# So which member of the SMDB staff wrote the code for Discourse? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [October 26, 2024, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-which-member-of-the-smdb-staff-wrote-the-code-for-discourse/1009277 "2024-10-26T21:27:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-which-member-of-the-smdb-staff-wrote-the-code-for-discourse/1009277/1 "2024-10-26T21:27:48Z")
Engineer\_comp\_geek just gave someone a warning about “attacking the staff” to someone criticizing a feature of Discourse. So which one of you staff members was it? > [@Walmart employee dies in Walk in Oven](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walmart-employee-dies-in-walk-in-oven/1009150/101): > > Moderator Warning Do not attack the staff here. This is an official warning. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-which-member-of-the-smdb-staff-wrote-the-code-for-discourse/1009277/2 "2024-10-26T21:39:08Z")
Obviously this is a rhetorical question. Why don’t you ask what you really want to ask? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-which-member-of-the-smdb-staff-wrote-the-code-for-discourse/1009277/3 "2024-10-26T21:46:10Z")
If it is an obvious rhetorical question, shouldn’t the real question be obvious? ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-which-member-of-the-smdb-staff-wrote-the-code-for-discourse/1009277/4 "2024-10-26T21:49:27Z")
Why play games? You’re expecting an answer from a group of volunteers and you’re being disrespectful. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-which-member-of-the-smdb-staff-wrote-the-code-for-discourse/1009277/5 "2024-10-26T21:52:58Z")
I’m not sure how much of the code that runs the place the poster in question is responsible for. IIRC, the poster continued to help with troubleshooting/fixing things, but made themself scarce due to people getting crappy to the poster in question. IIRC ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-which-member-of-the-smdb-staff-wrote-the-code-for-discourse/1009277/6 "2024-10-26T21:54:37Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Why play games? You’re expecting an answer from a group of volunteers and you’re being disrespectful. Okay, I won’t play games. If you want it phrased as a question, then I guess the question should be “Are the authors of the software this site runs on a protected class we aren’t allowed to criticize?” But the post was more of a comment than a statement–ecg appears to have had no understanding whatsoever of the post he cavilerly tossed a warning at. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-which-member-of-the-smdb-staff-wrote-the-code-for-discourse/1009277/7 "2024-10-26T21:55:57Z")
The author of the software is @codinghorror but you knew this. He is apparently considered to be Staff. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-which-member-of-the-smdb-staff-wrote-the-code-for-discourse/1009277/8 "2024-10-26T21:57:08Z")
Is the whole of Discourse a single-person project? And since when is he staff? ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-which-member-of-the-smdb-staff-wrote-the-code-for-discourse/1009277/9 "2024-10-26T21:57:20Z")
It’s just a guess, but I think ecg included the developers of the board software when talking about the staff, and that’s fair because I also thought that comment was disrespectful and the warning was just. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-which-member-of-the-smdb-staff-wrote-the-code-for-discourse/1009277/10 "2024-10-26T22:03:54Z")
Discourse is a commercial package used by hundreds or thousands of sites, not custom software written for this site. Being slapped down for insulting a Discourse author is like slapping down a person who insulted Linus Torvalds if the hosting servers run on Linux. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-which-member-of-the-smdb-staff-wrote-the-code-for-discourse/1009277/11 "2024-10-26T22:14:51Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > The author of the software is @codinghorror but you knew this. He is apparently considered to be Staff. Just checked. He is “Discourse Staff”, not SDMB staff, his account has been removed so he is no longer a member, and his last post was in 2022. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-which-member-of-the-smdb-staff-wrote-the-code-for-discourse/1009277/12 "2024-10-26T22:26:41Z")
Do you think the warning was unjustified, or are you just upset that ECG was not specific about SMDB vs Discourse staff? ---
**Author:** ![colinfred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colinfred/32/21338_2.png) [@colinfred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colinfred)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-which-member-of-the-smdb-staff-wrote-the-code-for-discourse/1009277/13 "2024-10-26T22:32:02Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > Do you think the warning was unjustified, or are you just upset that ECG was not specific about SMDB vs Discourse staff? I don’t see what’s wrong. Jeff Atwood is not SDMB staff and for over 2 years has not been an SDMB member. He is therefore on the level of celebrities/politicians. Calling suchlike arrogant sods has always been OK out of the Pit. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-which-member-of-the-smdb-staff-wrote-the-code-for-discourse/1009277/14 "2024-10-26T22:34:13Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Being slapped down for insulting a Discourse author is like slapping down a person who insulted Linus Torvalds if the hosting servers run on Linux. No, in my view that’s an inappropriate analogy. It’s actually more like being slapped down for insulting the owner/operator of the servers with whom your organization has a business relationship. As a purely practical matter, gratuitous insults are detrimental to a productive and collaborative business partnership. As a social matter, such insults are just simply counterproductive to congenial discussions. We can and we do criticize certain elements of Discourse, but there’s no need to be insulting when we do it. Antagonizing the people tasked with supporting us is no way to improve this business partnership. I’m not sure if this particular insult rose to the level of deserving a formal warning, but that’s a different question. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-which-member-of-the-smdb-staff-wrote-the-code-for-discourse/1009277/15 "2024-10-26T22:34:26Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > Do you think the warning was unjustified I think that not only was the warning unjustified, but absolutely downright Orwellian. 1 He didn’t call out anyone by name, just said a general “person who wrote this software”. 2 There have been many complaints about how Discourse (and by extension the writers of Discourse) acts as nanny software making your decisions for you and how the writers simply don’t care to fix mistakes. They haven’t been given warnings before. 3 Being restrained from insulting the writers of a commercial software package because that software package is used here is a Really Bad Look. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-which-member-of-the-smdb-staff-wrote-the-code-for-discourse/1009277/16 "2024-10-26T22:37:25Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > It’s actually more like being slapped down for insulting the owner/operator of the servers with whom your organization has a business relationship. Yes, it is something like that. You apparently think that isn’t extremely bad, I do. Let’s say that the company that publishes the magazine that owns this site was bought out by Rupert Murdock. Do you think that it would then be okay to make it a warnable offense for anyone here to insult Rupert Murdock? Because I don’t. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-which-member-of-the-smdb-staff-wrote-the-code-for-discourse/1009277/17 "2024-10-26T22:48:09Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > There have been many complaints about how Discourse (and by extension the writers of Discourse) acts as nanny software making your decisions for you Yes, the Discourse design is heavily weighted by certain assumptions about the competence and culture of the user base which are inappropriate for the SDMB. Those have mostly been remedied anyway by changing a lot of default settings, but in any case as I implied above, constructive criticism is justified, but random insults are not. > [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Being restrained from insulting the writers of a commercial software package because that software package is used here is a Really Bad Look. That’s a really bizarre statement. Being restrained from criticizing some aspect of the software design would be a bad look. Being restrained from hurling invectives at the authors, with whom we have an ongoing partnership, is perfectly appropriate. > [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > I think that not only was the warning unjustified, but absolutely downright Orwellian. I have no strong opinion on whether the insult rose to the level of deserving a formal warning, but the action was hardly “Orwellian”. > [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Let’s say that the company that publishes the magazine that owns this site was bought out by Rupert Murdock. Do you think that it would then be okay to make it a warnable offense for anyone here to insult Rupert Murdock? You’re off creating an inappropriate straw man again. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-which-member-of-the-smdb-staff-wrote-the-code-for-discourse/1009277/18 "2024-10-26T22:52:39Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > I think that not only was the warning unjustified, but absolutely downright Orwellian… Thank you. The thread would have been well-served by leading with this instead of dancing around the issue. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-which-member-of-the-smdb-staff-wrote-the-code-for-discourse/1009277/19 "2024-10-26T23:02:06Z")
The tread title was sarcastic because I already knew which SDMB staff members were responsible for writing Discourse: none of them. If it is now banned to insult the hosting software or its authors, then that needs to be added to the increasingly long list of official rules ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2024, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-which-member-of-the-smdb-staff-wrote-the-code-for-discourse/1009277/20 "2024-10-26T23:22:39Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > The thread would have been well-served by leading with this instead of dancing around the issue. Seriously. > [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > The tread title was sarcastic because I already knew which SDMB staff members were responsible for writing Discourse: none of them. The sarcasm came across as petulant and juvenile. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-which-member-of-the-smdb-staff-wrote-the-code-for-discourse/1009277.md?page=2)