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Comment by k_bx | Hacker News Reader

It's a shame no one did something you don't even have idea how to do? Do you really think it's a shame?

Care to check a dictionary first? apendleton is not saying open source programmers should be ashamed that they haven't produce a high quality speech engine. Would you feel better if it was phrase like "it's a bummer that.."? Less hurt feelings?

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/shame

5. an occasion for regret, disappointment, etc

Haha, well that's an unexpected English-lesson for me. Really sorry for my mistake, and thank you for pointing that out.

Care to check a dictionary first?

Please don't use this kind of sarcasm on Hacker News. It lowers the signal/noise ratio and it corrodes civility.

There'd be a good and helpful comment here if one took out the aggressive bits.

But he started it first! </joke>

Message received, thanks for the reminder.

I just meant that it was unfortunate, not that it was shameful. It's just a figure of speech.

Yes, very sorry, it's all my bad English :)

I'm normally not a fan of condescending comments, but you hit the nail right on the head. It doesn't seem like some people grasp that a lot of open source projects are coded by unpaid volunteers in their free time in subjects they're passionate about.

Granted, there are commercial open source projects.

I'm sure everyone on HN is familiar with how open source projects work. The poster wasn't trying to tell contributors to get their act together and produce a higher quality product.

Beyond just lamenting the quality gap, they were trying to understand what it was that open source projects of this nature are missing. Is it lack of research making its way downstream? Poor media quality? There was no blame placed on contributors.

Understanding the answers to these questions can even help someone like the parent find an 'in' to contribute something themselves.

Personally, I really think it's a shame, yes. Why wouldn't it be?

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