Recently, well-known open source programmer Steve Klabnik effectively removed himself from Twitter and pulled back from community interaction. This was done, from what I can tell, in response to negative sentiments posted about Steve and Rust, a language that Steve created (which is gaining a ton of steam). Steve indicated that this had been a long time coming, which is upsetting.
Why does this happen?
Having already seen one prominent Rubyist disappear from the community (_why), I wonder how we can stop burn out and negativity from taking our best contributors. Or are programmers and the anonymity offered by the internet too much to overcome?
Reading your post and nothing else - I know neither Steve, nor Rust - it doesn’t read like burn-out. It sounds more like he’s protecting himself from criticism he doesn’t feel he should have to deal with.
Well, I think it was something that built up over time, not just a one-time bout of criticism. From what I know about Steve, his skin is appropriately thick.
Regardless, can we make a feedback loop for OSS that doesn’t push folks away?
Not sure why this happened, as I do not know Steve. Having worked in ruby, python and php, if I wanted to ask a question I would hesitate the most in the ruby community. My perception is that the odds of getting gratuitously flamed back seem to be the highest.
I do think that the community is great, as I feel the same of the other communities I mentioned. So,not any specific examples as it’s been too long, just my personal perception as I have surfed through the three communities is that in general the ruby community seems to be a bit more picky in its choices. I really felt bad when _why left as I never understood the reason behind it.
Yeah, the whole _why thing is a mystery. I often wonder if THAT’s why he did it…
It’s great that Ryan is back. RailsCasts was such a big part of my Ruby learning. In his case, I think he just got overwhelmed with work. I don’t think anyone unduly criticized him. I mean, how could you?