[nir]

Way back when I started reading HN, one thing that really struck me was seeing PHP discussed in a practical fashion rather than merely bashing it whenever it's mentioned as was the case in Proggit those days (often, the bashers obviously having very little experience building software).

By that time I was doing most of my coding in Ruby and Python, but this businesslike approach to PHP made me realize this is a place where people really get their hands dirty and build things, rather than care about fads.

Things have really changed, the tone & level of discussion here are now very different. Seems like PHP is kind of a canary in the coal mine in that regard.

[Daishiman]

What are you talking about? PHP has been rightfully bashed ever since it was created. If anything the bashing has substantially gone down in the past years as sane array notation has been added and a lot of weirdness has gone away.