i like cakes

[Andrei Alexandrescu]

On 4/4/11 12:45 PM, Bruno Medeiros wrote:
> Are you saying all this drama regarding D in Reddit is mostly because
> it's D and a particular someone with an agenda regarding D, and is not
> the general ambiance of Reddit?

Drama is always present where people are, but the particular hubbub 
surrounding D in reddit is largely (if not exclusively) the handiwork of 
one person (id iLiekCaeks). That person spares no effort to defame D and 
often Walter on reddit: brings D with a negative connotation with every 
remote opportunity; shows up ready to pick a fight (e.g. "how about that 
Tango vs. Phobos disaster?") every single time D is being discussed in 
any way, shape, or form; replies to every one of Walter's posts and 
finds issues with virtually everything he says. He is technically 
competent, stays current with D developments, and in fact could have 
many good points to make if he wanted to.

My staunch approach is finding unity and conciliation; I have recently 
had conversations with that person that revealed that our views are 
considerably more aligned than it might seem. Even he seemed to agree, 
with varied levels of grudginess, with some of the language design 
decisions that inevitably forge compromises because they need to satisfy 
conflicting requirements. At the end of the day, professionals will 
understand there are things that can't be disagreed about and other 
things in which reasonable people can disagree.

> Because I rarely hear about or follow Reddit links outside of the D NG,
> but when I do and check the discussions there, there is always some
> controversy or flaming going on. I was starting to grow the impression
> that Reddit is a huge troll cave (thus furthering my desire to avoid
> it), so correct me if I'm wrong. (because on the other hand you seem to
> favor posting stuff there a lot, versus other sites or news-aggregators)

Generally reddit has the nice property that articles towards the top are 
relatively informative. It is a source of information used by many 
professionals and therefore a very appropriate place for sharing 
D-related news to the larger community. Top-rated comments may be often 
informative but are occasionally just funny.

Reddit can be manipulated because their policy allows creating unlimited 
accounts and keeps them entirely private. That makes it relatively easy 
for a determined individual to use several accounts to comment, upvote, 
and downvote news.

Case in point: I have recently made four submissions to reddit: GTK+, 
iPad2 contest, GSoC 2011, and the Mago debugger. Of these, three have 
been classified as spam, even though they actually have been on the 
site, upvoted, and discussed mostly positively for hours. What I infer 
happens is that if enough accounts classify an article as "spam", the 
spam detector automatically bans the article. If that hypothesis is 
true, a determined individual who is willing to spend time on that kind 
of activity can effectively make an article disappear. I had to write 
the moderators to have the articles reinstated, but that happened only a 
day later when their novelty had already decayed.

One thing that I find a bit odd is that Walter and I need to do most of 
this all by ourselves, although there's significant pressure for us to 
do many other things for D. For example, after having suggested that the 
GTK+ news is shared on reddit and after having seen that not one soul 
cares to do that, I posted the article myself, followed up with 
moderators (twice) when it was manipulated into deletion, and made sure 
the article was reinstated.

Speaking of GtkD, I have difficulty understanding someone who is 
confident and persistent enough to carry through a major piece of work, 
yet refuses to take a simple step towards letting others know about it. 
Also, I get a good chuckle when seeing the occasional "I'm ready to do 
anything, how can I help D?" thread on digitalmars.D. Such is human nature.


Thanks,

Andrei