4 ms·

Saying that "Linus has advocated physical abuse" based on that statement is completely disingenuous. It's an absurd interpretation. It was obviously humor and i

Saying that "Linus has advocated physical abuse" based on that statement is completely disingenuous. It's an absurd interpretation. It was obviously humor and it wasn't insulting either. There are several cases where Linus went way over the top with insults, but throwing him under the bus because of that statement is ridiculous. That's the whole problem with these CoCs, if people get to apply the most uncharitable interpretation of any statement, we can't have anything but extremely formalized conversation, lest we run the risk of getting kicked out because someone who doesn't like us misrepresented our words.

skookumchuck 8y ago
For an example of what you're talking about, it's what diplomats do. Where a careless word misinterpreted across different cultures and languages could start a war, diplomats have learned to be, er, "diplomatic".
- Ygg2 8y ago
  Yeah, we should all be like career politicians and learn to say nothing with as many words as possible.
  - comesee 8y ago
    Hence the rise of political correctness, i.e. the art of saying nothing
cobar 8y ago
There is a certain cost in time and energy required to separate yourself from harsh statements like that identify it as such. While it's pretty easy to say, yes he's not suggesting physical abuse, the statement implies this guy is not going to cut me any slack, I can expect to get verbally attacked for missing something in my code, etc. Bad code has a cost associated with it as well, it takes time to reject it, explain why it's wrong, and deal with the frustration of someone less experienced. Unfortunately with some developers they want to push that off on the person writing the code and bear none of the burden. I've seen the costs of the latter in open source projects I've worked on. People who feel encouraged stick around, support the community, and when given good feedback will often learn from it and submit better patches. Taking the time to communicate and make sure everyone feels included is part of the cost to get that.
- zeroname 8y ago
  > There is a certain cost in time and energy required to separate yourself from harsh statements like that identify it as such. It's not a "harsh statement", it's a joke. If anything it's flattering of that person's stature. > While it's pretty easy to say, yes he's not suggesting physical abuse, the statement implies this guy is not going to cut me any slack, I can expect to get verbally attacked for missing something in my code, etc. I don't think it implies that, but that's besides my point. The remark was represented as "advocating physical intimidation and violence", which given the actual context is basically libel. You're free to interpret anything you want about the personality of Linus from him making such jokes, but misrepresenting it like that in public is dishonest and harmful to discourse itself.
  - cobar 8y ago
    My bad, I had misread the comment the poster made and didn't see that the quote was there. I stand corrected.
comesee 8y ago
Eye for an eye leaves everyone blind
CRConrad 8y ago
And to be perfectly anal, it was only advocating _threatening_ physical violence. (As in, _“say_ you'll smash them...”)

skookumchuck 8y ago

For an example of what you're talking about, it's what diplomats do. Where a careless word misinterpreted across different cultures and languages could start a war, diplomats have learned to be, er, "diplomatic".

Ygg2 8y ago
Yeah, we should all be like career politicians and learn to say nothing with as many words as possible.
- comesee 8y ago
  Hence the rise of political correctness, i.e. the art of saying nothing

cobar 8y ago

There is a certain cost in time and energy required to separate yourself from harsh statements like that identify it as such. While it's pretty easy to say, yes he's not suggesting physical abuse, the statement implies this guy is not going to cut me any slack, I can expect to get verbally attacked for missing something in my code, etc. Bad code has a cost associated with it as well, it takes time to reject it, explain why it's wrong, and deal with the frustration of someone less experienced. Unfortunately with some developers they want to push that off on the person writing the code and bear none of the burden. I've seen the costs of the latter in open source projects I've worked on. People who feel encouraged stick around, support the community, and when given good feedback will often learn from it and submit better patches. Taking the time to communicate and make sure everyone feels included is part of the cost to get that.

zeroname 8y ago
> There is a certain cost in time and energy required to separate yourself from harsh statements like that identify it as such. It's not a "harsh statement", it's a joke. If anything it's flattering of that person's stature. > While it's pretty easy to say, yes he's not suggesting physical abuse, the statement implies this guy is not going to cut me any slack, I can expect to get verbally attacked for missing something in my code, etc. I don't think it implies that, but that's besides my point. The remark was represented as "advocating physical intimidation and violence", which given the actual context is basically libel. You're free to interpret anything you want about the personality of Linus from him making such jokes, but misrepresenting it like that in public is dishonest and harmful to discourse itself.
- cobar 8y ago
  My bad, I had misread the comment the poster made and didn't see that the quote was there. I stand corrected.

comesee 8y ago

Eye for an eye leaves everyone blind

CRConrad 8y ago

And to be perfectly anal, it was only advocating _threatening_ physical violence. (As in, _“say_ you'll smash them...”)