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Comment by yan | Hacker News Reader

"<bramm> and I hope you realize that you just completely pissed off one of the most well known and respected people in the whole open source community"

Funny thing about respect, is it takes a while to build up and can be lost in a heartbeat.

edit: what's interesting is how respectful the freenode admin was throughout this whole transcript. If anything, kudos to freenode.

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Are you saying you think the policy of expiring nicks after 60 days is a great idea? And the # channels are not to be used unless you fill out a form and wait 6 months?

I'm kinda biased, but I think some of the policies are borderline insane.

We're sort of used to registering something, and it being there a few months later if we need it. I don't see why you need to delete peoples registrations if they have been on holiday for a couple months. That's just really irritating - I'm not surprised he was pissed.

There's a ton of other great networks out there, so if you're setting up a new channel, don't just default to putting it on freenode (IMHO).

I specifically made zero comments on freenode's policy. My comment was specifically about Bram's demeanor and his interactions with the admin. I realize that he's good at what he does and contributed a lot, but it's like seeing someone being awfully rude to a waiter, it just gives you a sense of who they are as a person. You can tell a lot about a person at how they handle the inanity of everyday life, like for instance, unreasonable nickname retention policies.

Sure, but I think pretty much everyone given a bit of ego massaging would at some point pull a "Do you know who I am?" at some point if they were pissed off enough. Personally I don't hold that against anyone. It's just human nature.

Personally, I do. In addition to showing a distinct lack of class, in cases like this it also dilutes the advantage of being well known in the first place.

Thanks to "who he is," Bram can direct the attention of a lot of eyeballs. A levelheaded post calling out the policy and the problems it causes would have focused those eyeballs on the policy; a ranty chat transcript that shows you repeatedly playing the d-bag card focuses those eyeballs on your willingness to play the d-bag card. It's a stupid, counterproductive distraction and a wasted opportunity, assuming you actually care about solving the root problem.

idk... people get pissed when their account gets shutdown.

When Google decided to shut off my account for a week, I was pretty angry. If I'd contacted google, and they'd told me they have a policy of deleting accounts that aren't used for 60 days, I would have probably ranted at them a lot.

I don't think the fact people are volunteers really means you can't be angry with them if they have a silly policy.

On most other networks, he would have been glined for behaving like this.

While it's true that Cohen acts like a bit of a douche, I think his point is rock solid. 60 days expiration for lack of use is ridiculous. And the admin he spoke to may have stayed polite, but his glib refusal to do anything to solve an obvious problem, while endlessly reciting some BS rules out of some FAQ somewhere as if they were unbreakable laws of physics, is a terribly attitude and reminds me of the most disinterested, cynical bureaucrats I've ever had to deal with.

And for what it's worth, I respect Cohen no less for what he said. I respect him for his deeds, not for his kind and humble soul. If reading a few lines of IRC logs, that he himself posted, is enough to make him lose your respect - I would question whether that respect really meant anything in the first place.

In addition to their deeds, I respect people for kind and humble souls. I can understand being upset about the situation (and I agree with you that his point is rock solid, the 60 day expiration is ridiculous), but the fact that he 1) made the claim that he was famous, and 2) having had the time to calm down and reread the conversation, thought there was nothing wrong with what he said and posted it to his blog, makes me lose repect for him.

They are called rules for a reason, he should've read them if he relied so much on the channel for communication. He should (and did) get the same treatment as anyone else.

"acts like a bit of a douche" is a huge understatement; trying to use your popularity like that is just downright ridiculous...

I respect Cohen less for this. He has contributed good things to OSS which we all appreciate, but that doesn't mean that we need maintain reverence for him regardless of his actions.

I would much rather employ and/or associate with a "kind and humble soul" that writes mediocre software than an arrogant dickface who writes excellent software. Clock cycles are much cheaper than tolerance and faith, which diminishes upon exposure to such a man.

No way.

He was a complete douche and the admin well has no obligation to help him. If he bent the rules for him this time, because some ass was claiming to be bram cohen, then he's opening himself up for shit and falling for any idiot willing to troll irc groups.

It's true. That is a ridiculous policy.

They should refund him his money.

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