I’m a follower of Joel’s podcast, and I noticed sometimes he says things somewhat to quickly, but hey, it is like we listen to a telephone call. Perhaps I missed the particular episode you referred to, at least cannot recall what you respond to. I do remember the name JUnit, so at least the name stick (so maybe I did hear the episode).

Finding your response (post 29) on accident (by googling for joel spolsky), I read it and though ‘hey this is interesting’, but there was no actual content at all in that post. So I was none the wiser whatsoever about JUnit than what I heared from Spolsky. I found this page by searching for ‘spolsky’ on your blog to see whether you had written some more in depth text at a later time.

But no, you only write that you do not want to go into a mudfight. I don’t want to read a mudfight, I want to learn more about JUnit. Perhaps especially in respect to whatever Spolsky said about it (because I ‘know’ who that is). I think most of the 15000 visitors just wanted to learn more, but you missed the opportunity to teach them. You could have written a reply without name calling. There were not even pointers to other places with information in these two articles.

That doesn’t mean I disagree with you in this specific case. I totally reject “childish poop-flinging”, and this particular dogfight was clearly caused by too much superficial judgment. But I do find it useful to express strong opinions, sometimes to the point of painting it a bit too vividly. I’ve discussed this at http://is.gd/jN9e.

Here here!!

I consciously turned away from this pursuit because of the hollowness of
achieving it and the cost.

Well said. I can relate. For me, it’s a hard lesson to apply consistently (until, I can only hope, I mature a bit).

I’ve learned a lot about working with software from you, but I think I’ve learned more about working with humans. I look forward to learning more.

AND I am interested in how web tech might evolve to help us evolve civil communities of trust. I want my community of trust to attract folks at a similar level of consciousness; I want it to naturally repel the poop-flingers.

I want web tech to reward collective, collaborative discussion and sharing, and repel the cult of the individual. I want the web tech equivalent of the small, shy, rural eco-village, that folks take the trouble to visit for the right reasons, and then choose to inhabit more permanently for the right reasons.