flaming vs accuracy [was Re: Performance of int/long in Python 3]

[Chris Angelico]

On Thu, Mar 28, 2013 at 4:20 PM, Steven D'Aprano
<steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> wrote:
> On Wed, 27 Mar 2013 20:49:20 -0700, rusi wrote:
>
>> In particular "You are a liar" is as bad as "You are an idiot" The same
>> statement can be made non-abusively thus: "... is not true because ..."
>
> I accept that criticism, even if I disagree with it. Does that make
> sense? I mean it in the sense that I accept that your opinion differs
> from mine.
>
> Politeness does not always trump honesty, and stating that somebody's
> statement "is not true because..." is not the same as stating that they
> are deliberately telling lies (rather than merely being mistaken or
> confused).

There comes a time when a bit of rudeness is a small cost to pay for
forum maintenance. Before you criticize someone for nit-picking, think
what happens when someone reads the thread archive. Of course, that
particular example can be done courteously too - cf the "def" vs
"class" nit from a recent thread. But it'd still be of value even if
done rudely, so the hundreds of subsequent readers would have a chance
to know what's going on. I was researching a problem with ALSA a
couple of weeks ago, and came across a forum thread that discussed
exactly what I needed to know. A dozen or so courteous posts delivered
misinformation; finally someone had the guts to be rude and call
people out for posting incorrect points (and got criticized for doing
so), and that one post was the most useful in the whole thread.

I'd rather this list have some vinegar than it devolve into
uselessness. Or, worse, if there's a hard-and-fast rule about
courtesy, devolve into aspartame... everyone's courteous in words but
hates each other underneath. Or am I taking the analogy too far? :)

ChrisA