Jokes as a Disservice
It’s time to get serious about our industry and community as a whole
There has been a lot of goofing off in the web developer community as of late, where “web celebrities” are becoming more known for their Twitter jokes than for their actual code. This leaves us more serious, real programmers wondering what happened to the sanctity of our community. It also leads to the harmful ramifications of new developers thinking that these jokes and satires are real and that our community is not one to be taken seriously.
Let’s be serious, folks.
We need to.
A lot has happened in the past couple of weeks that these jokers would rather us not take notice of. Things like npm Inc’s new funding, Mozilla selling ads in the browser, and the replacement of real, actually informative conferences with those that make a mockery out of the work we put our blood, sweats and tears into.
npm Inc and the end of community
I refuse to stand idly by and let the jokers of the web community overshadow the realness that is npm Inc’s purchase of the entire Node Package Maid registry for $2.6 million. They say it will remain free, but if that were the case then why are they selling t-shirts? When the shirts stop selling, you know that the Node codes will be their next target. Wake up, Node developers.
Mozilla Foxfire ads
Mozilla has SOLD ITS SOUL and is now going to be selling ad tiles in the browser. Our browsers were the last safe space from encountering intrusive advertising, and the jokers — most of whom actually WORK at Mozzila — want us to turn a blind eye. It’s like they want us developers to use IE or Firefox Aurora instead.
Shadow DOM Exposed by Apple Engineers
Shadow DOM is the ability to access encapsulated elements in Google Chrome, and Apple engineers are not happy. Shadow DOM can easily become a back door for malicious styling, which is something we need to keep our eyes on ever since NSA’s Prism project leaked. Web developers are so into being able to style form elements that they don’t want you see the great work Apple is trying to do by exposing these vulnerabilities. Shame on Google. We all need to stand with Apple on this one.
Fake conferences like DHTMLConf
Someone thought it was a good idea to make a mockery of the upcoming JSFest by holding a “DHTMLConf” right before. This is entirely disrespectful to the JSFest organizers and to its attendees; it’s like these jokers are protesting the real work that the rest of us are doing. I for one will have no part in the “conference,” and I suggest you follow my lead.
These are just a few of the things happening in the developersphere that the “web celebs” are causing and trying to make us not realize and/or forget. And don’t even get me started on satirical developer posts.
What You Can Do
In order to take back our reputations, it is important that we call out people who take the jokes too far. Responding to satirical tweets with the correct information is a free way to stop the misinformation from spreading. Write response blogs so people know the truth about what we do. Encourage writers to remove posts and tweets that, although funny, pose a threat to the seriousness of our jobs. And be loud as can be when exposing the vulnerabilities that these joker “developers” are hiding with their terrible humor.
Let’s get serious, people. We have an important job and some of us are sick and tired of not being taken seriously.
Jenn Schiffer is a serious, real developer and well-known Eclipse user. She will be protesting outside of DHTMLConf.
