Well, let's not go over the top here. Many of the most famous hacker writings are passionate critiques of computer languages.

I work with PHP every day. But if I were not allowed to use rude words to describe PHP I'd never get through the day without biting through my tongue.

I think what you mean to say is: "Good hackers find interesting criticism of PHP to be interesting."

(It also helps to be constructive, and polite, although those are not hard-and-fast rules provided you are interesting enough. Have you read Steve Yegge's Kingdom of Nouns article? Have you heard Paul Graham's hilarious line about recruiting Python programmers vs recruiting Java programmers? They are good writers, and funny, but they are also scathing.)

What I don't like is language trolling, which often comes in the form of claiming that one language is better than another. Unless you're looking at a narrow slice of the language (performance, documentation, expressiveness), you can't just say that one language is better than another.

http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html

You don't need to tell me why you feel that PHP vs. Ruby does to belong on the front page, you need simply vote. On the other hand, if there is some reason why you feel the existing voting mechanism is broken in some way such that PHP vs. Ruby keeps making it to the front page despite the fact that "Good hackers do not find PHP bashing interesting," that is an "interesting new phenomena" that I would like to understand.

Disclosure: My two most recent homoiconic posts could be described as "Ruby bashing."

I disagree with you here.

First, your criticism is interesting and well-reasoned.

Second, you aren't making categorical claims (e.g. metaprogramming sucks/rocks).

Third, you're criticizing Ruby from the right position: as someone who has used it in depth, and isn't religiously for or against it.

Why don't we let the votes decide that?

If you do find this sort of thing interesting, please respect the site guidelines and don't submit or upmod it.

As a hacker, I definitely find language debate a lot more interesting than this sort of navel gazing about what should and shouldn't be posted here.

Unfortunately, even humor doesn't play well on the internet when it is seen as criticism. "5 joking reasons why your technology sucks" brings the trolls out in full force.

Besides, all it takes is 2 votes to hit the front page, and that certainly does not indicate community interest. That's where the mods and members are expected to come in and set the tone.

Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is inappropriate for the site. If you think something is spam or egregiously offtopic, you can flag it by going to its page and clicking on the "flag" link. (Not all users will see this; there is a karma threshold.) If you flag something, please don't also comment that you did.

PHP in Erlang: http://github.com/blog/354-php-in-erlang

Erlang / Ruby Bridge: http://www.rubyinside.com/erlang-ruby-bridge-its-erlectricit...

As a disclaimer, I don't take sides. I use both PHP and ROR. Use a language that works for YOUR project, but don't harass other people because of the languages they choose to use on theirs.

I hold the opinion that good hackers should be able to use the most appropriate tool for the job, not debunk one language over another. Twitter was always used as the big example of "Ruby doesn't scale", but I think it showed more to the point that languages don't scale and not that one was better than the other.

When it comes to technologies, frequently the only cost is our time. And since our time is so valuable, we like to spend a bit of it discussing the merits and problems with the tools we use. Of course, there can be an emotional connection to these tools (I <3 Perl) that can interfere with discussions. But on the whole, I think these discussions can be insightful and interesting, and can even introduce me to new ideas. That's what hacking is all about after all, isn't it?

I thought it was funny and interesting, and it certainly gratified my intellectual curiosity. I liked the stats on Ruby vs. Perl vs. PHP.

Lighten up, dude..

I use PHP and Ruby all the time, but I'm tired of reading about how shitty PHP is.

I'll take PHP over VB any day!! /hypocrisy :)