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Insulting the person probably serves as a filter - at that point that person either shapes up or stops committing, either of which is a better outcome for Linus than that person continuing to commit crap code for Linus to have to look at/approve. Your more reasonable comment doesn't have the same effect, so it's not the strictly better solution, depending on what Linus values.

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@flumbaps - Because it's more impolite and hurtful? People tend to be more hurt by clear rejection then they are by being called stupid for something they did.

Why not just ask them not to commit?

are you serious? It's a free software dude.

Note in my comment that I said that some people will reject his insult and try harder next time, which potentially adds another good contributor to the project. Just telling them to go away and never come back doesn't do that, and is probably more hurtful to boot.

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