I wouldn't dare say we should go back to it but it is how many use to communicate long ago. The mechanism is simple, if you deliver anything yourself you must live up to your own expectations. The louder you moan about everything the more harshly we should examine your stuff. You cant complaint when people ridicule or critique your software if you do it yourself all the time: You've openly invited it!

And yeah, it was more effective. You just have to remember the topic is your code not your person - they are 2 entirely different things. i.e. Brendan Eich is a wizard but javascript started out as a smoking pile of shit.

In The graphing calculator story Ron Avitzur mentioned the other devs saying "It doesn't even suck" which was the highest possible praise.