The Politics of Creating Communities

PHPDeveloper just reported that the phpBB development server has been hacked by a politically motivated group. More details and the response from the phpBB group are on the phpBB site. What strikes me most is the phpBB slogan: “creating communities.” Why would anyone want to maliciously thwart that? I guess in a meritocracy like open source if you don’t feel you’re getting your share of merit, sometimes people resort to drastic means. But if this is truly a “benificent” move, why didn’t the hackers let the phpBB group know about their weaknesses in a more civil manner? This is a sad day for open source, and a step backward in creating a sense of community in the open source world.