[bhouston]

Too much drama and polemics. My god he spent a lot of time on that response -- like hours.

If you are writing long emails dealing with responses to drama, you need to move on. Not because you are at fault but the whole situation is screwed up and not worth your time. This is not a win-win situation, but an everyone lose situation.

It means you and others are in the muck. Once you get a bunch of these accusations and long polemical post flying around it is nearly impossible to figure out who is right and who is wrong. The way people try to win here is ultra long polemical posts, secret discussions, accusations, character assassinations, etc. Non of which is at all productive.

Being in the muck is a huge waste of time and energy for everyone. Find something that doesn't involve so much drama, life is short.

I think one rule in software development is that once you are engaging in polemics, especially many hours of it per day, and not technical matters, something is sick about the situation -- get out of it.

[eric_b]

Was "Polemic" in your word of the day email or something?

Anyways, Rod's character is being assassinated on the internet. Prospective employers could Google his name and all they'll see is one side of things, unless he attempts to defend himself.

Additionally - the people wielding the pitchforks want him to just give up. At some point it's important for people to take a stand if they believe in their principles - or maybe I'm just old fashioned.

[bhouston]

This is a polemic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polemic

It is not a means of trying to fix the issue, but rather a strong worded, accusatory, defensive blast at his critics by someone who believes they were wronged and others are at fault.

This is not a "how to get to yes" type response, but rather a response that just inflames a situation, and causes everyone to dig in.

There is going to be no winner going down this path, just losers all around and a lot of wasted energy and time.

Yuk.

[eric_b]

Sounds like you'd already made up your mind about Rod, and weren't keen to hear the other side.

I, on the other hand, was curious to read his version of things so I'm glad he took the time to offer a detailed reply. After reading his "polemic" I felt he was rational, composed, and defended his actions and character rather well. I came to the conclusion that the pitchfork wielding folks were slinging a lot of unsubstantiated accusations that look a lot like moral authoritarianism.

My read was that he diffused a lot of possible indignation and inflammation with his word choice and tone. He was more conciliatory than I would have been in his position.

[bhouston]

> Sounds like you'd already made up your mind about Rod, and weren't keen to hear the other side.

I actually only read his side, although I stopped after a couple screen fulls as I recognized from experience that what I was reading was not a productive response to the situation at hand, but a defensive one.

[dmpk2k]

Of course it's a defensive one. He's the person being accused! ಠ_ಠ

God forbid someone defend themselves after being publicly and on-record dragged through the mud. This isn't going away for him even if he stepped down and disappeared from the scene entirely.

[kuyan]

> I recognized from experience that what I was reading was not a productive response to the situation at hand, but a defensive one.

What would a productive response be? I agree that getting unnecessarily mired in drama is counterproductive, but I don't think that these accusations could have been reasonably ignored, nor do I know what Rod could (or should) have done differently.

[bhouston]

In real-life, outside of 10,000 word github issues, one should call those you are having problems with and talk about it. That is how you resolve these issues. You show empathy, you show understanding, you take more responsibility that you deserve because you have a strong ego, you focus on the future and how best to achieve joint success, you show some flexibility, you get a mutually beneficial resolution or an agreed plan of action that should lead to a better outcome. This is best done on a one-by-one basis. And people come to your side or at least understand you.

You need to not be accusatory, nor defensive.

This is the age old way of dealing with issues in a productive fashion. Read getting to "Getting to yes" or try getting married.

What I read in this github issue is just immature, very ineffective problem solving from I guess someone who doesn't know better.

[phiskk]

When people have already mounted an attack, a polite defense seems a very reasonable response.

[hoorayimhelping]

>I actually only read his side, although I stopped after a couple screen fulls as I recognized from experience...

So what you're saying is you made up your mind (based on past experience) and weren't really keen to read the full text because of that?