And where criticism is substantive, that's valuable. It isn't in this case, and it's hardly dishonest to keep subjective preferences in their place: within our own heads.
There's a culture of reflexive criticism in intelligent communities, and I think it has negative side effects we haven't acknowledged. Yeah, it feels good to give one's full-throated opinion without bothering to edit oneself, but we build a better world with more encouragement and more restraint when it comes to nitpicking.
We’re kind of in a place where we are discussing those preferences though.
Personally something that looks so silly stresses me out enough to either not use the feature or not use the language, so I’m kind of happy for the comment.
You may think that’s shallow, but if I have a hundred languages to choose from, a few of which check all the boxes, I’ll go with those.
I think even that is a reasonable comment to make. It's criticism of things that don't impact your decision (as in the comment I responded to) that offer negative value, in my view.
The critique is more substantive than your critique of the critique, especially when you keep dogging on them after they were kind enough to explain it further.
There's a culture of reflexive criticism in intelligent communities, and I think it has negative side effects we haven't acknowledged. Yeah, it feels good to give one's full-throated opinion without bothering to edit oneself, but we build a better world with more encouragement and more restraint when it comes to nitpicking.