To everyone else on the list: this email is long, and I'm probably
just feeding a troll. I'm really sorry, but I couldn't jump on the
Ban-Keith thing without saying this first.
I was pretty close to clicking send on a very carefully worded,
apologetic email which basically said, "Yes, I hate this, but let's
ban Keith."
Keith, my biggest problem with you isn't that you won't compromise. In
fact, my feelings about that are mixed. On one hand, uncompromising
people are often impossible to work with, especially when they make a
habit of being generally vitriolic. On the other hand, I know what it
feels like to believe in something, and fight for it alone. I know
what it feels like to be ostrasized for conducting oneself poorly
under such circumstances. I've sent stupid emails under emotional
duress. I've had people blow off my ideas because my comportment was
poor.
My main problem with you is that you repeat yourself constantly. I
know bandwidth is cheap these days, but I mostly read and reply on my
cell. I actually have to *pay extra* to support your participation on
the list sometimes, and I draw a very real line there. And it isn't
just your posts; I'm paying for the replies that you so excellently
keep getting from people who keep asking you to *please stop fighting
the community and participate with it even though we decided not to do
it your way.*
I even like some of your ideas. I haven't used Bob, but I am a big fan
of continuous integration, being myself a CruiseControl jockey in
another world. I discovered Sake shorty after getting into Squeak, and
I was refreshed! Dependency oriented programming is in my view a
valuable line of inquiry in the world of Smalltalk, and I'm in your
debt for blazing that trail, at least in principle.
I was using it right away, but I abandoned it to avoid ever having to
interact with a socially maladjusted package maintainer; ultimately
what people have been telling you about open source is true: it
doesn't matter if you have the best ideas, it doesn't even matter if
you have the best code.
In short: reputation is everything, and you will need to spend some
time working on yours before anyone outisde of your inner circle will
take you seriously again. And I really hope you do eventually get over
it and do something productive again.
In the mean time, I would like to propose to you:
Don't Repeat Yourself. (DRY)
Start a blog, and put all of you points there. When you run into
something that makes you want to reiterate one of your points, simply
post to the list with a link to your argument! It cuts my cell bill
and you still get to make your point.
I support your endeavor to write a manifesto, I think that's awesome:)
and I wish you'd do more than just that. You might have a bit of
trouble convincing folks when you're angry, or when you're feeling
wronged, but you do have a talent for making a point. In short: make
your points once, save yourself all the repetitive keyboarding, save
me the expense of data overages on my cellular bill, and *point* at
your arguments instead of repeating them.
Think of all the extra time you'd have to write code if you didn't
have to repeat yourself on the list all the time! I don't know about
you, but I kill to find time to code outside of work. In fact I'm
burning time I could spend coding writing this. In fact: this is all
of the sympathy I have for you at this time.
I will not respond to any reply you make to this or any other message,
unless your reply is roughly "my arguments are here: <a HREF="foo">My
arguments are here.</a>"
Keith, no offense, but stop wasting my bandwidth. If you don't, I will
join the Ban-Keith campaign.
This is a personal challenge to you: get this crap off the list and
maybe people will start listening to you again.
This is the only post I'll ever make in reference to you, unless you
change your behavior. And even then I'm liable to ignore you for a
year in order to ensure that your changed behavior will stick.
Again, I will not respond to your replies.
--
Ron
Locked
