nefarious conspiracy to justify the theft of critical Ruby infrastructure, it’s time to take a hard look in the mirror.
And hey, since you imply that loaded questions aren't fallacious, tell me: have you stopped beating your wife? It's a "simple question," just answer yes or no.
The HN commentariat is really shocking me here, because everyone in the professional space that I talk to about this thinks this is obvious and takes the same position.
I won't follow the thought from there, but maybe you see where I'm going...
