So Im going to go with you having a selection bias.
OTOH I do appreciate your vigorous defense of the HN community, too many people just dont care about implied insults to their self identified tribal group.
Go llambda!
Nonetheless it's disheartening to see self-proclaimed "professionals" (I use this term loosely for while a person may be employed professionally this is not a guarantee a given individual will behave professionally: they are distinct things) who are well known throughout the community, behave like trolls. And even more so when they decide it's appropriate to take a shit on this community.
Well I will always try my best to preserve what I value. It's in my nature I guess. So thank you. :)
I, for instance, have been genuinely impressed with his productivity and his output, his choice of projects and his code and am moved by that aspect of myself that values quality to think very highly of him.
You, on the other hand, appear to feel that the most important aspect of his output is the way he achieves the standards that you have set for him - judged by how he expresses himself towards those who he feels are being disrespectful or rude at him on the internet.
Just out of interest, do you believe that making a strongly negative personal judgment based on a 'fact' that is clearly incorrect and could be easily checked with just a few clicks is the act of a professional? do you meet your own high standards?
I readily admit I'm a hypocrite. But also note, I don't claim nor ever claimed to be a professional; I'm not. I'm not at the helm of projects that are useful to and used by many people. I haven't written books on the topic of computer science. Nor have I given talks or do I run a website that receives a large volume of traffic. Maybe that qualifies [him] as working in the domain of a professional, yes?
Although he may have achieved great things, this doesn't give him a license to troll HN and it doesn't excuse him of baseless personal attacks. The comments he made that I replied to were no less than that, at best. At worst, they were insight into his character. Certainly we can hope the latter is not true. Nonetheless, there's no place for that kind of bullshit; it's inexcusable, I don't care who you are. I made such a judgement because he clearly attacked the user "hp" who had done nothing more than make an observation about texts that introduce C in general. Zed's reaction was puerile, irrational, and even paranoid. I hope you aren't standing up for such behavior?
Either you think he is a professional, or you do not. You appear to be holding up a standard, claiming that you believe he fits the criteria needed to be judged by it, and then lambasting him for not living up to the standard you have set. Overall, I find this somewhat confusing, but possibly I dont have sufficient context to judge.
TBH Im not particularly motivated to 'stand up' for the behavior of anyone I dont know.
I am interested in what makes you so interested in casting judgment on Zed, as opposed to on yourself?
Whatever puerile, irrational and paranoid responses Zed may have produced, you seem to be matching them with a self admitted hypocrisy, a large amount of self righteous vitriol and a bewildering statement of tribal affiliation to an anonymous internet discussion forum that apparently requires your outraged protection lest it collapses completely under the weight of a misunderstanding between Zed and another participant.
Zed has, to my knowledge, done you no harm of any kind. He certainly represents absolutely no realistic threat to HN.
why do you feel justified abusing him in this fashion?
It doesn't apply in this case. I will leave it as an exercise for the reader to discern why.