Wow, that is wild! And yes, that kind of thing can totally drive off contributors.
Long ago I went to a local Scala unconference. At the time there were at least two popular web frameworks, and one of the authors was in attendance. [1] Chatting during one of the breaks, I asked him some question about his framework, something about testability of apps. He quickly grew enraged and shouted at me. I slunk off, wondering what I had done wrong.
At the bar after the conference, a few different people apologized to me for his outburst. Not him, mind you, just other people. I was like, "Aha, I recognize this. He's a missing stair." [2] He was clearly an asshole to people on the regular, but the community just put up with it.
That was the last time I went to a Scala event. Life's too short to put up with bullies, or people who accommodate them.
[1] I no longer remember which framework or which author.
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_stair
Long ago I went to a local Scala unconference. At the time there were at least two popular web frameworks, and one of the authors was in attendance. [1] Chatting during one of the breaks, I asked him some question about his framework, something about testability of apps. He quickly grew enraged and shouted at me. I slunk off, wondering what I had done wrong.
At the bar after the conference, a few different people apologized to me for his outburst. Not him, mind you, just other people. I was like, "Aha, I recognize this. He's a missing stair." [2] He was clearly an asshole to people on the regular, but the community just put up with it.
That was the last time I went to a Scala event. Life's too short to put up with bullies, or people who accommodate them.
[1] I no longer remember which framework or which author.
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_stair