Nobody has mentioned any problem with my contributions, in fact,
nobody has mentioned my contributions. Everyone has a laser-sharp
focus on my tone, not my contributions. They are two different things.Yes and no.
One’s tone may affect how one’s contributions are received.
But it shouldn't.
The absolute certainty that he was right or that what he had found was an absolute *bug* (or whatever) despite repeatedly being shown evidence to the contrary meant that one could *not* have productive discourse with him.
This has absolutely nothing to do with tone. The problem was not *how*
he was saying things, the problem was *what* he was saying. The real
problem was the content, not the form (although the form wasn't ideal
either).
People will remember brusqueness, slights, or outright insults over time and it can hit a point where someone clearly thinks that you’ve finally crossed a line (or you’ve done so once too often).
Yeah, and people will eat too much sugar, smoke tobacco, watch too
much TV, and have extreme dislike for the out-group bordering on
xenophobia.
The fact that people do these things doesn't mean they are good,
desirable, or productive.
Ultimately, while it may be necessary to push back against tone policing, or it may be necessary to shock people into action, it shouldn’t be a surprise if there’s blowback from the people who remember that and remember the angry reaction. And if your ongoing interactions continue to have a sharpness or lack of consideration, eventually your tone *is* your contribution, whether you want to believe so or not.
It is 100% possible to focus on the substance of the contribution and
completely ignore the tone. People chose not to do that, but it's a
possibility.
I just sent a patch to the mailing list [1]. This is a completely
technical contribution, and people can choose to focus on that. Or
they could go on and on endlessly about my tone. It is their choice.
I already know people are going to ignore my technical contribution
and go on endlessly about my tone. How? Because people are humans.
People prefer easy things to harder things, and reviewing a patch is
harder than expressing an opinion shared by the majority. This is the
law of triviality [1], or bikeshedding effect. It is natural for
humans to endlessly discuss the color of a bikeshed (which is
trivial), rather than deliberate on an atomic reactor (which is
important). Very few people (if any) have the expertise, the time, or
the willingness to leave a comment about code, on the other hand
everyone has an opinion about tone and zero expertise is required to
leave a comment.
It's possible for humans to consciously go against their instincts and
to what is objectively more productive, but most people don't.
Cheers.
[1] [PATCH] Add Gem.default_install
[2] Law of triviality - Wikipedia
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On Thu, Sep 1, 2022 at 7:12 PM Austin Ziegler <halostatue@gmail.com> wrote:
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Felipe Contreras