Ask HN: Dealing with newcomers' arrogance?
Recently, I've been annoyed by the behavior of the majority of the developers on the project (those who are new compared to how long I've been on the project). Whenever they see something wrong in the codebase developed by former team members, like poor quality code or simply a defect, they laugh about it, making fun of the developer who wrote "such bad code"(without even knowing the developer in question or the context that caused him/her to write such bad code). Now, I've been long enough on the project to know that many reasons can explain poor quality code (like short deadlines, low budget, etc...), and the quality of the developer is not always one of these.
Of course poor quality code should be pointed out, showed to people to learn what not to do or what is a better way of doing things. But It should not be used to make fun of people or humiliate them, especially when the people mocking others do not even write "triple-A" code. What also bothers me is that, the two other oldest members of the team don't say anything about that behavior. And that's why I'm asking if I should say anything or just let it go? Am I wrong feeling the way I feel? What would be the better way of telling it to the whole team? What would you do in my position?