This is what happens when people keep flaming KDE 4...

[Extreme Coder]

No comment.
http://ervin.ipsquad.net/2008/06/25/about-stop-energy/

[ARhere]

Very Sad actually.

Something I see constantly in every engineering related shop I work at. Too many people feel good about finding fault with someones work and rubbing their nose in it; and do very little work themselves to change what they don't like.

Engineering arrogance will kill every project.
-AR

[billgoldberg]

Correction:

"this is what happens when people keep bashing kde 4 on that dude's blog".

A bit childish of him to stop blogging because of some jackasses.

Not that I had ever heard of that guy or that I was interested in what he had to say, but I'm sure some people were.

[23meg]

Correction:

"this is what happens when people keep bashing kde 4 on that dude's blog".

Correction: this is what has traditionally happened, in every project, when enough people do the following:


this is about him not having to put up with people whose criticisms are a) useless, either because they are too vague to act upon; b) already known and being worked on i.e. “Are we they yet? WHY NOT? DRIVE FASTER, MR LAZYBONES!!1″; and c) couched in either outright vitriol and insults or those kind of underhanded, vague insinuations about apparent character flaws that we all know and (don’t) love.

Sounds familiar? It must, because Ubuntu and this forum are no exception. And no, it's not about his blog; he apparently didn't shut down his blog because of harsh comments there, but because he wanted to minimize his public exposure and get down to work rather than constantly deal with "poisonous people":


The story started several weeks ago (probably even months ago) with constant
bashing of some of the decisions taken in the Plasma project (which is not a one person project by the way). It culminated last week with very rude and useless mail threads on kde-devel, and yesterday on the dot with personal attacks.


That’s why Aaron decided to retire from the public and do what he truely loves: code. No more blogs, minimal involvement on lists and IRC to ensure coordination with the other developers. That’s what we obtained after those weeks of angry poisonous mobs.


A bit childish of him to stop blogging because of some jackasses.

That depends entirely on the scale of the problem, that is, how loud those jackasses are in the project.

[the yawner]

Correction:

"this is what happens when people keep bashing kde 4 on that dude's blog".

A bit childish of him to stop blogging because of some jackasses.

Not that I had ever heard of that guy or that I was interested in what he had to say, but I'm sure some people were.
I'd say it'd more mature to keep away from things that would affect getting work done. Why spend time and energy over detractors when it can be better utilized to improve a promising project. I'm not a fan of KDE but still, I'm interested on what they're up to for the past months.

[GeneralZod]

It was more the bashing of Aaron himself than of KDE that let to this, to be honest: on blogs, mailing lists, Dot comments, and his personal inbox - apparently he'd have some really rather astonishingly vitriolic hate mail frequently sent to him on a frequent basis. Extremely unpleasant if you deserve it; trebly so if, as is the case here, you don't.

I'm not even remotely surprised to see him withdraw from the line of fire - I would have snapped in one tenth of the time.

[Harii]

I'm sure problems was at both sides and just got out of control.

I think its good that someone step away--to clear the air.
plus--it helps to get down to work?

Some people take things and say things that others take personal and then it gets out of hand.
I don't use kde apps but it happens to every project.

I'm not saying that there was not trolls involved but i think there two sides to everything.

[Seren]

I was a regular reader of Aaron's blog, the guy was very enthusiastic and passionate about KDE4/Plasma, and very open about what was going on, posting multiple detailled blog entries every week.

On the blog or the Dot, I have read countless comments about why KDE4 sucked, with such insightful arguments as "You can't resize the panel !1!1!! Epic fail !".

Plasma being the most visible part of KDE4,( contrary to Phonon/ Nepomuk / PulseAudio/ etc), this is also the most criticized.

Anyway I will miss his blog, but I don't think that the problem came from Aaron's side.

[p_quarles]

Aaron is one of the most articulate open source developers who actually bothered to share his thoughts on a regular basis. He frequently had intriguing things to say on topics ranging from particular lines of code to the whole F/LOSS ecosystem.

It's a shame that those with nothing to say can silence people like Aaron.

[23meg]

I'm sure problems was at both sides

What makes you so sure? Any evidence or supporting facts?

[-grubby]

Poor guy. I sure wouldn't want to develop something if everyone kept telling me how much it sucked..

[mips]

Aaron is one of the most articulate open source developers who actually bothered to share his thoughts on a regular basis. He frequently had intriguing things to say on topics ranging from particular lines of code to the whole F/LOSS ecosystem.

It's a shame that those with nothing to say can silence people like Aaron.

+1

I've tried KDE4 before and uninstalled it because it was simply not ready for me yet. Even though not ready I still thanked people for the work they are doing as I realise it is an ongoing project and it will eventually mature (me hopes 4.2). Nothing wrong with constructive critisism or filing bug reports etc. It's pointless biatching though when they know about an issue and it is in line to be fixed later because there are more important things. Personal attacks on people is just plain wrong and will not in the least bit help, if anything it would have a more negative influence on the project.

My mom always said "If you have nothing good to say then keep quiet" and there is a lot of truth in that.

[maniacmusician]

+1

I've tried KDE4 before and uninstalled it because it was simply not ready for me yet. Even though not ready I still thanked people for the work they are doing as I realise it is an ongoing project and it will eventually mature (me hopes 4.2). Nothing wrong with constructive critisism or filing bug reports etc. It's pointless biatching though when they know about an issue and it is in line to be fixed later because there are more important things. Personal attacks on people is just plain wrong and will not in the least bit help, if anything it would have a more negative influence on the project.

My mom always said "If you have nothing good to say then keep quiet" and there is a lot of truth in that.
That's definitely well appreciated.

I also really enjoyed reading Aaron's blog. Even though I'm just a "normal user," and don't really have the time or resources to contribute like some do, I really like keeping up to date with new technologies and their technical workings. Aaron kept things at a great balance between "rich with technical details" and "simple enough for non-coders to understand," not to mention his (usually very insightful) responses to things happening in the world of FOSS.

One of the few blogs I looked forward to reading, and one that I'll definitely miss. *Contempt* to the poisonous people :evil:

[PmDematagoda]

Aaron is one of the most articulate open source developers who actually bothered to share his thoughts on a regular basis. He frequently had intriguing things to say on topics ranging from particular lines of code to the whole F/LOSS ecosystem.

It's a shame that those with nothing to say can silence people like Aaron.

+1 there, I found Aaron's blogs to be really interesting and made me curious about the happenings in KDE4, I will miss the blog:(.