Would the bad code quality justify the snarkiness on Twitter?
Someone writing a quick little thing because they didn't want to use sed is absolutely great! The entire idea about computers is that they're meant to be programmed.. That also means lots of overlap in functionality and it means some programs are more specific than others.. and more polished than others.. And that's just how it should be (imo).
> Would the bad code quality justify the snarkiness on Twitter?
I think it should, because the other extreme is that any criticism is banned, no matter how polite, and everyone gets to be a special genius snowflake who can do no wrong, and our software will degrade at an even faster rate because of it.
I think think there should be more public ridicule of slow and inefficient code, especially when it comes to things like drivers, operating systems, browsers and web frameworks which play a large role in our everyday lives..
Imagine how much electricity we'd save if we were a bit more scared of the long-beards showing our dirty underwear to the world in a torrent of spite and sarcasm.
I don't like the way we're policing conversation, the bar for what's deemed acceptable is constantly raised, and while I agree with the general sentiment of "not being an asshole" I disagree with the growing tendency of virtue-signaling through condemnation and indignation in every sentence that I feel I'm being increasingly exposed to..
So, if I have to chose between grown men writing apology blog-posts for a random unthoughtful remark in a tweet, or the space where unthoughtful remarks in tweets are simply ignored.. I'll chose the latter.
That's the thing. Usually the snark isn't followed by suggestion or anything useful at all
People being mean often do it for its own sake
There is.
> I don't like the way we're policing conversation,
We aren't. We are having conversations about public posts.
> the bar for what's deemed acceptable is constantly raised,
That's good. I mean, I believe that the occasionally harsh tone fosters a resilience and readiness to accept ones mistakes.
Think of this as code review for words.
> So, if I have to chose between grown men writing apology blog-posts for a random unthoughtful remark in a tweet, or the space where unthoughtful remarks in tweets are simply ignored.. I'll chose the latter.
I don't get it. You choose the latter, which amounts to someone being "censored."
i.e. If I write something and no one reads it or it's ignored, does it really matter? It's not seen. It's not read.
But more importantly, you are okay with someone unprofessionally and childishly critiquing someone's code, but not the same being done with those same words?
And you are okay with someone writing something unprofessional and childish, but not those same people writing something professional and thoughtful?
I cannot fathom the leaps of logic it takes to make sense of all of this.
The brevity of Twitter means a lot of the context is missed, even now there's some debate and confusion about what they actually meant by these comments.
Why has Twitter been pushed by the Public to moderate and ban people? Because there are enough folks out there willing to make those kinds of comments on their platform that it starts to look like an existential risk to the company.
As to ridicule, it rarely if ever causes someone to improve. You'll be much more effective at getting better more efficient code if you instead play the role of mentor or helpful hand.
Maybe people just had way higher standards in 2013, and code that seems fine now would have been farcically terrible back then. I kind of doubt it, though!