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Programmer humor is really cringey. I fully expect to be downvoted for this comment (outside of our cringey humor, we tend to be rather humorless and thin skinn

Programmer humor is really cringey. I fully expect to be downvoted for this comment (outside of our cringey humor, we tend to be rather humorless and thin skinned), but so be it.

majewsky 9y ago
My downvote is not because of our collective sense of humor, but because I deny the notion of millions of people sharing a certain collective sense of humor.
- theprotocol 9y ago
  Subcultures are a real thing. >I deny the notion of millions of people sharing a certain collective sense of humor. Comedy shows appeal to more than a handful of people. Most humor only works collectively.
- deleted 9y ago
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- criddell 9y ago
  > I deny the notion of millions of people sharing a certain collective sense of humor You don't think there's any such thing as nerd culture?
  - rootlocus 9y ago
    > You don't think there's any such thing as nerd culture? Nothing is ever black or white. I'm most certainly a nerd, but that doesn't mean I have the same sense of humor as every other nerd. Think of it like inheritance vs composition. Just because I'm a nerd, doesn't mean I inherit everything other nerds have. I only have some components. And while I appreciate Sci-Fi movies, I don't participate in wars between Star Wars and Star Trek (I think Stargate SG1 was better anyway).
    - criddell 9y ago
      > that doesn't mean I have the same sense of humor as every other nerd Of course not. Think statistically significant rather than about absolutes.
fdej 9y ago
There is plenty of cringey non-programmer humor.
- theprotocol 9y ago
  Of course! I merely believe that the kind of humor associated with any given group or subculture has its own characteristics (which often reflect the values & norms of the group); and I believe "cringeyness" is characteristic of programmer humor. Overlaps are possible. I would argue that I didn't make an especially bold proposition when I said programmer humor was cringey. I knew some would construe it as a verbal application of negative space, as if implying all other humor was strictly superior; but this is not the case.
k__ 9y ago
I have to admit, I would never add such a "feature". But I think it's funny. Also sad that this kind of culture is dying with the increasing professionalization of the industry. I often feel a bit like a pioneer, doing this stuff at home when I was young, having fun and later making a living with it. Now I meet more and more people who just do it because it pays well. But what can I say, it still pays to have a passion for your job :)
- fermuch 9y ago
  I would have added this "feature" with a mechanism to detect if it's running inside a TTY. That way, automated tests, pipes or scripts that parse the output wouldn't have this problem. But seriously, who uses a documentation tool for automated tests every minute? That use case is just insane and out of the scope of man IMHO.
  - k__ 9y ago
    They also used it without specifying a page.
    - Thagor 9y ago
      There was still a true bug because "gimme gimme gimme" appeared when calling "man -w", and that's the command they were using. But I still don't understand how a test could break because of this.
  - _jal 9y ago
    > But seriously, who uses a documentation tool for automated tests every minute? As someone with a long history of abusing tools and side-effects, I'll defend that. The whole point of the Unix philosophy is small, useful tools that can be composited in ways the creator never anticipated. If it works for them, great. (At least until it isn't.) But then I also pry with my pocketknife, and you probably don't want to know how about using a mill engine as a come-along...
  - JadeNB 9y ago
    > But seriously, who uses a documentation tool for automated tests every minute? That use case is just insane and out of the scope of man IMHO. It seems that it's not being triggered every minute: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/405783/why-does-man-print-gimme-gimme-gimme-at-0030#comment726350_405783 https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/405783/why-does-man... . (In fact, I can't find, even in the pre-editing version of the post, any reference to it happening every minute; but probably I'm just missing it.)
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dTal 9y ago
"Humorless and thin skinned" is an ironic accusation to throw in a comment consisting entirely of bashing someone else's attempt at humour and whining about downvotes.
- theprotocol 9y ago
  >a comment consisting entirely of bashing someone else's attempt at humour Actually, I was being self-critical. Self-awareness is a good thing. >whining about downvotes I have no issue with receiving downvotes in this case. "So be it" is a pretty simple phrase. Maybe you're projecting. This is the thin skinned backlash I expected. Oh well.
  - raesene6 9y ago
    I would suggest the backlash would likely be due to the wording of your original comment. you stated that "Programmer humor is really cringey." Cringey is generally a negative sentiment and saying "is" implies that this negative sentiment is a generally accepted fact. I'd suggest that humour is almost entirely subjective, and therefore attempting to suggest that any form of humour is objectively bad makes no real sense. If you had said "I find programmer humor to be really cringey" you may well have received fewer negative reactions.
    - theprotocol 9y ago
      Reminder of what I wrote: >outside of __our__ cringey humor, __we__ tend to be rather humorless and thin skinned I appreciate you being constructive, but I thought the pronouns I used made it sufficiently clear that I consider myself as a part of this culture (and thus subject to the characterizations I made about programmer humor). Anyway, I do not mind the negative reactions, even though I may reply in disagreement.
      - raesene6 9y ago
        Saying that you're part of the culture doesn't really remove the suggested universal negative, it just implies that you feel that you are part of that demographic. The point I was going for was that I'd suggest that all humor is so subjective that it's impossible for a universal negative to apply. In the same way that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, humour is in the ear of the listener.

Programmer humor is really cringey. I fully expect to be downvoted for this comment (outside of our cringey humor, we tend to be rather humorless and thin skinned), but so be it.

majewsky 9y ago

My downvote is not because of our collective sense of humor, but because I deny the notion of millions of people sharing a certain collective sense of humor.

theprotocol 9y ago
Subcultures are a real thing. >I deny the notion of millions of people sharing a certain collective sense of humor. Comedy shows appeal to more than a handful of people. Most humor only works collectively.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
criddell 9y ago
> I deny the notion of millions of people sharing a certain collective sense of humor You don't think there's any such thing as nerd culture?
- rootlocus 9y ago
  > You don't think there's any such thing as nerd culture? Nothing is ever black or white. I'm most certainly a nerd, but that doesn't mean I have the same sense of humor as every other nerd. Think of it like inheritance vs composition. Just because I'm a nerd, doesn't mean I inherit everything other nerds have. I only have some components. And while I appreciate Sci-Fi movies, I don't participate in wars between Star Wars and Star Trek (I think Stargate SG1 was better anyway).
  - criddell 9y ago
    > that doesn't mean I have the same sense of humor as every other nerd Of course not. Think statistically significant rather than about absolutes.

fdej 9y ago

There is plenty of cringey non-programmer humor.

theprotocol 9y ago
Of course! I merely believe that the kind of humor associated with any given group or subculture has its own characteristics (which often reflect the values & norms of the group); and I believe "cringeyness" is characteristic of programmer humor. Overlaps are possible. I would argue that I didn't make an especially bold proposition when I said programmer humor was cringey. I knew some would construe it as a verbal application of negative space, as if implying all other humor was strictly superior; but this is not the case.

k__ 9y ago

I have to admit, I would never add such a "feature". But I think it's funny. Also sad that this kind of culture is dying with the increasing professionalization of the industry. I often feel a bit like a pioneer, doing this stuff at home when I was young, having fun and later making a living with it. Now I meet more and more people who just do it because it pays well. But what can I say, it still pays to have a passion for your job :)

fermuch 9y ago
I would have added this "feature" with a mechanism to detect if it's running inside a TTY. That way, automated tests, pipes or scripts that parse the output wouldn't have this problem. But seriously, who uses a documentation tool for automated tests every minute? That use case is just insane and out of the scope of man IMHO.
- k__ 9y ago
  They also used it without specifying a page.
  - Thagor 9y ago
    There was still a true bug because "gimme gimme gimme" appeared when calling "man -w", and that's the command they were using. But I still don't understand how a test could break because of this.
- _jal 9y ago
  > But seriously, who uses a documentation tool for automated tests every minute? As someone with a long history of abusing tools and side-effects, I'll defend that. The whole point of the Unix philosophy is small, useful tools that can be composited in ways the creator never anticipated. If it works for them, great. (At least until it isn't.) But then I also pry with my pocketknife, and you probably don't want to know how about using a mill engine as a come-along...
- JadeNB 9y ago
  > But seriously, who uses a documentation tool for automated tests every minute? That use case is just insane and out of the scope of man IMHO. It seems that it's not being triggered every minute: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/405783/why-does-man-print-gimme-gimme-gimme-at-0030#comment726350_405783 https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/405783/why-does-man... . (In fact, I can't find, even in the pre-editing version of the post, any reference to it happening every minute; but probably I'm just missing it.)

deleted 9y ago

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dTal 9y ago

"Humorless and thin skinned" is an ironic accusation to throw in a comment consisting entirely of bashing someone else's attempt at humour and whining about downvotes.

theprotocol 9y ago
>a comment consisting entirely of bashing someone else's attempt at humour Actually, I was being self-critical. Self-awareness is a good thing. >whining about downvotes I have no issue with receiving downvotes in this case. "So be it" is a pretty simple phrase. Maybe you're projecting. This is the thin skinned backlash I expected. Oh well.
- raesene6 9y ago
  I would suggest the backlash would likely be due to the wording of your original comment. you stated that "Programmer humor is really cringey." Cringey is generally a negative sentiment and saying "is" implies that this negative sentiment is a generally accepted fact. I'd suggest that humour is almost entirely subjective, and therefore attempting to suggest that any form of humour is objectively bad makes no real sense. If you had said "I find programmer humor to be really cringey" you may well have received fewer negative reactions.
  - theprotocol 9y ago
    Reminder of what I wrote: >outside of __our__ cringey humor, __we__ tend to be rather humorless and thin skinned I appreciate you being constructive, but I thought the pronouns I used made it sufficiently clear that I consider myself as a part of this culture (and thus subject to the characterizations I made about programmer humor). Anyway, I do not mind the negative reactions, even though I may reply in disagreement.
    - raesene6 9y ago
      Saying that you're part of the culture doesn't really remove the suggested universal negative, it just implies that you feel that you are part of that demographic. The point I was going for was that I'd suggest that all humor is so subjective that it's impossible for a universal negative to apply. In the same way that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, humour is in the ear of the listener.