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I've been thinking about your comment that all criticism is negative and I'm not sure where to go with that in my mind. I think it very much depends on your definitions of "criticism" and "negative". For example, a movie critic could praise a movie, 100% score, no faults. That's still a criticism by many definitions.

But the interesting thing about this is "the eye of the beholder". I suppose to some folks, all criticism does seem to be negative... which is why code reviews can turn into nightmares... and helps explain why I recently received a very angry phone call from another engineer because of some changes that were made to "his code".

For the purposes of this discussion, the oddity seems to be the folks jumping to defend the software they had no part in creating. Why does the criticism result in negative feelings for them? I can understand the author taking issue with it, but someone else's criticism should not impact another's ability to utilize the software for whatever purposes.



I don't want to play a definitions game and dissect word meanings here. I think it's usually a waste of time. That's why I implored folks to just accept a revision in wording in my previous comment. What I intended to convey was this:

1. There were many comments providing criticism that I disagreed with.

2. I felt that the vibe given by the comments at the time was not commensurate with how much utility the tool brought me in my own workflow.

So it seemed useful to point this out. That is, that there was a gap in the commentary that I thought I could fill.

Obviously I won't be using this phrasing again because it spawned off a huge meta sub-thread that I think is generally a huge waste of time and space.

> For the purposes of this discussion, the oddity seems to be the folks jumping to defend the software they had no part in creating. Why does the criticism result in negative feelings for them? I can understand the author taking issue with it, but someone else's criticism should not impact another's ability to utilize the software for whatever purposes.

Again, it cuts both ways. Why isn't it odd for folks to jump in and express criticism of software they had no part in creating? If folks can express negative criticism, then why can't I express positive feedback?

I didn't say people shouldn't make those comments. I said it was unwarranted. Or in other words, that it was undeserved and that I disagreed with it. Or that some balance was appropriate. This has literally nothing to do with my ability to utilize the software. I don't know why you're going down that road.




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