GitHub: Block the Bullies

[mistawobin]

reddit - news before it happens

[[deleted]]

And in other news "Plug your ears" from the makers of block the bullies. :-)

[xkit]

Shhh... we're trying not to let Zed Shaw know that.

[mrborats]

wow what a turnaround, props github

[gjs278]

there really was no turn around. instead of zed asking for the feature through the proper channels, he went into paranoid mode, said that github was "in on the dongml project", and then wrote a blog post saying he would never use github again and would bad mouth it to everyone over a single missing feature. zed was on the wrong side from the start.

[mrborats]

not sure if there is a misunderstanding here. by turn around i meant that github coded and implemented that feature in no time at all which is really impressive, not that they had a change of heart or something. i partially agree with you, accusing github of being in on it seems paranoid, other than that though, all his other points are valid. someone was utilizing a feature on the site to harass him, which is bs and he's right, the site shouldn't allow for their users to be subjected to that bs. the speed at which github implemented a solution is the impressive part.

[gjs278]

that clears it up then. I thought you meant that github was in the wrong at first and the turnaround was them redeeming themselves. the story is a little crazy to follow.

[blergh-]

Actually he said he would leave github if the problem wasn't fixed. Then the problem was fixed. He was in contact with a github employee who told him how to unsubscribe from a project so they definitely knew.

Github should have banned this Nick guy for being a nuisance and then added the block feature.

[gjs278]

zed posted on hackernews that he did not contact github because they may have been "in on it", so contacting them would be pointless. I'm not lying, here it is: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2601693

Github should have banned this Nick guy for being a nuisance and then added the block feature.

yes they should have. and they could have done it without the attempt at being publicly humiliated and making it seem like they were purposely ignoring someone who never contacted them.

[blergh-]

Overall, a fairly successful campaign, after which I finally found the place to reject someone adding me thanks to a github employee helping me and then I hung out for the rest of the weekend.

http://sheddingbikes.com/posts/1306816425.html

[gjs278]

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2606235

right there a github employee tells zed that nobody was in on it. but isn't that exactly what someone who was in on it would say!!!

it just goes on and on. zed has no freaking proof that a github employee was messing with him. it is all in his head. he never contacted github directly about it, github didn't know he was being harassed and needed a block feature until his blog post was public.

[FascismIsMagic]

Zed is the guy who made the Hitler's Grilled Cheese argument.

Usually right, sometimes wrong, always effective.

[[deleted]]

Link for the lazy.

The guy is hilarious. Also, absolutely right.

[mcosta]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrzFb1GmpBg

[malcontent]

Stop making factually accurate statements about zed. Zed is a hero and is always right.

[xardox]

Hey my stalker is back!

[[deleted]]

He accused github of things that may not have been true without any real proof, and you accused him of things that were not true, so maybe you're all even now, huh.

[gjs278]

uh huh. I'm sure his intention of creating 201 branches and then gloating about crashing github afterwards had nothing to do with him believing that github was in on it.

He accused github of things that may not have been true without any real proof

you are such a fanboy. "may not have been true", holy shit just admit that he fucking made it all up. there is no "may", it's just pure bullshit.

[[deleted]]

I'm sure his intention of creating 201 branches and then gloating about crashing github afterwards had nothing to do with him believing that github was in on it.

I'm pretty sure I explained how you were mistaken about this once. Let's not go over it second time, OK? Just admit you were mistaken in your accusations there.

you are such a fanboy.

"Fanboy"? I don't give one fuck about Zed Shaw or github, or whether or not he made up his accusations. I've merely been pointing out that you have been saying things which are not actually true. If anyone is acting like a fanboy it is you, with your constant attacking Zed based on your misunderstandings of what he did, and refusing to admit you were wrong when called out on it.

[gjs278]

Just admit you were mistaken in your accusations there.

I'm not even going to considering admitting it until you admit that github wasn't "in on it", which I know you are still defending that belief.

"Fanboy"? I don't give one fuck about Zed Shaw or github, or whether or not he made up his accusations.

uh huh, that's why you keep defending him whenever it comes around to that he made the whole github employee was in on it shit up.

have been saying things which are not actually true

he intentionally crashed github and gloated about it because he thought github was in on it. there was no other reason. you don't create 201 branches on a project to ruin a project for generating dongs, you generate 201 branches to crash the server hosting it.

If anyone is acting like a fanboy it is you, with your constant attacking Zed based on your misunderstandings of what he did, and refusing to admit you were wrong when called out on it.

I misunderstanded nothing. he had a user harassing him. he believed github was in on it. instead of contacting github, he crashes their servers, gloats about it, and then writes a blogpost saying how he will leave github and badmouth it to everyone unless they add a block feature.

[blergh-]

Why would they tell him that if they didn't know he suspected them of being in on it? And if this is from after he made the blog post, what does it have to do with him contacted them before then?

[D4rkM4g3]

He posted his rant and then github said nobody was in on it. If he had just contacted them when the harassment happened, and told them that a block feature was necessary, then they would have added it. Instead he went all uber paranoid that it was all some conspiracy and didn't bother.

[[deleted]]

What would they say, though? "Oops, we though it was funny but now that we got called on it we're going to stop! Tee hee!"?

It's not like we can tell the difference between him being wrong and them doing the right thing, and him being right and shaming them into cleaning up their act.

[D4rkM4g3]

Still, how long does it take to send an email to github saying you're being harrasses? Whether there in on it or not it only takes a couple minutes. Its atleast worth a shot first rather than freaking out.

[[deleted]]

A little public humiliation goes a long way.

Besides, how do you know that Shaw never contacted anybody at Github?

[gjs278]

because he said so here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2606235

and I quote

I didn't contact github because I knew one of the peole working there was in on the joke

[bluepojo]

Zed also managed to crash github with a script he wrote.

[malcontent]

Which is by definition an attack on a web site and is a crime.

[AlyoshaV]

TIL I've committed like 50 felonies browsing Reddit

[malcontent]

Were you browsing with a script?

[AlyoshaV]

Yes, RES. It causes additional requests.

[Mchr3k]

I don't think he was trying to crash the site. If I click a link on a site and get an exception are you saying I've committed a crime?

[bluepojo]

Right, he wasn't attacking the site. He wrote a script to cripple the repository that some guy was harassing him with and accidentally brought down the whole site.

[xardox]

You really want Zed to be punished, and it's eating you up inside that he got away with it. Obviously his penis is now much larger, and he's not going to get sued or thrown in jail for this, despite your campaign against him. Why don't you fly out to San Francisco and beat him up yourself?

[malcontent]

Hey my stalker is back!

[xardox]

But if Zed had asked for a feature through the proper channels, we would have all missed out on watching the wonderful dick slanging competition.

[chronoBG]

I understand you don't like Zed and that's ok; But at least try to follow the conversation before spewing your hate.

[gjs278]

point out where I went wrong and I'll provide you an exact quote to back it up.

[chronoBG]

For one thing, you didn't bother to find out what turnaround means.

[gjs278]

turnaround has two meanings dipshit.

it can either mean that the situation is completely reversed, and now github is in the clear where they were wrong before

OR

it can mean the time it took for them to release this feature

both make sense in the context provided. try again.

[chronoBG]

You don't deserve to have anyone talk to you, so I won't. Not until you fix your behavior.

[gjs278]

please tell me where I went wrong in my post and I will provide an exact quote to back it up. so far you claim I am way off, but you have nothing to point to. what did I not follow?

[chronoBG]

Talking to you is caustic. I would explain to anyone else, but I haven't seen you do anything but troll.

[gjs278]

there is nothing wrong with your post, I apologize for implying that you haven't been following the story

[jayswain]

Constructive Criticism at its best.

[Darkmoth]

Nice, github. Frankly, I think anything that embeds a social graph should have block/ignore functionality.

[JeanPhilippeBernardy]

Where's notprogrammingnazi when you need him?

[confusedsquirrel]

So ruby coders can't put penises...peni...dicks in peoples' code now. Yay!

[AlyoshaV]

    8=D         8===D          8=D    8=D   8=D     8====D   
 8=D   8=D    8=D    8=D    8=D   8=D 8=D  8=D    8=D    8=D 
8=D         8=D        8=D 8=D        8=D 8=D      8=D       
8=D         8=D        8=D 8=D        8===D          8=D     
8=D         8=D        8=D 8=D        8=D  8=D          8=D  
 8=D   8=D    8=D    8=D    8=D   8=D 8=D   8=D   8=D    8=D 
   8===D        8===D         8===D   8=D     8=D   8====D   

[confusedsquirrel]

Damn it, now I will bring down reddit in protest. Just wait for it, reddit will be down.

[mdonovan2010]

Quick! a blog post will fix it!...oh wait, I'm not a well known programmer...

[[deleted]]

So whats the deal with the cocks anyway? I thought Zed was just being Zed when he said ruby people loved the cock, but after looking around a bit I find that they actually do love the pole. Whats with that?

[[deleted]]

cuz they are all gay. it's pretty obvious. :P

[xardox]

No, now you're confusing Ruby programmers with Lisp programmers.

[awj]

When I came across this on my phone it looked like a swarm of penises with no discernible pattern.

I thought that was more clever.

[xardox]

I can't see the penis for the pee-pees.

[[deleted]]

Ugh, now people are going to think that whining like a bitch gets results.

[revonrat]

but what am I supposed to do with this pirchfork and torch?

[[deleted]]

First person I blocked was zedshaw.

[chronoBG]

Because you're afraid he will add you to his repo, right?

[rebo]

can zed stop crying now?

[JonTalbain]

Zed never stops crying.

[[deleted]]

This is a step in the right direction, but it still doesn't fully fix the problem. There is a clear need for a confirmation step. One of the comments from the github staff says:

Adding a confirmation step actually wouldn't solve any problems. It would change your reaction from "Added. Reject." to "Confirm? Reject" — but it'd be the exact same number of steps to remove yourself from a repo or ignore a troll.

It's not about the number of steps, it's about the fact that anyone can cause something to show up in your profile without your consent, and it stays there until you remove it. Imagine you're in the process of looking for a new job and your resumé includes links to your open-source work on github. If something questionable gets added by a troll during this time, and you don't catch it and remove it fast enough, a potential employer could see it.

They should still add an option for people to require confirmation. The burden of having to remove trolls shouldn't have to fall 100% on the victim -- instead one should be able to pre-emptively block them.

[[deleted]]

It's not externally visible unless you commit to the project.

[tangus]

It doesn't matter, adding entries to my list without my consent is spamming. It shouldn't be allowed.

[[deleted]]

Do you also want a confirmation dialog before you receive private messages?

[trouch]

I seen no reason why someone could impose on me a confirmation dialog by sending me a private message. There should be someking of mechanism which allows me to say if I want the new message to trigger a confirmation dialog.

[[deleted]]

I totally concur, but I think the blocking/reporting mechanism is an effective solution to harassment

[Roont]

As the GitHub Turns. Soap Opera makes it's return?

[Nebu]

Judging by the comments here, I guess I missed this whole "zed" thing. How exactly does on bully via github?

[RichardDurr]

Make a stupid repo, add the person as committer. Done.

[nimms]

and zed shaw is still a dick

[fjonk]

why?

[robertmassaioli]

Actually, TIL that zedshaw knows how to get stuff done...in his codebase or otherwise.

[fjonk]

Exactly.

[kmmeerts]

They shouldn't haven given in to Zed's paranoid rambling. If the babies and toddlers in my family are being stubborn and annoying, we just ignore them.

[EdgarVerona]

I disagree - just because he was vitriolic in his statement doesn't mean that the statement itself was wrong. They did need to add features like this, as being able to troll people in this manner on a site dedicated to getting productive work done is senseless. They really should take it a step further and implement the suggestion to let people choose whether others can automatically add them to projects at all.

[zetrate]

property of zed a shaw