I agree that it sounds insincere, but I'm curious - what about his actions and his apology makes you think it was truly unintentional?

I'm all for assuming good will, but it's very difficult for me in this case.

>"I don't want to build my app on top of others' code who are at this level of understanding"

Seems intentionally condescending, not at all accidental.

>"Awesome, enjoy it. I'll be over here in not-node."

How is this completely dismissive, elitist snobbery not intentional?

That's like walking up to someone, punching them in the face, and then saying "oops, it was an 'accident'... sorry".

IMO his intention with these tweets is the core of the problem. To me, the intention quite obviously was to cultivate attention and elevate his status at the expense of humiliating another human being.

That's not something you can do by "accident". It's something you can regret[1] - but it's not like tripping over a curb, or rear ending a car because you were checking a text message.

[1]-http://programmingtour.blogspot.com/2013/01/im-sorry.html

Not sure how this comment is an accident:

    Steve Klabnik
    ‏@steveklabnik
    @harthvader @zeeg nothing's _wrong_ with it, but I don't want to build my app on top of others' code who are at this level of understanding

http://twitter.com/steveklabnik/status/293830888003887104

Did he perhaps mean to direct his criticism at node/js as a framework/language but rather made it sound like he was critical of the author of the node.js application in question?

Even if that is the case, it seems like he should have been able to read how other people would read his comment. I'm not sure I buy it.