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

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

#601

Post by donohoe »

petdance wrote: post #592
donohoe wrote: post #533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hate to say it but I think his post is fair and to the point. You don't have to like what he said but he puts it in context and within the realm of Twitter - a 140 limited space of communication. His original tweet was "Ever wanted to make sed or grep worse?". Really. Can we not be critical on the internet any more? And here is EVERYONE saying worse things about him in the comments!? Go look in the mirror people. I'l…

> Can we not be critical on the internet any more? You can, but why? What good is served?

Start with this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism#Purpose_of_criticism

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

#602

Post by hvs »

dmix wrote: post #288
dbul wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both of you seem to think he said "instead." Consider the clauses rephrased: "Maybe we should start by examining our own community, before ..." Why? I'd guess because the blog post refers to celebrity hackers bullying another hacker. The community -- more than just these few guys -- can't even behave civilly. It's a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

Compare the cause-and-effect of both the situations. One can send someone to jail for life and destroy their finances, reputation etc... the other can hurt someones feelings. Contending the latter should be addressed before (or even comparatively) to the former is what I take issue with.

Why is this a before/after situation? The people addressing one issue are a completely different group of people than the ones addressing the other. And what is keeping people from addressing both at the same time? And which one is closer to us that we can have a more direct effect on?

This idea that we shouldn't try to address problems in the HN community because there are problems elsewhere in the world is ridiculous.

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

#603

Post by bane »

pbiggar wrote: post #318
Gigablah wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And unfortunately it is exactly the "I am sorry if you were offended" type.

I don't think it is. I think its the 3rd kind: "I didnt say what I thought you said, but I can see how I hurt you and I'm sorry". Assuming that's true - which I think is a reasonable assumption based on how he teaches and his blog post from last year about being nice - it would seem wrong for him to post a full out apology.

no it's definitely a "I'm sorry for offending you, but seriously fuck you for using node."

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

#604

Post by bane »

It's astonishing how somebody's earnest hard work, put out in the world for all to see and benefit from, draws so many unmitigated assholes out of the woodwork.

Is it jealousy at quickly and elegantly producing something simple and useful?

protip: here's how to recognize you made a mistake and humbly apologize http://programmingtour.blogspot.com/2013/01/im-sorry.html Good on Corey.

here's how to do the opposite http://justcramer.com/2013/01/24/being-wrong-on-the-internet...

http://blog.steveklabnik.com/posts/2013-01-23-node https://twitter.com/steveklabnik/status/294302391279435776 https://twitter.com/steveklabnik/status/294302539510337536

https://twitter.com/zeeg/status/294307568019464192

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

#605

Post by bane »

kenneth_reitz wrote: post #302

I'm so tired of this. In honor of harthur's efforts, and to take a stand against bullying, I've decided to fork the project. I'm currently porting it to Python! https://github.com/kennethreitz/replace I encourage others to do the same in their respective languages :)

I've now taken a sudden interest in either forking or writing one of my own as a learning exercise...and also in reading up more on node.js (which I've been ignoring).

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

#606

Post by [deleted] »

hvs wrote: post #602
dmix wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compare the cause-and-effect of both the situations. One can send someone to jail for life and destroy their finances, reputation etc... the other can hurt someones feelings. Contending the latter should be addressed before (or even comparatively) to the former is what I take issue with.

Why is this a before/after situation? The people addressing one issue are a completely different group of people than the ones addressing the other. And what is keeping people from addressing both at the same time? And which one is closer to us that we can have a more direct effect on? This idea that we shouldn't try to address problems in the HN community because there are problems elsewhere in the world is ridiculo…

[deleted]

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

#607

Post by mrgoldenbrown »

dblock wrote: post #560

Maybe it's cultural, but what was ridiculed was the project, not the person. Russians, for example, make a clear distinction between the two, so what the tweets said didn't shock me somehow. I can totally understand how one can take it personally and I definitely think the apologies were necessary. Even though I am Russian, I would certainly apologize profusely if I had offended anybody for whatever reason and would…

The person was ridiculed, FWIW: "...but I don't want to build my app on top of others' code who are at this level of understanding..." is insulting the person, not the project.

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

#608

Post by papsosouid »

protomyth wrote: post #581
eyko wrote: post #558

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And nobody seems to have mentioned the fact that to run this script you'll need to install node and npm (although you can argue that node comes with npm, but anyway…). You might as well just install GNU sed in BSD if that's the problem. Also, I believe GNU sed is much faster than any javascript script. Moreover, if you want to use this as part of your node app, then it's a good reason to reimplement some of sed's fun…

"You might as well just install GNU sed in BSD if that's the problem" Often not possible depending on what authorizations and hosting you have.

What are you talking about? Yes, GNU bloatware is massive and hideous, but it is still far easier to install than javascript + framework + package manager + package. If you don't have the ability to run binaries in ~/bin then you can't use this sed alternative either.

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

#609

Post by mnicole »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #565
dos1 wrote: post #537

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He didn't merely say the project "wasn't good", he implied it in a snarky, very unconstructive way. Here's his quote from twitter: > Ever wanted to make sed or grep worse? http://github.com/harthur/replace In the world I live in, that's called being an asshole. Look, I'm not saying these guys should apologize (in fact, if this is how they apologize it's probably best they don't), I'm simply stating that they're dicks…

It shouldn't matter if it's unconstructive. He's not talking to the author of the code. I still don't see how being snarky, or god forbid considering being snarky, makes you an asshole. It's just some code; he's not insulting anybody.

If you make a criticism of someone's ability to do something, you are making a criticism of their intelligence. If a product gets bad marks across the board, are there no consequences to the team that developed it?

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

#610

Post by quasque »

steveplace wrote: post #511
quasque wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if there was a strong undercurrent of misogyny involved here, motivating their incivility and rudeness.

I don't want to be the one to say it, but it hasn't yet been mentioned in this thread. If the author was named Henry instead of Heather, this wouldn't make front page or have a comment thread full of white knights. That doesn't make the critics right in their aggressiveness, and people overall should be nicer.

"have a comment thread full of white knights"

You're seriously suggesting that anyone here who decries the rude behaviour described in the blog post, is doing so just to impress the protagonist of this drama with their chivalry? What an absurd notion.

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