[arusahni]

This touches on something I've seen in (some, not all) large open source communities: the language used on a daily basis. The default tone is one devoid of empathy or understanding.

> This update is shit.

or

> [new build gets published, person's pet bug doesn't get addressed] > The devs are lazy.

At what point did this sort of tone get normalized? I initially chalked it down to non-native English speakers using verbiage from forums and IRC channels, but over time I've observed that isn't the case.

[sodosopa]

While I'd like to blame this on gaming culture, this went on back in the Usenet days too.

[tonyedgecombe]

Hell is other people.

[regularfry]

It's human nature. Literally: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_attribution_error

[Barrin92]

it's a little bit lazy to blame it on nature. Not all communities function like this. As one of the users above points out, the degree to which abrasive language and behavior tends to pop up in OSS / linux communities is definitely grounded in a "usenet" culture.

There's a long history of excusing aggressiveness as honesty and throwing "RTFM" responses around, or turning the smallest disagreement into a flame war. Now that OSS projects are really large and not dominated by in-groups any more, it has become a significant problem. This sort of thoughtless communication only works when the people having the conversation know each other.