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by toomanybeersies 3239 days ago
It was interesting reading the threads on /r/webdev about this whole debacle. The threads were full of people saying that he's an arsehole with too much time on his hands who must hate fun.

Nobody actually stopped to read the guys bio and realise that he's more than qualified to be bringing up these issues. It doesn't help that the guy who made save418.com is literally 14 (which seems to be about the average age of /r/webdev).

2 comments

The /r/webdev thread (https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/6stdcj/http_error_c...) remained quite respectful actually, afaik there were no real hostile remarks directed towards Mark Nottingham within it. In fact, it's ironic - the very comment I'm replying to is probably more distasteful and antagonistic than anything that could be found in the Reddit thread.
He probably confused it with the /r/programming thread [0], where the top comments with hundreds of votes were stupid insults like "What a dick","miserable bastard", "the most boring man in the universe", "standards committee troll", "he had fun once and hated it", "Soulless, joyless, heathens":

[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/6sxea0/http_er...

Often reddit threads read more respectful after-the-fact; the less respectful comments either get downvoted enough that they aren't displayed unless you look for them, or are moderated away. Often they are much harsher early in the thread. I'm not sure if that ways the case here, but it is common enough that I wouldn't doubt it.
When comments are removed by mods on Reddit, they're replaced with the text "[REMOVED]", which doesn't appear once in the referenced thread (insults would not be removed in the first place though, they break no /r/webdev rules). And you can scroll to the bottom of the thread to see all the downvoted comments, none of which are are condescending towards Mark. So no, that isn't the case here.
I believe the [removed] only appears in place of comments with replies that have not been deleted.

Though yeah, that still makes it rather implausible.

In the default sort mode ("best"), sufficiently downvoted comments won't be displayed at all, even if you do scroll all the way to the bottom.
Why should it matter that the guy who made save418.com is literally 14? Let's look at what he's accomplishing - in spite of his age - rather than whether or not he is substantially older or younger than the opposition in this argument. It seems like that's a pretty cheap argument to bring to the table.