[m0zg]

Why do you read "insecurity" in this situation? I don't read that at all. If anything it's the newcomers that are insecure - that's why they're putting down the people who wrote the code in the first place. In all likelihood they don't fully understand it (just because code is harder to read than it is to write), so the inclination is to excuse their own lack of progress by shitting on people who aren't there anymore and chalking it up to "bad codebase".

[svaigs]

If anyone then author feels bad about the situation. Two colegues of author seems to have no voiced opinion on this situation. The only one who is making fuss about this situation is OP. Besides - your point is applyable to OP, because he/she is currently the only one who is in your own words "shitting" on people who are not present in this situation. How about hearing other side? All I read is that op has no power over these matters. Yeah, op can stomp feet on the ground and gain result what op desires... eventually that would lead to the hasty leave of newcommers(and maybe even some older collegues, too) or op will have to resign or be asked to leave. That's why it is imperative for op to sort these things out by herself/himself - what is the further goal of this communication. Is op justified to name newcommers arrogant - as maybe it is op who has not been out and has no idea about their background and experience.

I had a laugh about code - about others and mine. Like I mentioned before - these things can be only changed by changing culture of a company(or by finding a company that does have good coding standarts) and that starts by showing example of how to behave - including attitude towards importance of writing good code. If company has no such foundation and it has created environment for bad coders, then smart coders will initially nervously laugh and seeing that nothing changes will leave. Telling them to consider circumstances of bad code writing sends completelly wrong message. Pardon my expression but that is f*cked up thinking. And I am giving a very friendly advice to sort op's head first and think critically about herself/himself at first, if you and others seems to boldly rush to "help". Because all I read right now is that op thinks that op is justified to do something about others and not apply this attitude towards oneself.

Think about it this way - customers will not laugh at bad code - they will be angry, frustrated and will damage company in the end. Are you really ready to accept EA and Bethesdas blunders because you do not know circumstances of the past? Lol - this is exactly what op is asking to consider. Bad code is a very serious matter - and forcing someone not to laugh at it is great way for a company to go down. You know what - I am all for that selfish workers like op bring down bad companies by implementing more and more absurd ideas... this seems to be working just fiiine in the end.

[svaigs]

PS If there is bad code, there should be no excuses not to improve it. Code that is not fixed means more bugs, that are created because other people are not aware of these "features". FFS, if the bad code is the only thing that newcommers are laughing about - just fix it and carry on. Fixing others is completelly different problem.