Your criticism is fair, and I should have written something better. I won't edit the original and I'll stand by my mistake since it would make your comment seem off.
The thing to realize is I was REALLY trying to contain my temper when the hyperbole slipped out. It's tough be positive while share a perspective of frustration few developers ever see.
I don't know how you could expect the project's developer(s) to read your comment and gain anything positive from it. It's a thinly veiled rant / grab at votes. There are a lot of ways you could be more constructive, and you decided to not go with any of them. :)
I apologize, my comments were a little over the top. They weren't necessarily directed at you. I've just worked too many places where "group think" and arrogant senior devs/architects pass judgement on the masses.
Your comment holds value and could have been presented constructively. Developers invest substantial time and effort into their products and genuinely appreciate insightful feedback. Rude comments neither foster improvement nor encourage meaningful dialogue; they merely inflame egos.
I think pointing out where to fix the problem the OP is venting about is about the most valuable discussion that can happen.
it doesnt need to be a verifiable fact, it never is, the original post came off to at least me and chris (and possibly 41 others) as condescending and part of a common problem developers have while communicating with designers.
it may be wrong, but it certainly doesnt detract from the discussion, this branch however, does.
Perhaps your error is marrying yourself to your creative output and taking criticism thereof personally. Your essay is all over the place and plays a tune many folks in AAA have heard from many folks who got their start in Web development, and I was illustrating the broader context that, again, makes your intended audience develop that conclusion. Honestly, it reads like a projection of your expectations of software development, and that’s what I’m trying to tell you.
I was not accusing you of overengineering, I’m not accusing you of working for FAANG (I don’t even know you, come on), I was making the point that people default to where they’re comfortable, and if you’re going to put yourself in a a position of authority and claim that Unity is bad (and Unreal is worse), you need to be comfortable in the environment and practices in which they are intended to be used. There is a minimum level of comprehension required to criticize an implement of another profession, otherwise someone proficient in COBOL would pick up a torque wrench and ask “why is this necessary? This design is just bad.”
You used subjective indictment terms (“bad,” “worse”) to describe positions that you don’t have experience to develop. That’s fine. Elevate your argument and understand the why behind some of them. Example: we don’t give two shits about deprecations because they’re a distraction from a ship date and we ship vendored artifacts including the engine.
You selectively quoted more than one thing I said to twist a personal attack from them, by the way, but that’s your prerogative. It’s also odd to do when you’re crying ad hominem foul.
Edit: I took the time to read your essay, respond to it candidly, and we are ending this conversation with you lecturing me on tone, politeness, and productivity. Even in the face of great hems and haws I doubly endeavored to remain polite. One would be forgiven for thinking you are not approachable with criticism.
To be direct, I don’t really understand your criticism — we’re a small team working like crazy to create value for folks. I get that you don’t like the way we’ve implemented our own specifications, and that’s okay, but to be honest I’m a little offput that you’re accusing me of bullshitting when I believe I’ve been straightforward with you.
If you’d like to use the product / platform and work with us to make things better, we’d love the support!
However, it was slightly rantish, and some of the comments followed that line as well. I should have been more tactful (whether or not this was a YC company).
You're casting aspersions on not just a single person here, but a team of developers who have been working on this together. Your criticisms are also so utterly lacking in detail that the person on the other end can't possibly defend themselves in any meaningful way. What are they going to do, tell you that they actually have a great track record? Also, sullying the reputation of a developer while hiding behind an alias is pretty low.
Whether the criticisms are true or not is irrelevant, of course.
I deleted my comment because the OP updated his to be less inflammatory, which I appreciate. I have no problem with criticism, it's a very important part of product development. I just don't really like when people shit on other people's work the second they see it.
Agreed -- the post had a very bitter/almost jealous tone.
I'm not sure this writing would accomplish more than simply putting your head down and continuing to build the products you claimed are already much better.
I think you two may have a confusion of terms. I'm just guessing here, but I suspect the complaining they are referring to is the zero content anger spew some people think is appropriate, not critique.
I see it a lot in small communities centered around open source games. It is easy for some one to vent their anger in a useless fashion (can we agree that pr teams calling it passion is a euphemism they use to avoid insulting people giving them money?), and comparatively difficult and rare for people to put their experience into relatable terms or to criticize a change as it pertains to the project's goals.
I don't really care that much about my tone, especially in this case. My constructive criticism is not all that constructive: Stop. As I said elsewhere is is not a new idea but it is still a bad idea and a broken implementation.
Regardless of whether he made it in a week or not, the criticism by the OP was constructive. Just being nice and saying that "this is fantastic", wouldn't help the developer learn either.
*Input lag is something Carmack et al. keep hammering home for game developers.
The thing to realize is I was REALLY trying to contain my temper when the hyperbole slipped out. It's tough be positive while share a perspective of frustration few developers ever see.
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