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will the last one leaving please turn the lights out, please?
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From:
Jarkko Hietaniemi
Date:
March 7, 2000 09:07
Subject:
will the last one leaving please turn the lights out, please?
Message ID:
200003071707.TAA06968@alpha.hut.fi
I am the one who started perl5-porters many years ago.
Therefore my pain of seeing the quality of discussion going to hell is
somewhat more intense.
What used to be a high-quality, professional, coherent, and *friendly*
forum, has degenerated into a petty arena for obscene ego flashing, ad
hominem attacks, and pointless tirades that would be laughable even in
kindergarten. Seeing assumedly intelligent people going at each other
like yapping terriers isn't doing any good to my blood pressure.
Therefore I am leaving perl5-porters.
I'm not afraid to name the one single person I think is to blame for
the sad state of p5p. There are others, but this person seems always
to be part of the most sickening threads, and most disgusting attacks.
Yes, Tom. It's you. Just remember that whenever you open
your mouth, you are an asshole. An opinionated, small-minded,
asshole, who cannot stop displaying his assumedly brilliant
intelligence, who cannot stop answering to every damned
message supposedly opposing his opinion, which of course
is the only correct one, who is never wrong, who never
gives back in inch, who is unable to co-operate.
That was my ad hominem attack. I rarely stoop this low, please excuse
my quick indulgence.
If you were only an asshole, Tom, you would have been thrown
out of p5p a long time ago. When you are good, you are very
good, nobody can deny that, for example the work you are right
now doing for fixing the serious security bugs of the utilities
is excellent, your work with the Perl documentation is irreplaceable.
I would prefer having your technical expertise without your ego,
but I guess that's impossible.
Somebody suggested to me that maybe you see yourself as
the last bastion of common sense, defending Perl against
the onslaught of infidels. Maybe that's why you launch
yourself with almost regligious fervour into every discussion.
Please realize that this kind of intense attitude
is a turn-off for most people. When a dog with
froth in its mouth growls at you, you back away.
Just for the record: I'm not leaving because of the very recent
exchange of messages about safe temporaty files. I'm not
that petty. I was composing this message before that exchange
began, and I have been contemplating all this for days.
In the private background discussions concerning the current situation
in p5p it has been suggested that somebody should stand up to Tom and
tell him to either shut up and behave or to leave, to reclaim p5p back
for rational, grown-up discussion. Being the creator of p5p I do feel
more than moderate moral obligation to do just that. I, however, do
think that there is no redemption in here. The p5p is not moderated
nor do I think it should become moderated. And I do think Tom is
incapable of growing up, the history has shown that too many times.
Ergo, p5p is doomed, lost, gone.
I certainly won't abandon Perl, I am much too deeply hooked, and rest
assured that CPAN will continue working.
Someone will have to pick up the Configure pumpkin, though.
Maybe I will join Chip's new list, maybe not, as I that think
splitting the Perl people into several factions is a bad idea.
We should be able to peacefully co-operate, but that has been proven
to be impossible.
Good luck.
--
$jhi++; # http://www.iki.fi/jhi/
# There is this special biologist word we use for 'stable'.
# It is 'dead'. -- Jack Cohen
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will the last one leaving please turn the lights out, please?
by Jarkko Hietaniemi