Thanks for the vouch, yes very Mullenweg-esque.

This is just another instance of Adafruit's "drama-journalism" functioning as advertising. Adafruit turns its director/ex-director (current status unknown) Phillip Torrone's compulsive personal feuds into principled-sounding "advocacy" and harvests the resulting outrage as free marketing. Adafruit publicising a dispute while not publishing the underlying letter/breach is the smoking gun for this.

People are afraid to speak out on this because engaging @ptorrone or critiquing Adafruit carries significant risks.

There is a pattern of aggressive public confrontation before private resolution along with disproportionate responses & difficulty disengaging with critics.

Even mild criticism or jokes has resulted in abusive messages from PT, with Phil Torrone contacting their managers, employers, ex-employers (as called out by sparkfun) and even a critic’s partner’s workplace.

PT will continue the escalation even after being blocked/suspended on platforms resulting in @ptorrone being temporarily banned from Bluesky last year. Some people were even harassed via their Etsy stores.

... and this is why I use an alt!