Since we're on the subject, reading the "clowntown" thing makes Facebook's tech culture sound kinda toxic. It's one thing to criticize a bad implementation, and a different thing to call the implementer a clown.

I might have given the wrong impression, see my other comment below. "Clowntown" is almost always directed at ourselves, in a self-mocking, playful way.

Also see answers to this Quora question: https://www.quora.com/When-people-who-work-at-Facebook-say-c...

> It's a way to bring much-needed levity to the process of solving hard problems.

> It's a playful, tongue-in-cheek, self-deprecating term to describe a situation in a company whose motto was "move fast and break things."

Ahh, that does sound better.

For a post on HN the tone was ok but not great, if one of my team spoke like that in a meeting I would commend them on their technical knowledge but remind them that their effectiveness and influence depends more on tone than technical skill, because people.

ot was being a gentleman, not pandering. It's unfortunate that the subthread went off topic but the reasons are understandable and the disagreement resolved nicely. Please don't be rude in comments here.