Yesterday my colleague mentioned that a script I wrote was getting a lot of attention on Twitter. This particular project was something I wrote a couple years ago to help me out with a workflow. I had a lot of fun writing it and have gotten a ton of use out of it, and several people have expressed that they have too. I’d put it up on Github, so that others could potentially use it or use the code.
So I went to see what people were saying about this project. I searched Twitter and several tweets came up. One of them, I guess the original one, was basically like “hey, this is cool”, but then the rest went like this:
At this point, all I know is that by creating this project I’ve done something very wrong. It seemed liked I’d done something fundamentally wrong, so stupid that it flabbergasts someone. So wrong that it doesn’t even need to be explained. And my code is so bad it makes people’s eyes bleed. So of course I start sobbing.
Then I see these people’s follower count, and I sob harder. I can’t help but think of potential future employers that are no longer potential. My name and avatar are part of its identity, and it’s just one step for a slightly curious person to see the idiot behind this project.
I queried some tweeters for more information on why exactly it was so bothersome. I didn’t get apologies from these tweeters.
The response to this from other people was overwhelmingly reassuring. The tweets were called out by several people, and I got a bunch of reassurance and support. I’m lucky to have friends in this industry that know me in person and through my work, and thus feel more compelled to speak up.
I evangelize open source whenever I meet new coders or go to meetups. I tell them to make something that they would find useful and put it out there. Can you imagine if one of these new open sourcerers took my advice and got this response, without the support I had. Can you imagine?
Update:
I got some apologies: http://programmingtour.blogspot.com/2013/01/im-sorry.html, http://blog.steveklabnik.com/posts/2013-01-23-node, and I wrote a follow up post here: https://harthur.wordpress.com/2013/02/01/open-source-rocks-follow-up/
Also, it was hard for me to convey this, but the snarkiness of the tweets really made it so much worse. I wish I could explain why.
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