Manoj Srivastava resigns as Debian secretary

Ah, I see what you mean - but the thing is that even if it was a very small number of people (indeed, doesn't he suggest that himself in his statement?), it's still enough to make his position feel untenable - to stop him from doing his job, in effect. Remember, it only takes one workplace bully to make a whole workplace unbearable; it's the quality, not the quantity, of harrassment that defines its effect. Moreover, everyone has different thresholds; what one person is immune to may completely cripple another.

As you say, when you take a few steps back you regain perspective - but I'm not quite sure how anyone being bullied out of their job can possibly take those steps back whilst remaining in the same position.

If the rest of the Debian community wants to do something about it, they might consider whether or not the people who directly led to this should remain within their number - because allowing them to do so legitimises their actions.

Democracy is bad enough when it's the tyranny of the majority. When it becomes the tyranny of the minority with the shrillest voices...

The actual phrase in the text is "I am very distressed at the amount of vitriol that saturates the project communication channels now." I disagree that the planet's been negative about Manoj himself. The criticisms of the vote have been there, sure, but I didn't read vitriol about Manoj personally in more than a couple of the 10+ posts.