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LinuxCon Japan: Making kernel developers less grumpy

LinuxCon Japan: Making kernel developers less grumpy

Posted Jun 11, 2012 5:58 UTC (Mon) by broonie (subscriber, #7078)
In reply to: LinuxCon Japan: Making kernel developers less grumpy by rahulsundaram
Parent article: LinuxCon Japan: Making kernel developers less grumpy

Notice that he said "criticizing and mocking" not just mocking; what tends to actually happen here (for the most part) is that there will be some iterations of "this needs improvement" (possibly on multiple patches). The mocking usually only comes in when the submitter is doing something like not listening to review comments at which point something stronger frequently is actually very helpful.


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LinuxCon Japan: Making kernel developers less grumpy

Posted Jun 18, 2012 13:23 UTC (Mon) by marcH (subscriber, #57642) [Link]

> The mocking usually only comes in when the submitter is doing something like not listening to review comments at which point something stronger frequently is actually very helpful.

"Something stronger" is very helpful (in the short term) to the overworked maintainer who needs to let off steam. It'd be great to see proof it is actually effective at anything else.

In this example insults apparently did nothing to quench the thread
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/1281217
Only disregard looks like it eventually had an effect.

(by the way painful people and children tend to feel disregard much stronger than mocking, since the latter is a form of the attention they're after)

LinuxCon Japan: Making kernel developers less grumpy

Posted Jun 22, 2012 17:51 UTC (Fri) by martinfick (subscriber, #4455) [Link]

So, are you suggesting that mocking is not painful enough?

LinuxCon Japan: Making kernel developers less grumpy

Posted Jun 22, 2012 22:27 UTC (Fri) by marcH (subscriber, #57642) [Link]

I obviously did not say anything that simplistic on such a complex topic.
For a start, there is not one single type/scale of pain.

Anyway pain is not really the main issue with mocking (you might have re-ordered one of my sentences when reading and misplaced "painful"). The main issue with mocking and public humiliation is: it degrades not just the persons involved but the whole group. That could explain why it is much less tolerated in Asian cultures which are often less individualistic.

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