I find a similar worrying trend in Software Engineering. Criticisms are often supressed [1], people are afraid of saying anything negative to "offend" someone, right-to-be-offended is rampant and often go unchecked and it's sending chilling effects in social media, Github, work places, forums, and slack channels. When we used to meet in person to discuss, there is a level of courtesy and acceptance of dissent as a matter of intellectual discourse, this is being eroded in front of our eyes. Online discussions in the past weren't so gamified as things are today.

On Github, saying something across the grain or against it can lead to public shaming - all beautifully souped up for public consumption in the form of 31 downvotes, emojified, recorded and attached to someone's name. Now, that person will perhaps think twice before saying something negative ever again, silenced and rejected by the public previously. Email mailing lists are far superior in arguing about a point than Github. Makes me furious just thinking about how shitty we have become. It's getting worse everyday. If you think that these people are just "assholes and always complain"; we have a mechanism for people who are truly assholes - be tolerant and ignore them.

Folks, it's time to ditch the 'Emoji Casino' for any sort of serious intellectual discourse. That includes Github and anything that's "social". One should be judged by the merit of their words and thoughts, not statistics and concensus.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25991563