To simplify :
- I'm a professional who gets shit done, some sarcastic tweet about something I didn't know is just an insight + a hint that the person making the comment is a dick. I'm aware that despite me not knowing everything I produce valuable solutions and any solution can be picked apart by some criteria.
- I'm a novice and am aware of it - someone mocking me for not knowing something doesn't make sense - I'm not supposed to be at the level to produce ideal solutions - getting things working is an achievement on it's own
- It hurt because I'm insecure about my ability. I need to work on my ability and confidence (which is why mocking people who can't do anything about it is exceptionally pathetic).
Mocking aside - working with insecure emotional people is a chore - you have to walk on eggshells to avoid breaking frail egos by pointing out their mistakes in a way that will not trigger their ego defense mechanisms and go down that spiral.
It was both. If we keep telling people that they can fall apart at the drop of a hat we end up with a lot of people who can't function in society.
Writing a blog post calling out the behaviour also appears to be a reasonable course of action. I would consider that an “adult” response also.
And publishing open source code to a GitHub repo is not a “collosal” mistake. It’s not a mistake at all. Adults, on the other hand, generally give constructive criticism. None of these people did that. Two of the apologises, and that was an adult response.
Working with people that lack emotional intelligence is a chore.
> So of course I start sobbing.
... too much of a chore to read before making comments?
Your snark is not becoming.
I'm sure the vast majority of people would have either reacted defensively and been intimidated into taking the project down, or reacted angrily (and likely still modified or taken the project down).
> If you haven't learned to deal with mocking in other ways than sobbing I'd argue you haven't really grown up.
Communicating your emotions about something purely for what they are takes courage and is the most important thing an adult can learn. You obviously can't expect that others respect your emotions or that you are entitled to anything at all, but purely communicating them goes a long way.
"Growing up" also is a very weird concept. You have no idea as to why the blog post author sobbed or if this was even just used as a rhetorical device. Are you only grown up after you got your mental health in order? If so, that gives an average of 50+ for some people, and never for most.
"You have larger issues" is not an actionable strategy. By all means, if you can tell me how to not break down at intense personal criticism, I will gladly stop doing so.
("Can you just not?" No, I can't. I literally don't have the capability.)
(Well, that was then. I've gotten a lot more confident since.)
Snarky comments forget that there are people behind those projects - but there's this implicit assumption that any contribution is a good thing and it should be encouraged. Poor contributions that are not called out just are traps and time wasters for other people - as someone who had to dumpster dive on NPM in the past - no contribution is better than a poor one because poor ones waste time and create noise. It might make the author feel bad but it's better for the community.
If author was really young I can get it because it - you're still figuring things out. But if you're a professional - dealing with the fact that you will make (colosall by some criteria) mistakes should be something you've learned to deal with.