proliferation of computer languages

[xahlee at gmail.com]

over the past 5 years there are some negative remarks on me or my
posts. I have almost never responded to any of them. Here i want to
clarify a few things.

• I seldomly write off-topic posts. For example, any argument about
netiquette, i consider off-topic, including defense such as what i'm
doing now. But in recent years i gradually relaxed my stringent self-
imposed rules in my posting habit.
(See “Aloofness vs Approable”
http://xahlee.org/UnixResource_dir/writ/aloof_vs_approachable.html )

• many says i'm posting off topic posts. In recent years they start to
say i'm posting tangentially relevant posts. That's not correct. In
fact, there are huge number of blatantly off-topics posts by regulars
that spawn off from threads, happens regularly. The topics vary
anywhere from discussing politics, law, licenses, free speech, math
education, yapping on happenings of celebrity programers, and
including rampant flamewars and accusations among themselves.
(see ★ “Old School Netiquette”
http://xahlee.org/UnixResource_dir/writ/os_netiquette.html
)

• Some people says that i don't participate in discussion, and this is
part of the reason they think i'm a so-called “troll”. Actually i do,
and read every reply to my post, as well have replied to technical
questions other posted. Most reply to my posts are attacks or trivial
(of few sentences) i don't consider worthy to reply.

A few, maybe 10% replies to my controvial posts, i consider having
some value. But if i don't have opinion on what they remarked, i don't
reply. Also, if all i wanted to say is “thanks”, i tend to avoid
posting such trivial posts too. (i used to reply by personal email in
such cases, I still do sometimes now, but today that can be considered
intrusive.)

(see ★ “Philosophies of Netiquette”
http://xahlee.org/UnixResource_dir/writ/phil_netiquette.html ,
)

In newsgroups which i feel i'm more part of the community, i do reply
more often. (e.g. in the dot com years (~1999) i'm much more active in
comp.lang.perl.misc including asking technical questions; during
2005-2006 while i was learning python, did somewhat frequent posts to
comp.lang.python; in this year in comp.lang.lisp, i frequently replied
and argued more freely. But in this year, also very active in
gnu.emacs.help, most of my posts there just answered tech questions)

• Most newsgroup tech geekers consider cross-posting wrong. I consider
the taboo of this convention being a major contribution to the
redundant creation of new languages, and foster the hostile faction
nature of programing language communities we see.
(see ★ “Cross-posting & Language Factions”
http://xahlee.org/Netiquette_dir/cross-post.html
)

• There's a lot rumors that says i post prodigiously. Actually, when
i'm active, i post only about 1 or 2 posts per week, in the past 10
years. (See the “Aloofness vs Approachble” article cited above. Note
that, last time i checked, the stat given by poster's profile at
groups.google.com is actually erroneous. I think it counts all replies
or multiply cross posts)

• Many say i repeatedly post old essays i wrote that are published on
my website. The total number of times i've done that is perhaps 4 or
absoletly less than than 10, since the 12 years of using newsgroup
started in 1996. The first of such “repeat” must be sometimes after
2004. The interval of a “repeat” happens is at least half a year, more
likely 1 or 2 years. Also, the repeat does not happen more than once.
(to be absolutely correct, possibly there is 1 essay that are posted
at a max of 3 times) I “repeat” a essay i've written because i think
the issue is important, the situation has not changed, and i consider
it worth to be said again. When appropriate, i incorporate information
from the discussion into by my essay, with proper credits. (this esp
has happened in my Python tutorial, emacs lisp tutorial, java
tutorial, various classical literature on my site)

Actually, most accusations about me falls apart if one just take 10
min to check the facts.

• When i used my google email account to post, as opposed to my older
google account xah at xahlee.org, often people accuse me of “changing
identity to avoid killfile”. This is just one of their ways these
people drivel. I don't really give a fuck i'm kill filed or not kill
filed. People change emails all the time. In the past 10 years of
using newsgroups, i've only used xah at xahlee.org and xahlee at gmail.com .
And before 2000, i had few other emails before i registered the domain
xahlee.org. I rather stick with xah at xahlee.org, but the re-login to
different google accounts with several of their services is becoming a
pain. See, for example, this post this month:

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Accounts-API/browse_thread/thread/a179b4fd348900aa?tvc=2

Also, whenever i had a new webhosting provider, people dig it up and
accuse me of changing IP to troll. (this happens more frequently in
the past, say before 2003, i think that the knowledge of digging up IP
is now considered lame even amoneg these stupid tech geekers)

My site xahlee.org has changed web hosting about every 2 years for
variety of reasons. For a few years it was hosted free on the math
educational site that used to be mathforum.org of Swathmore edu.
(For some detail of my website hosting and history, see:
★ “Web Hosting Compared: 2006-01”
http://xahlee.org/Periodic_dosage_dir/t1/webhosting.html
A little trivia: before i had xahlee.org in 2000, my site was hosted
at
best.com/~xah starting in 1996.
Some very very old sites still link to that.
)

The only time that my change of web hoster has anything to do with my
posting, is in 2006 someone harrassed me to have my web hosting kick
me off due to my controversial postings in comp.lang.* groups. I have
written a detailed account about it on my website. you can easily find
the url by web search “xah, dreamhost, harrassment”.

(for the record, any ban, or harrasment on me, i keep a record as
truthful as possile. Most of these bans, kicks, or fights happens in
just aboun every online forum, inworld game groups, irc chat
groups, ...etc where the participants are almost all males. Typically,
they are not unlike highschool boys brawling things out. If the issue
effected me or pissed me in some serious way, i publish it on my
website. The keeping record is very tedious. For example, in
newsgroups you might want to save all the messages in a thread this
happened. In online forums, blogs, social networking sites, where
posts can be deleted or modified easily, it's more tedious to keep a
history of the site (e.g. screenshots), and to keep a manual written
log of what happened when. Similarly, in irc, you have to save the
chat, manage the chat logs, adding comment on what happened where with
what chat log, finding out people's real identities if proper, etc.
(as a example, i've been ban'd in freenode.com's #emacs irc chat since
2006. See ★ “Emacs Irc Channel Ban on Xah Lee” http://xahlee.org/emacs/xah_ban_emacs_irc.html
. I have a bunch of irc chat logs when i'm banned. I always save the
chat log when someone ban me unjustly. But it's quite time consuming
to organize them and write about them.))

(as another example of ban, in about 2 months ago i was ban'd in
Wikipedia. I was editing 3 article related to Tibet, of which i
consider my edit very proper. But, in my opinion, it's too much againt
Western's popular beliefs. I wrote detailed argument about my edit in
my Wikipedia's personal talk page. The Wikipedia fuckheads not only
ban'd me, but subsequently ban'd me in editing my pesonal Wikipedia
page too, and blatantly deleted the detailed reason that i defended my
edit. The incident is here, bottom:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:P0lyglut
the writing where i defended my edit, is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:P0lyglut&diff=prev&oldid=215672906

Wikipedia these days is a huge organization (ranked top 10 of all
sites), and part of the good thing is that they have some rules and
regulations that prevents the fuckheads powers struggle too much, in
that they have 1-month ban, with record of history, and in general has
ways to further one's case to judgement. However, it's still subject
to a lot tech geekers or other cartel of vested interest in keeping
some article to the way they liked. I do consider Wikipedia one of the
most important site and in fact part of my life, but these days i
avoid “contributing”. (e.g. i have now over 4000 links to Wikipedia
articles from my site. I estimate, that for each link i've made, there
are maybe 10 more article i've read. See for example:
★ “Links To Wikipedia from XahLee.org”
http://xahlee.org/wikipedia_links.html ,
★ “Generate a Web Links Report with Emacs Lisp”
http://xahlee.org/emacs/elisp_link_report.html ,
★ “Encyclopedia, My Experiences”
http://xahlee.org/Periodic_dosage_dir/encyclopedia.html
★ “Lispers and Wikipedia”
http://xahlee.org/emacs/lispers_n_wikipedia.html
 )
)
-----------------

I've been actively using online forums since 1991 in CompuServe and
AppleLink days. I've seen my share of flames, netiquette arguments,
etc. (the medium include: newsgroup, mailing list, web forum, irc,
communities inside massive multi-player online games) I've been banned
now and then in places. (in one case, legally definable harrassment,
which happened and perhapss well-known at the time in comp.lang.*
groups few years ago) From what i see, the banning, heated accusations
and quarrels, are mostly exhibition of male nature and political
struggle, not unlike political struggles that happens in society at
large, such as in academia, corporations, goverment orgs, between
corporations, between nations.

Some say “why can't you be normal”?

It is true i tend to discuss controversial topics and with non-
conformal attitude. I have my reasons and you could say it's just a
personality. However, “being not normal” is not a reason to accuse.
There are philosophers, unorthodox, dissenters, free thinkers, flag
bunners, protesters, traitor/founder, homosexuals ... many are
persecuted, considered a crime, in the past, and some are now
considered national or international heros.

Btw, this post is not some kinda formal defense to some formal
accusations. Newsgroups has always been a very contentious and
argumentive medium, and perhaps far more wortheless with relatively
little readership and impact on society than tech geeking regulars
like to think. People in fact like newsgroups that way. I don't feel
necessary to respond to morons. This post is just one of my post i
feels like writing. You guys to whatever it is that you do.

PS as i have detailed, i have my own moral ethics in posting. Most
posts and opinions are just too stupid, igonrant, for me to consider
replying. If you really belived that some of my opinion or posts are
wrong, contain bad advice, or wrong fact, then do post, as i do read
every reply it shows up in groups.google.com. And, whatever is your
opinion, i would recommend you spend 30 minutes to write your reply.
(as i do spend 1 to even 6 hours in most of my newsgroup posts as
explained in detail in one of the above cited article) Also, if the
subject is unconventional and you see i put forth my opinion
forcefully, i suggest you take 30 minutes, to think, do research,
about it before you reply. Also, if prefer to reply to those who post
with real names.

Again, i don't consider this is some serious issue, or that my
opinions and beliefs and behaviors are always correct. It's just
another newsgroup day. Do whatever it is that you do.

  Xah
∑ http://xahlee.org/

☄