Hacker News Reader

Comment by _Marak_ | Hacker News Reader

For everyone reading these comments, I want to say that this kind of pull request is hurtful and unwarranted.

You've essentially sent an alert to someone ( or a group of people ) saying that you believe their work has no value. This kind of behavior could have real-world consequences. You could be pushing someone to not work on open-source again, or make them feel worse about working on a project they might be required to contribute to as part of their job.

How would you feel if someone started vandalizing your own github projects gvx? Would it make you feel good? Would you consider it funny?

View on HN

It was intended as an innocent tongue-in-cheek joke, not to insult or vandalise. In that, I've failed completely. I can see that now.

I'm closing the pull request with an apology.

I'm glad this is being called out. Thank you.

First day on the internet?

So because some people might take criticism personally we shouldn't be allowed to express criticism?

This kind of criticism has 0 value. It basically says "you suck!". OP needs to grow up.

I asked a question because I want to start a debate, which is quite different.

You're allowed to be a jerk, but when doing so you shouldn't be surprised if people call you a jerk (or use a nicer phrase like "this kind of pull request is hurtful and unwarranted").

Constructive criticism is good, but the linked PR is not that. It's akin to a content-less drive-by HN comment like "you suck". You're free to post it (until you get banned), but it's not adding anything and you should expect downvotes.

I agree with you and I'm not saying "delete your fucking project" is constructive criticism.

But, if an internet stranger says "delete your fucking project" and you take that personally there's no one to blame for your suffering than yourself.

Also, _Marak_'s paternalistic comment would make sense with a group of 10 year olds, but we are all adults here.

If you don't want to be treated like a 10 year old then don't act like one.

I'm sorry, could you explain what part of what I said was infantile?

I'm going to go a bit farther and say: correct, for non-constructive criticism, on HN, you shouldn't be allowed to express it.

The community values here don't support or endorse non-constructive criticism, and I am OK in saying that simply shouldn't be allowed.

There are other venues for that stuff, this isn't one of them.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com