[butter999]

The onus is always on you to figure out what information is and is not reliable. People who haven't stated their feelings still have them. They might still be pursuing an agenda other than being informative. If anything, someone stating their reservations should make you feel more comfortable, because it gives you a better lens to view their statements through and judge what parts you trust more or less.

Personally, what makes me discount a source as unreliable is when they don't state clearly what their problems are but instead make it known through vague insinuations or by a litany of tangential complaints. When someone says "I'm uncomfortable with X" I respect their candor, regardless of how I feel about X.

[fc417fc802]

Someone stating their reservations when those are directly relevant to the subject at hand, sure. If they aren't directly relevant to the subject under discussion but are directly related to a negative impact on the person while they were performing the relevant work then I get that as well.

But someone who isn't mature enough to separate their irrelevant personal views from the task at hand when communicating with an audience, not so much. It calls into question their ability to be objective.

Note that I apply this equally, even to those who interject pet topics that I strongly support.

[butter999]

Granted. However, the quote at issue doesn't come out of left field. It is natural to consider the internal politics of an open source project when writing a wide ranging, in depth critique of the project. Plenty of projects don't have a CoC, it is idiosyncratic to be "proud" not to have one, and that does reflect on the project (I leave it to you to decide if it's for better or worse).

[huang_chung]

CoC are the homeowners associations of the free software world. Some think they're essential to keep undesirables out; others won't have anything to do with them.

Both are often the source of petty disagreements.

[butter999]

The source of petty disagreement, in this instance, is that you went to this website, clicked on "about," found an offhand mention of CoCs, which you took out of context to derail the conversation and start an argument. You complain that the author is injecting their "feelings" into a discussion, but you're clearly going out of your way to inject your anti-CoC politics into a discussion of an operating system. You complain that CoCs are tools to exclude people, meanwhile you are attempting to dissuade people from engaging with this author's work because an offhand remark rubbed you the wrong way.

Physician, heal thyself.

[fc417fc802]

That seems a rather unreasonable characterization.

While I didn't raise a comment over it (since I felt it likely that it might sour the discussion) I too found myself wondering about the motivations behind that remark when I came across it. As it happens I had the exact same thought that GP had - to wonder if there was an ulterior motive at play. However based on the rest of the content I came to the conclusion that the site didn't seem to be particularly biased. Highly technically opinionated, a bit colorful, but not a malicious hit piece.

And for what it's worth I thought the HoA analogy you're responding to here was on point. Those also tend to be incredibly polarizing to a bewildering degree. Apparently a large portion of Americans get remarkably bent out of shape if you try to regulate their behavior, while a different set is similarly incensed by attempts to prevent said regulation.

[butter999]

The motivations seem pretty plain. They were anticipating the question, "why did you host this site yourself?" I don't think there's any need to read further into it. You seem to have come to that conclusion yourself.

The HOA analogy would be appropriate if HOAs were about conduct among colleagues. It's pretty obvious why you need to set ground rules when you have a huge number of people collaborating - you get incidents of people behaving inappropriately, and if that behavior proliferates, you will create a hostile environment where it's difficult for work to be done. (See this comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43147705)

HOAs are a problem because there is very little shared interest in regulating the size of hedges or the color you may paint your house or whatever. It's a scheme to keep property values elevated.

There is no connection between these phenomena. One of them addresses pragmatic and real problems, however flawed the implementation may be. The author is a scheme to manipulate property markets. There is no shared cause between them.