> Using HN guidelines Linus Torvalds is a terrible person

HN guidelines do not address whether a person is good or bad (or "terrible").

> and wouldn't be allowed to post here for very long before he was hell banned.

You assume that Torvalds, if he choose to participate in HN, would apply the same mode of interaction he applies in different contexts with different expectations.

While, certainly, there are people who are unable to adjust their mode of interaction based on what is appropriate in different contexts, I don't see that it is clear that Torvalds is among them.

> Maybe the issue isn't so much negativity as it is sensitivity.

Or maybe the issue is that what lots of people want out of HN isn't the same kind of environment in which the actions of Torvalds to which you are obliquely referring occur.

>Or maybe the issue is that what lots of people want out of HN isn't the same kind of environment in which the actions of Torvalds to which you are obliquely referring occur.

The actions of Torvalds, though brash, are respected not because of his accomplishments, but because his assertions are usually quite valid. Many of us can learn from not discarding useful counterpoints simply because of how colorfully or insultingly they are delivered.

Doesn't that depend on whether Linus is posting gratuitously negative stuff to HN? I don't think it matters to this guideline whether Linus bawls out kernel lieutenants on kernel mailing lists.