--- title: The circus freaks of open source | daily.dev description: A reflection on how the open source community and internet culture treats people experiencing mental health crises, using two examples: Terry A. Davis... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-circus-freaks-of-open-source-0z7zdszpy twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The circus freaks of open source | daily.dev og:description: A reflection on how the open source community and internet culture treats people experiencing mental health crises, using two examples: Terry A. Davis... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-circus-freaks-of-open-source-0z7zdszpy og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/0z7ZDSZpy.png og:image:alt: The circus freaks of open source og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The circus freaks of open source **[Drew DeVault](https://daily.dev/sources/drewdevault)** · 8 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A reflection on how the open source community and internet culture treats people experiencing mental health crises, using two examples: Terry A. Davis (TempleOS creator) and Kent Overstreet (bcachefs author). The author argues that public fascination with these individuals — whether well-intentioned or malicious — constitutes harmful voyeurism and harassment. The post calls for compassion and privacy when peers are struggling, and criticizes the tendency to sensationalize mental illness for entertainment, even among people who consider themselves allies. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#community](https://daily.dev/tags/community), [#mental-health](https://daily.dev/tags/mental-health), [#bcachefs](https://daily.dev/tags/bcachefs) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-circus-freaks-of-open-source-0z7zdszpy) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"The circus freaks of open source","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-circus-freaks-of-open-source-0z7zdszpy","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-circus-freaks-of-open-source-0z7zdszpy"},"datePublished":"2026-06-05T15:22:26.617Z","dateModified":"2026-06-05T15:22:52.346Z","description":"A reflection on how the open source community and internet culture treats people experiencing mental health crises, using two examples: Terry A. Davis...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--HRgLpUt6--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2003","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--HRgLpUt6--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2003","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Drew DeVault","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Drew DeVault","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--BGhGBu0U--/f_auto,q_auto/v1774960025/logos/drewdevault?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/drewdevault"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-circus-freaks-of-open-source-0z7zdszpy","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"open-source,linux,community,mental-health,bcachefs","timeRequired":"PT8M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Drew DeVault","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/drewdevault"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The circus freaks of open source"}]} ```