Comment by dusted | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dusted | Hacker News Reader

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I just read the source and I don't think there's anything notworthy about it, it's not bad. It's just javascript as written in 2013.. I don't think the snark was justified in this case..

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.

One can provide feedback and encourage people to learn about more efficient coding practices without ridicule and comments like "my eyes are bleeding".

One certainly can, and should. However, if I have to chose, I'd rather there be room for people over-reacting than risk there not being room for polite suggestion.. I do believe that the occasionally harsh tone fosters a resilience and readiness to accept ones mistakes.

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.

>I'd rather there be room for people over-reacting than risk there not being room for polite suggestion

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

> I'd rather there be room for people over-reacting

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.

If you used a language that was good at X, and saw some code trying to do X in a language not suited to it, I could see "my eyes are bleeding" being a reasonable joke to make to other people who used your language and not the other. If the intent was to mock a language rather than a programmer that seems less dickish.

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.

Should Twitter ban such comments? Reasonable people could go either way. But for the specific individual making such comments the resoundingly correct answer is they should be ashamed of themselves. And for that specific individual the free speech implications are that the more folks who speak like them the less appealing free speech looks and the more at risk free speech begins to look.

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.

Did you analyze the version a the time this was posted? It has probably gotten significantly better in the meantime.

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