[jacoblyles]

It took a non-negligible amount of work to recreate _why's work in the wake of his disappearance. There's something very much against the engineering ethos in that. It's like burning books or destroying art because you're having a bad day.

Sure, Zed has worse marketing than _why's "happy fuzzy" persona, but I agree with him in this case. From the comments on the github page, it looks like tryruby was rewritten, the code was never recovered.

It is a bit ironic that the hardest artifacts of _why to recover were the projects aimed at teaching Ruby to children (tryruby and some of the books).

[unalone]

The difference between Zed and _why is that _why never believed in an engineering ethos.

I wasn't happy that tryruby is so annihilated. The version they recovered still has issues. I tried using it to get my 14-year-old brother into Ruby, and there was too many bugs for him to smoothly guide through it. But at the same time, I know nothing of _why's decision to remove it, and I won't pretend like I know one so that I can bash him. If one day he returns and explains himself and I find him wanting, then I'll criticize him, but I'm not going to spew hate in his direction even if I do.

I'm simply grateful for all the things he gave the community, no strings attached. If the day he'd gone we never saw any of his work again, he'd still have made me a better person, inspired me to try things I'd never done. Beyond that he never had a responsibility to me and so I'm not angry. Hell, I'm still discovering new things of his — the music from his old band is playing through on iTunes now, and it's inspired stuff. (I could further the comparison by saying that Zed writes a lot about practicing guitar, but the music he's made is derivative; _why's music is haphazard and amateur but it evokes something. But that's not fair to Zed.)

As I said, I respect some things about Zed, and if he didn't spend his time being an arse to other people I'd respect him a lot more. But all the time he spends being negative really irks me, especially when it's targeted towards one of the most positive people in the community he left so violently.

[jacoblyles]

If Michaelangelo assaulted the David himself and didn't believe that it was wrong to do so, I guess I would be a little less angry than when someone else did it. But I would still think he was a dick.

[unalone]

Maybe I've got too much respect for creators of things. When somebody who's made something entirely on their own decides to nuke it, I don't get at all upset at them. Particularly not if it's a matter of them deciding it's not good enough. (We all know the "Good is the enemy of great"; I stand behind that philosophy a lot.) But I completely understand where you're coming from, and why you'd be upset. I still would call you immature if you spent time ranting about it while making comparisons to how much better you were, though.

[enneff]

"I still would call you immature if you spent time ranting about it while making comparisons to how much better you were, though."

I think the message would have been better delivered by someone who isn't a colossal asshole with an overinflated sense of self-worth. There was definitely something highly inconvenient about what _why did, but my attitude toward these things is "The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away."

[zedshaw]

Now, I can't for the life of me find any of your wonderfully totally original flute music. I mean, I was thinking "DAYUM! Rory's gotta have some bad ass atonal Japanese hate porn flute power ballads out there." Yet I can't find any of it on google or bing. I mean, usually bing can find the really weird shit.

So lay it on my oh master of the totally original. Where's your music?

[unalone]

Where're you getting flute music from? I haven't mentioned that here and I haven't mentioned it on my blog. You're going out of your way to troll now.

Writing insults ought to be more skillful than just stringing eight or nine unrelated adjectives together sarcastically. Used to be flamewars had craft, Zed.

[keyist]

Dude, you profess to admiring _why and all, but you're using a thread on his 'estate' to further a personal vendetta against Zed, jumping on the first link to Zed's post with cached vitriol.

You said of _why:

> For all that he had a vibrant personality, his work was never about himself.

Yet in your repeated attempts to have the last word you are making the thread less about _why and more about yourself. A little inconsistent perhaps.

[unalone]

I don't have a Zed vendetta. I haven't mentioned the guy since the last thread about him and _why. That said, I thought a criticism of Zed re: that _why post would be a valid comment, and apparently other people did too.

Normally on HN, that would have been the end of the thread, because there really wasn't much more to talk about. However, Zed decided it was worth not only insulting me here but posting a link to this thread for his thousands of Twitter followers to read and downvote, so this got out of hand.

I'd be happy to take this to email with Zed so we can settle. That's happened a few times with people, and I find it helps us talk things out without the peacocking that goes on when somebody thinks they're in the public eye. But Zed's decided to be obnoxious, and, much as I feel sick even being in this conversation, I don't want to let him rip me apart when he's saying things that are incorrect and immature.

[zedshaw]

Obnoxious? Wow you really are out of touch with yourself. You do realize you called me an idiot, immature, and juvenile right? You consistently insult me behind the guise of fake wisdom and objective observation, but really it's an act so you can insult people like me without getting called out on it.

Your plan actually works pretty well because, while other people here say I should follow the posting guidelines, nobody says you should. Despite the fact that to an educated intellectual such as myself the insult of "idiot" is probably one of the worst you could sling.

[mcantelon]

Didn't you initiate the back-and-forth by commenting on a link to a Zed blog post that he's an "idiot"?

[zedshaw]

Well, you claim you know something about music, so do something more than just run your mouth in a forum. Put your stuff online so we can all see how totally original you are.

I'm dying to know.

[drats]

Zed, please read the comment guidelines again and take your school-yard stuff off HN if you really feel you must continue it.

[icey]

If you feel a comment violates the guidelines, just flag it and move on. It hurts your argument to bring up the guidelines while attacking the person you're lecturing in the same thread.