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by microcolonel 3252 days ago
Maybe the laid-back, results oriented nature of Arch Linux is what got it here. The IRC and mailing list are openly hostile to people who do not read the manual, and yet it has consistently been the best goddamn Linux distro on the planet earth for the solid five years I've used it. It is on the backs of people like this that Arch Linux was built, and if that laissez faire atmosphere deteriorates, I suspect the productivity will deteriorate with it.
1 comments

(I am a full time arch user and occasionally read some of the mailing lists)

I don't see how the RTFM mentality and what you call "laid back" mentality are compatible.

Imo, Arch is one of the more severe/strict distros and communities.

Guess it's all perception.

I know what you're getting at, and that's fair from one perspective.

To people who are socially sensitive it can be very stressful to work with these folks. When I say laid-back I figure I mean that it is more tolerant/friendly to autistic behaviour. The low standard for social skills brings in a lot of people who do productive work, at the expense of the perception of people who don't work well with autistic types. More men and boys are autistic (or close to it) than women and girls, so you'll see an even bigger split here than usual.

Basically, this domain name is typical autistic weeaboo trash (in keeping with the weeaboo handle). It's obviously not a literal endorsement of child trafficking; probably a morsel of dark humour which is more offensive than humorous if you're sensitive; or perhaps it's a tool for his work at NCMEC.

Emotional sensitivity is effectively a cancer to these communities, because a large portion of the members are incapable of it. If it takes hold in the Arch Linux community, it could collapse almost entirely.

HN has a lot of sensitive/agreeable people, so (understandable) outrage in this thread has cost me ~50 karma. It's a matter of personality, whether you see this as a sign of a healthy community, or possibly the end of an era.

Seems like this guy has a history of being a grade too abrasive for different communities. I understand why he sounds so upset in his response here.

The reply by this developer is full of sarcasm, a literary devise commonly thought to be hard for people on the autism spectrum to understand, let alone practice to such an extend.

The only imaginable purpose of this domain name was to elicit exactly the reaction that he got, and/or to cause emotions in people that don't complain. Such an intent to inflict emotional harm is also not consistent with what is commonly thought of as autism, especially not if it succeeds. Indeed, autism is almost defined by an inability to sense others' emotions, and therefore also to influence then.

If anything, this behaviour resembles sociopathy more closely.

side note: autism may not be quite so imbalanced by gender. it's diagnosed in males more often, but the diagnostic criteria were established by observing males and autism presents differently in females. there are suspected to be a lot of undiagnosed ones.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/autism-it-s-diffe...

These could be two ways to say the same thing. The relevant aspect of it is the one which is simply diagnosed, and thus noticeable. If it is not apparent, it is not relevant in this case.
That was very well composed. You explained a laid-back culture in a very lojban way.