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What It's Like To Be Ridiculed For Open Sourcing A Project

harthur.wordpress.com

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Re: What It's Like To Be Ridiculed For Open Sourcing A Project

#521

Post by fatjokes »

cachvico wrote: post #370
doktrin wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair point. Once I read the names of those involved, I was a little taken aback for this very reason. Friends I respect think quite highly of Corey, for instance. Also worth noting, both [Steve and Corey] have published apologies on their own blogs. Both are worth reading.

Here's the other apology, http://blog.steveklabnik.com/posts/2013-01-23-node Heather, don't take it personally - your code is fine! JavaScript, on the other hand, is a wounded warrior by now..

I wish he would replace his home page. I have to wait ~5 seconds to see the navigation for no reason other than the stupid terminal animation, and there's no obvious way of skipping it.

Re: What It's Like To Be Ridiculed For Open Sourcing A Project

#522

Post by yusefnapora »

lobotryas wrote: post #421
confluence wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can write complex vector math in C from memory - doesn't mean everyone needs to be able to do it. That replace library does what it's supposed to do - it replaces shit easily. Don't like it - don't use it. If people want to do more - then they'll figure it out for themselves. For everyone who already knows more - eat some humble cake.

>Don't like it - don't use it. This is a false dilemma and completely misses the point. The replace library was written by a person who either never heard of or never learned how to use SED. Just because they created their own hack as a workaround doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.

Why would you assume that, because they wrote an alternative to an existing tool, they don't know how to use it? Perhaps she just doesn't like sed, or would like to use the replace functionality in an environment where it's not clear ahead of time whether GNU or BSD sed are available. Or any of a number of reasons. Your assumption that she must be ignorant to have created her own solution is just as boorish as the original tweets, imo. Was tmux written by a person who had "either never heard of or never learned how to use" GNU screen? What about GNU itself? Why bother when UNIX already exists? People have lots of reasons for writing software, and deciding for them whether it's "the right thing to do" because some other software already exists is absurd.

Re: What It's Like To Be Ridiculed For Open Sourcing A Project

#523

Post by nollidge »

doktrin wrote: post #224
kevinalexbrown wrote: post #195

Then I see these people’s follower count, and I sob harder. I can’t help but think of potential future employers that are no longer potential. There's a big responsibility that comes with being well-liked and nice. When someone with a good reputation and the means to broadcast it speaks negatively about someone, it matters much more than someone who is routinely rude, frequently negative, or unknown. I know that if t…

Fair point. Once I read the names of those involved, I was a little taken aback for this very reason. Friends I respect think quite highly of Corey, for instance. Also worth noting, both [Steve and Corey] have published apologies on their own blogs. Both are worth reading.

Here's David Cramer's notpology: http://justcramer.com/2013/01/24/being-wrong-on-the-internet...

Re: What It's Like To Be Ridiculed For Open Sourcing A Project

#524

Post by kenneth_reitz »

manish_gill wrote: post #486
pekk wrote: post #456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

#python is dominated by a toxic cabal as well, so that is unfortunate.

Seriously? I'm always on #python, and I find nothing but polite people there. :)

It used to be much worse.

It seems to have improved significantly over the past year. Not sure why.

Re: What It's Like To Be Ridiculed For Open Sourcing A Project

#525

Post by brazzy »

huhtenberg wrote: post #502
brazzy wrote: post #497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure you're not falling victim to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_attribution_error ?

> I cannot even make this stuff up: You are clearly well versed in this subject. So, how would you attribute this remark?

Twitter; you don't have space for detailed (and possibly constructive) criticism, you substitute witticisms because that's what gets retweeted (i.e. what the environment rewards). Maybe you read another snarky tweet just before and want to one-up it. Maybe you just worked on some messy code and are a bit frustrated and this looked like the right place to vent.

Off-hand snarkiness can be pretty mean, but that doesn't mean that everyone who engages in it is a fundamentally bad person; In fact I sincerely doubt anyone here has never written something similar.

Re: What It's Like To Be Ridiculed For Open Sourcing A Project

#526

Post by peejaybee »

ananthrk wrote: post #420
mrb wrote: post #200

Heather, I agree that people are unnecessarily rude to you. Don't sob. Your code shows you are already a more capable programmer than most of the ones I interview. No one has given you a clear answer as to why your code is reinventing the wheel, so allow me to do it politely. I took every single example from your README, and show you below how everything can be reimplemented with sed -r (nice extended regex syntax, m…

In his(her?) own words: http://harthur.wordpress.com/2011/06/06/replace/

Ironic that the post just before that on her blog is about dealing with the assholes you will likely encounter in Open Source.

Re: What It's Like To Be Ridiculed For Open Sourcing A Project

#527

Post by dos1 »

nollidge wrote: post #523
doktrin wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair point. Once I read the names of those involved, I was a little taken aback for this very reason. Friends I respect think quite highly of Corey, for instance. Also worth noting, both [Steve and Corey] have published apologies on their own blogs. Both are worth reading.

Here's David Cramer's notpology: http://justcramer.com/2013/01/24/being-wrong-on-the-internet...

Wow, David Cramer is a total asshole! That Steve Klabnik guy is also an asshole. The only one who doesn't appear to a complete dick is Corey Haines, whose apology was better. Not great, but better.

Here's the thing - if you ever even consider saying things like this to someone on the internet, you're an asshole. It's not a one time accidental thing. Nope, it's in your personality. I hope I never meet either of these two individuals, but if I ever meet them face to face I will make sure to tell them exactly what I think of them.

Re: What It's Like To Be Ridiculed For Open Sourcing A Project

#528

Post by ceol »

nollidge wrote: post #523
doktrin wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair point. Once I read the names of those involved, I was a little taken aback for this very reason. Friends I respect think quite highly of Corey, for instance. Also worth noting, both [Steve and Corey] have published apologies on their own blogs. Both are worth reading.

Here's David Cramer's notpology: http://justcramer.com/2013/01/24/being-wrong-on-the-internet...

He really spent a lot of time not apologizing. In fact, not once in his entire post did he even begin to apologize. Most of it was him trying (and failing) to excuse his behavior in the most childish way possible: by blaming everyone but himself.

Seriously, what an asshole.

Re: What It's Like To Be Ridiculed For Open Sourcing A Project

#529

Post by brazzy »

anu_gupta wrote: post #501
brazzy wrote: post #475

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it's partially Twitter's fault. Enforced brevity in a popularity contest setting encourages smartassery and discourages (or makes impossible) nuanced expression.

Twitter isn't coming up to anyone, twisting their arm and telling them to be a dick. Lots of people manage to use Twitter without coming across like assholes. If one feels that 140 characters isn't sufficient to correctly represent one's nuanced thoughts, then don't tweet.

That's a main reason why I don't. But I gather that in some circles the social pressure to tweet is not much short of arm twisting.

I doubt you could find many twitter accounts (barring commercial PR stuff) whose history is entirely free of rudeness.

Re: What It's Like To Be Ridiculed For Open Sourcing A Project

#530

Post by lxt »

kevinalexbrown wrote: post #195

Then I see these people’s follower count, and I sob harder. I can’t help but think of potential future employers that are no longer potential. There's a big responsibility that comes with being well-liked and nice. When someone with a good reputation and the means to broadcast it speaks negatively about someone, it matters much more than someone who is routinely rude, frequently negative, or unknown. I know that if t…

"Then I see these people’s follower count, and I sob harder. I can’t help but think of potential future employers that are no longer potential."

Speaking as a hiring manager, if I see people behaving like assholes on Twitter or mailing lists, those people go on my do-not-hire list. Yes, we are all assholes from time to time, but for some people it's a pattern of behavior. Those are not people you want to work with, no matter how smart they are.

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