Oct 16, 2026, 8:50 PMDear Lazyweb,
Due to dumbasses squatting me, I'm gonna need you to go click "thumbs-up" or "stars" or whatever on this repo so that it bubbles up to the top of the list in search results: https://github.com/xscreensaver-official/xscreensaver
Thank you in advance for this utter fucking waste of everyone's time.
https://jwz.org/b/ylB0
Oct 21, 2026, 1:45 AMGood lord, this guy is completely unhinged. I'm tapping out. My one precious life is too short to spend arguing with internet tough-guys. (Remember when I said that I thought he wasn't acting with malice, but was merely making terrible naming decisions? I guess I was wrong.)
https://github.com/xscreensaver/xscreensaver/issues/3#issuecomment-6304214106
@jwz Doing my part 🫡
@jwz forked for extra algorithmic juicing
Oct 16, 2026, 9:18 PMYou made me log into github. Be sorry.
JK. I gave it a star or whatever. It's a shame you have to deal with that crap.
Also, I did not know you authored xscreensaver. I've used it on and off for years. Or maybe I knew at some point and forgot. At any rate, thanks for your work. Some of us appreciate it.
@jwz Done. Can you do a trademark thing to the other one? Or no?
@jwz Hope springs eternal so I asked them nicely: https://github.com/xscreensaver/xscreensaver/issues/3
Oct 17, 2026, 9:00 AMOct 17, 2026, 9:20 AM@glyph @nigel Yes, apparently my "ok have fun" comment was enough for them to think that "I shall claim the top-level /xscreensaver URL on GitHub" was a reasonable thing to do, and when I said "WTAF" their retort was "but you said it was ok".
All I want them to do is rename it and not call it that. Like call it literally anything else. Something with their name in it.
All of the angry commenters here want to dogpile and lawyer up but all I want is, "Hey just fuckin' rename the repo, come on".
Oct 17, 2026, 9:30 AM@glyph I just wanna draw triangles, man, why people gotta make this so hard
Oct 17, 2026, 12:12 PM@jwz "ok have fun" is snarky and patronising, and you know it.
And now it got popular you dont like that they did exactly whatever they wanted because they had your blessing, and are having a tantrum on the internet.
Anyway, I've said my piece. I have no ill will here beyond pointing out what any adult with eyes can see.
@glyph
@nigel "ok have fun" was an invitation to create a mirror, not to squat the namespace and misrepresent himself. the other repo being discussed was specifically part of a different org.
@nigel in any case, he did not "give his blessing", at best he gave his grudging acquiescence. this is not the same thing as enthusiastically participating. it's understandable that they read it as more enthusiastic, but this seems like a failure on their part, it reads very clearly to me as "sigh, whatever, I'd rather you didn't but I guess I won't be a dick about it". now the consequences of not being a dick are coming through, and he's asking again for them to stop.
@nigel he also gave his supposed "blessing" after the repo *already existed*. he did not ask for permission or obtain consent, just did what he wanted, then got the flimsiest possible CYA excuse that it was OK, and now that that even that flimsy excuse is gone because the repo is creating more problems and misleading folks, he insists that the permission was considerably more enthusiastic and affirmative than it was.
I am not interested in being more involved with this but it is gross behavior.
Oct 17, 2026, 6:33 PM@glyph Had I noticed at the time that he had *already* squatted a top-level /xscreensaver github URL I certainly would have raised my response from "grudging acquiescence" to "what the fuck do you think you're doing", but I admit that I did not go over his dumb request with a fine-toothed comb.
Oct 17, 2026, 6:23 PM
@glyph @jwz That person seems to have a history of threatening legal action, and has taken people to court (he sued Bruce Perens and others back in 2005).
He also tried to buy a copy of the Linux kernel for $50k back around that time: https://lwn.net/Articles/106353/
@jamesh @jwz … wow. this was a journey https://www.dmlp.org/threats/merkey-v-does
@luis_in_brief @jamesh @jwz suddenly I understand why the README begins "Novell Netware SMP console screensaver", which was the most peculiar detail of this whole mess
@luis_in_brief @jamesh @jwz am I reading this right, that the disposition of this case is that he sued a bunch of people pro se, dismissed all the claims, but one of them posted an exhibit _from the case_ on his website, and the extent of his victory was that he successfully had the court order to remove that exhibit?
@luis_in_brief @jamesh @jwz anyway he did do me a favor of shadowbanning me from the repo. (I don't show up as blocked anywhere I can see, but every interaction with it shows up as a 500 error for me now)
@jamesh@aus.social @luis_in_brief@social.coop @glyph@mastodon.social @jwz@mastodon.social
Oh wow he actually blanked your opening post what the fuck.
@daemonspudguy @jamesh @luis_in_brief @jwz thankfully I have heard nothing further about it and I am happy to never hear from him again
@jwz 2 days and you're already 10x more popular than the draft-ietf-acme-dns-persist
@jwz wonder if this guy doesn't know that klout dot com doesn't exist anymore
Oct 21, 2026, 2:07 AM@jwz people DESERVE
Oct 21, 2026, 2:16 AM@jwz@mastodon.social I think my favorite part in that thread is how he copypastes your email exchange as if it's a gotcha, and it just makes him look like a four wheel drive dipshit. Unfortunately being a dipshit isn't enough to get him banned or the repo taken down, but I reported him anyway. Then blocked.
I am constantly just gobsmacked by the levels of fucking idiots who feel entitled to your time and such.
@deathkitten @jwz Careful calling the dipshit a dipshit. He may not know what libel is, but he'll be damned if he's gonna let that stop him!
Oct 21, 2026, 3:28 AM@screambiogenesis@mastodon.social Do you think he'd believe us if we tried to tell him that a woman (me) swearing on the internet is not illegal? He'll probably try to have me arrested for that too.
@jwz@mastodon.social
@jwz Jesus fucking christ
@jwz I vaguely recall such geniuses on Usenet. This shows, they are still alive.