There is a lot of self-righteous dickishness and schadenfraude in these responses. Proclaiming there to be "NO excuse" to someone who has worked their ass off to create a stellar open-source project really says more about yourself than the person you are attacking.
Most certainly there is some sort of explanation, and whether or not it was a terrible mistake, being a jerk about it doesn't relieve you from the terrible mistakes you've made in your past - we all have them. And in the end, this is really not a big deal.
I don't know about the worst in everyone :). Lots of people still manage to hold their temper. I've certainly gotten snippy here before.
I still come here for great commentary on complex topics, but usually resist the urge to look at comments on gotcha articles like this where I know there is probably nothing constructive to say, so the trollishness comes out.
Most certainly there is some sort of explanation, and whether or not it was a terrible mistake, being a jerk about it doesn't relieve you from the terrible mistakes you've made in your past - we all have them. And in the end, this is really not a big deal.