[parzivalm]

While you most likely made that comment in jest. Stereotyping everyone into a category like "blue-haired SF nobodies" is rather offensive.

Not saying I disagree about the temper-tantrum, but there was no reason to state it in the way you did.

[GenericsMotors]

Yes, you are right, it was an unnecessary jab...and I apologise if this offends.

The frustrated comment I gave is from the perspective of someone who is not an american; I don't see american californians as the moral authority of how open source software must be developed.

It is a sad day when politics must be paramount when contributing to a foss project. If developers wanted this burden they'd need look no further than working in a soul-crushing multinational mega-corp.

EDIT: please do not downvote the parent comment to this. He/she has commented to continue discussion, if you disagree please discuss, not downvote.

[johnny22]

> It is a sad day when politics must be paramount when contributing to a foss project

Politics have always been the reason for me. It depends on what you call politics though.

I got involved with FOSS initially because of the GPL. I then found a project whose aims I agreed with, and also had a welcoming environment.

I might contribute a one off patch here or there to some other projects, but the ones I stay are such as those.

[thehardsphere]

It might be offensive but it sure is accurate.

[dang]

It looks like you've been using HN primarily for political/ideological battle. That's destructive of what the site is for, so we ban accounts that do this, so would you please stop doing this? Intellectual curiosity can't flourish on a battlefield.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[lightedman]

"It looks like you've been using HN primarily for political/ideological battle. That's destructive of what the site is for,"

Then why is this entire thread and subject here? It's entirely political and ideological.

[dang]

Note that word 'primarily'. It is the important distinction here.

Occasionally commenting on a political issue isn't a problem as long as you do it civilly; some overlap with political topics is unavoidable. But when political battles become the thing you're primarily using HN comments for, that's when it becomes abusive.

HN's purpose is the gratification of intellectual curiosity. We can't be that and be a political battlefield at the same time, so we need to draw the line somewhere. The 'primarily' test turns out to be a good place to draw the line.

(There's a separate question of what kind of comments people post when they do turn to politics. To the extent that an account does political flaming as opposed to thoughtful discussion, we adjust the line in favor of more moderation.)

See https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html for more.

[lightedman]

"HN's purpose is the gratification of intellectual curiosity. We can't be that and be a political battlefield at the same time"

Incorrect - that's what communication is entirely about. And communication is what you're destroying.

"Note that word 'primarily'. It is the important distinction here."

No, the distinction is "political/ideological battle. That's destructive of what the site is for," If it's destructive to the site why is this entire thread about Rod Vagg here? It's entirely political and has nothing to do with technical merits of Node.js, at all. Every last bit of it is 100% internal politics, and as you state, this site isn't the place for it.

If you're capable of actually living up to your "This isn't the place for political/ideological battles" then this entire thread needs to be purged from the site.

Because otherwise this is pure hypocrisy.