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It's annoying and unprofessional. Stop trying to be cutesy and present the information in a way that people who are busy can consume quickly and make decisions

It's annoying and unprofessional. Stop trying to be cutesy and present the information in a way that people who are busy can consume quickly and make decisions on. Is this the tone of the whole project? I'd love to contribute, but I don't want to wade through a reddit-comment-thread-level of forced references and memes to do that. I get the reason for doing it, and I like that the internet isn't full of drab corporate-speak all the time, but this piece just missed the mark I think. The title doesn't really communicate the intent well and instead feels like its trying to be a little clever for the sake of being clever. It's really a two or three sentence press release that got fluffed up with some non-corporate language.

falsedan 10y ago
I think a lot of engineers may be hesitant about appearing boring in prose, because they haven't had a lot of experience/training in writing. Also, they not be confident that external people will be interested in the project. They try to build/maintain interesting by sprinkling it with these asides, forced references, and analogies (aping the style of other popular writers/entertainers who unfortunately aren't presenting technical information in a professional environment). They're probably aware of the drab corporate-speak & aggressively alter their style away from it avoid being mistaking for it. Writing clear, expressive prose is hard! Plus, it's not taught as part of software engineering & it's not required to be a great engineer.
coldtea 10y ago
>It's annoying and unprofessional. Stop trying to be cutesy and present the information in a way that people who are busy can consume quickly and make decisions on. The world in general, and personal blogs in particular, doesn't exist to serve people who are "busy". And being flippant on one's blog has nothing to do with being "unprofessional". In fact, the blog where TFA is from is not a business or professional endeavor to begin with. So "professionalism" (however some provincial people conceive it) is not a requirement for it. Not to mention that billions are made in fully professional endeavors that actually include such references and humor (from Google's easter eggs to funny messages in update notes in various apps, etc).
bzbarsky 10y ago
> Is this the tone of the whole project? Absolutely not.
justinlaster 10y ago
> I'd love to contribute, but I don't want to wade through a reddit-comment-thread-level of forced references and memes to do that. I'm going to have call you out on this. You have no wishes to contribute. Because asking this question reveals you haven't even bothered to look at the repositories, join IRC channels, or subscribe to the mailing lists. You're here to complain and you're using hypothetical constructive motivations to masquerade that fact. State your opinion without the fussy lie, there was really nothing wrong with it.
- Touche 10y ago
  I love this comment. The term for the grandparent comment is concern trolling.

falsedan 10y ago

I think a lot of engineers may be hesitant about appearing boring in prose, because they haven't had a lot of experience/training in writing. Also, they not be confident that external people will be interested in the project. They try to build/maintain interesting by sprinkling it with these asides, forced references, and analogies (aping the style of other popular writers/entertainers who unfortunately aren't presenting technical information in a professional environment). They're probably aware of the drab corporate-speak & aggressively alter their style away from it avoid being mistaking for it. Writing clear, expressive prose is hard! Plus, it's not taught as part of software engineering & it's not required to be a great engineer.

coldtea 10y ago

>It's annoying and unprofessional. Stop trying to be cutesy and present the information in a way that people who are busy can consume quickly and make decisions on. The world in general, and personal blogs in particular, doesn't exist to serve people who are "busy". And being flippant on one's blog has nothing to do with being "unprofessional". In fact, the blog where TFA is from is not a business or professional endeavor to begin with. So "professionalism" (however some provincial people conceive it) is not a requirement for it. Not to mention that billions are made in fully professional endeavors that actually include such references and humor (from Google's easter eggs to funny messages in update notes in various apps, etc).

bzbarsky 10y ago

> Is this the tone of the whole project? Absolutely not.

justinlaster 10y ago

> I'd love to contribute, but I don't want to wade through a reddit-comment-thread-level of forced references and memes to do that. I'm going to have call you out on this. You have no wishes to contribute. Because asking this question reveals you haven't even bothered to look at the repositories, join IRC channels, or subscribe to the mailing lists. You're here to complain and you're using hypothetical constructive motivations to masquerade that fact. State your opinion without the fussy lie, there was really nothing wrong with it.

Touche 10y ago
I love this comment. The term for the grandparent comment is concern trolling.