mike mcquaid dot com

Where is the love! (Part 2: First Blood: Strikes Back)

March 6, 2008 @ 00:09

Just to clarify some stuff that seemed to cause a fair amount of (predictable) drama in the previous post:

• No, I wasn’t referring specifically to dirk’s blog. There was parts I disagreed with in his post which we have since talked about on IRC but I think he made some good and needed points also. Dirk’s blog was one in which I felt the tone wasn’t great but was did not provoke the post I made, it reminded me of a selection of far less friendly earlier interaction on the Planet since KDE 4.0.0 was released. May I issue a formal and public apology to dirk for the confusion.
• I’m overly touchy about this topic because I’ve seen a major FOSS project that I care about go down the toilet mostly due to (in my observation) snarky blog posts causing a lot of developers to leave.
• I think criticism is necessary and valuable I just think we can all improve our interactions with others; I know I can. I think we should set the bar high on how we seek to treat others online and how we communicate.
• Whilst I agree that it is good that people care enough about the project to get riled up and flame others I don’t think that this is a good outcome, however positive the reasoning behind them may be.

In summary, much was assumed about my post that wasn’t actually my intention and I should have communicated it better. I am intentionally vague about points when I don’t want to criticise individuals but instead general behaviour. If one tiny bit of KDE works a bit better as a result or one relationship within the project is strengthened then I think it has been worth it.

Stay happy folks and apologies again for any offence caused.

Posted in Software Development

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