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The original issue was a pull request[1] made to the libuv code base to change "him" to "them". It was rejected[2] by one of the committers, Ben Noordhuis, as b

The original issue was a pull request[1] made to the libuv code base to change "him" to "them". It was rejected[2] by one of the committers, Ben Noordhuis, as being too trivial. That decision was reversed by Isaac Schlueter (another committer) and committed[3]. Noordhuis reverted that commit[4], chiding Schlueter for not following procedure, but that revert was quickly reverted itself. Bryan Cantrill of Joyent, one of the sponsors of the project and Schleuter's employer, wrote a blog post[5] indicating that had Noordhuis been a Joyent employee, he would've been fired. This post here is a response to that post. Strongloop is Noordhuis's employer. [1]: https://github.com/joyent/libuv/pull/1015 https://github.com/joyent/libuv/pull/1015 [2]: https://github.com/joyent/libuv/pull/1015#issuecomment-29538615 https://github.com/joyent/libuv/pull/1015#issuecomment-29538... [3]: https://github.com/joyent/libuv/commit/47d98b64c45db8335bf7e065351e385cae32323d https://github.com/joyent/libuv/commit/47d98b64c45db8335bf7e... [4]: https://github.com/joyent/libuv/commit/804d40ee14dc0f82c482dcc8d1c41c14333fcb48 https://github.com/joyent/libuv/commit/804d40ee14dc0f82c482d... [5]: http://www.joyent.com/blog/the-power-of-a-pronoun http://www.joyent.com/blog/the-power-of-a-pronoun

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dmourati 13y ago
Not exactly. There are two Isaacs. Isaac Roth at StrongLoop, author of the OP, he didn't come into the story until today. Isaac Schlueter works for Joyent, and originally committed the requested change.
- itafroma 13y ago
  Yeah, sorry about that; I just caught that mistake myself. Fixed.
- richardfontana 13y ago
  Roth is actually Issac, not Isaac.
  - dmourati 13y ago
    Duly noted. Thanks.
aviraldg 13y ago
Much ado over nothing. "Them" in that context just sounds odd to me (perhaps not in American English?) A 50/50 mix of him/her sounds way more natural.
- yetanotherphd 13y ago
  Not all people belong to the categories "Male" and "Female". Luckily you won't be fired for this post, but be warned for the future.
  - aviraldg 13y ago
    I'm all for diversity, but I like my pronouns as they are, thank you.
- Brakenshire 13y ago
  It's actually the other way around, the objection to the use of singular 'them/they' as a gender indeterminate pronoun is a relatively recent shift apparently originating from American English. It is a form which was otherwise well-established: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they#Generic_they http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they#Generic_they (There are example quotes in the link from Shakespeare, Austen, Twain, and Bernard-Shaw)
  - aviraldg 13y ago
    I was comparing against Indian English, but point noted.
    - Brakenshire 13y ago
      Ah, I wasn't meaning to tell you what the usage is in your country, just trying to make the narrow point about American English. As an aside, do you mind if I ask, is there a narrative in India about protecting the Indian dialect of English, like you might get in Britain about vulgur Americanization, or in America about pretentious Britishisms?
StavrosK 13y ago
When did Ben say pronouns should be gendered? I saw nothing on GitHub like that, yet the Joyent post mentions it more than once.
- itafroma 13y ago
  I couldn't find any explicit statement by Noordhuis that could be characterized as what Cantrill called an "insistence that pronouns should in fact be gendered". I took that to be something Cantrill thought was implied by the revert. However, there's a deleted GitHub comment from Noordhuis that nevertheless still appears on his public activity stream[1]. I starts with: > For the record, I reverted the merge in 804d40e. Isaac may be a committer but that does not mean he is free to land patches at will. Patches have t… Perhaps it was stated there? [1]: https://github.com/bnoordhuis?tab=activity https://github.com/bnoordhuis?tab=activity
  - GrinningFool 13y ago
    Seems not: https://github.com/joyent/libuv/commit/804d40ee14dc0f82c482dcc8d1c41c14333fcb48 https://github.com/joyent/libuv/commit/804d40ee14dc0f82c482d... Ultimately, it looks like Ben was fairly impartial about the whole thing - he didn't accept it because it wasn't a significant enough change to merit accepting. He tried to revert the acceptance because the acceptance had been done without approval.
    - Lazare 13y ago
      Technically, he was in the right. Politically, reverting Isaac's commit (and especially doing so with a passive aggressive "Isaac, consider yourself chided." commit message) was clearly a mistake.
      - GrinningFool 13y ago
        A mistake, but only in context of the larger issue. In the context of a reverted commit, it was a fairly laid-back way of saying "you shouldn't have done this direct merge and you probably knew better".

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dmourati 13y ago

Not exactly. There are two Isaacs. Isaac Roth at StrongLoop, author of the OP, he didn't come into the story until today. Isaac Schlueter works for Joyent, and originally committed the requested change.

itafroma 13y ago
Yeah, sorry about that; I just caught that mistake myself. Fixed.
richardfontana 13y ago
Roth is actually Issac, not Isaac.
- dmourati 13y ago
  Duly noted. Thanks.

aviraldg 13y ago

Much ado over nothing. "Them" in that context just sounds odd to me (perhaps not in American English?) A 50/50 mix of him/her sounds way more natural.

yetanotherphd 13y ago
Not all people belong to the categories "Male" and "Female". Luckily you won't be fired for this post, but be warned for the future.
- aviraldg 13y ago
  I'm all for diversity, but I like my pronouns as they are, thank you.
Brakenshire 13y ago
It's actually the other way around, the objection to the use of singular 'them/they' as a gender indeterminate pronoun is a relatively recent shift apparently originating from American English. It is a form which was otherwise well-established: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they#Generic_they http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they#Generic_they (There are example quotes in the link from Shakespeare, Austen, Twain, and Bernard-Shaw)
- aviraldg 13y ago
  I was comparing against Indian English, but point noted.
  - Brakenshire 13y ago
    Ah, I wasn't meaning to tell you what the usage is in your country, just trying to make the narrow point about American English. As an aside, do you mind if I ask, is there a narrative in India about protecting the Indian dialect of English, like you might get in Britain about vulgur Americanization, or in America about pretentious Britishisms?

StavrosK 13y ago

When did Ben say pronouns should be gendered? I saw nothing on GitHub like that, yet the Joyent post mentions it more than once.

itafroma 13y ago
I couldn't find any explicit statement by Noordhuis that could be characterized as what Cantrill called an "insistence that pronouns should in fact be gendered". I took that to be something Cantrill thought was implied by the revert. However, there's a deleted GitHub comment from Noordhuis that nevertheless still appears on his public activity stream[1]. I starts with: > For the record, I reverted the merge in 804d40e. Isaac may be a committer but that does not mean he is free to land patches at will. Patches have t… Perhaps it was stated there? [1]: https://github.com/bnoordhuis?tab=activity https://github.com/bnoordhuis?tab=activity
- GrinningFool 13y ago
  Seems not: https://github.com/joyent/libuv/commit/804d40ee14dc0f82c482dcc8d1c41c14333fcb48 https://github.com/joyent/libuv/commit/804d40ee14dc0f82c482d... Ultimately, it looks like Ben was fairly impartial about the whole thing - he didn't accept it because it wasn't a significant enough change to merit accepting. He tried to revert the acceptance because the acceptance had been done without approval.
  - Lazare 13y ago
    Technically, he was in the right. Politically, reverting Isaac's commit (and especially doing so with a passive aggressive "Isaac, consider yourself chided." commit message) was clearly a mistake.
    - GrinningFool 13y ago
      A mistake, but only in context of the larger issue. In the context of a reverted commit, it was a fairly laid-back way of saying "you shouldn't have done this direct merge and you probably knew better".