In early summer of 2021, we had a thread regarding this situation. While it was discussed in the gaming community for a bit, it faded away fairly quickly. During today's Nintendo Direct, I hadn't even realized that Factorio was the game at the center of last year's controversy until being...
TLDR: The creator of factorio is scum. Don’t support this shitbag with your cash. Pirate the game if you want to play
Thank you for this. I was hesitant to say anything.
“Uncle Bob” is pretty famous in the software industry as an advocate for TDD (test driven development)… his conservative Trump bullshit is a relatively recent revelation. I’ve personally spoken positively of him in the past and heard the same from people I deeply respect.
I first met him at adevelopers conference in the late 90’s, and have one of his books on software architecture. He’s been influential in the field, and some of the things I’ve learned from him have had a huge impact on how I think of composition; I only became aware of his controversial positions in the last couple of years.
I admit to sympathizing with koravex’s reaction here, because I too feel like I can’t quote Martin, or refer to his theories, without being dirtied by association. It’s like that German saying: what do you get if you sit at a table with 9 Nazis? A table with 10 Nazis. I feel the frustration. It’s a if someone came out tomorrow and accused Linus Torvalds of a rape back in the 90’s. You couldn’t advocate Linux anymore without being accused of defending or supporting a rapist.
Not everyone is aware of his political leanings and some of his technical lessons are still valuable so his name still gets spoken of highly by people ignorant of his politics.
This is how I read koravex’s position at the start of the argument: that he either didn’t know of, and certainly didn’t care about, Martin’s political positions. Then he got angry about being attacked and that’s where things went pear-shaped. But this is the first I’m hearing about all this, and honestly the source article reads more like a hit piece than an exposé.
I went into details in another comment but I think it’s really important to understand what life was like behind the iron curtain and how dissidents were canceled by secret police
Yup, I read that in the interview. We’re in the middle of a contentious culture war in the US, with some pretty high stakes. Korovex has, unfortunately, used the wording of one side of that war, and there’s not a lot of gray area. For both sides, it’s either you’re with us, or against us, and both sides want to line the other side up against a wall.
For me, if Factorio is shown to be funneling money to Conservative causes, I’ll stop buying their products. Otherwise, I’m not going to stop buying a game because the lead developer quotes Bob Martin’s technical sayings.
Thank you for this. I was hesitant to say anything.
I first met him at adevelopers conference in the late 90’s, and have one of his books on software architecture. He’s been influential in the field, and some of the things I’ve learned from him have had a huge impact on how I think of composition; I only became aware of his controversial positions in the last couple of years.
I admit to sympathizing with koravex’s reaction here, because I too feel like I can’t quote Martin, or refer to his theories, without being dirtied by association. It’s like that German saying: what do you get if you sit at a table with 9 Nazis? A table with 10 Nazis. I feel the frustration. It’s a if someone came out tomorrow and accused Linus Torvalds of a rape back in the 90’s. You couldn’t advocate Linux anymore without being accused of defending or supporting a rapist.
This is how I read koravex’s position at the start of the argument: that he either didn’t know of, and certainly didn’t care about, Martin’s political positions. Then he got angry about being attacked and that’s where things went pear-shaped. But this is the first I’m hearing about all this, and honestly the source article reads more like a hit piece than an exposé.
Yup, I read that in the interview. We’re in the middle of a contentious culture war in the US, with some pretty high stakes. Korovex has, unfortunately, used the wording of one side of that war, and there’s not a lot of gray area. For both sides, it’s either you’re with us, or against us, and both sides want to line the other side up against a wall.
For me, if Factorio is shown to be funneling money to Conservative causes, I’ll stop buying their products. Otherwise, I’m not going to stop buying a game because the lead developer quotes Bob Martin’s technical sayings.
well put. I admit that I’ve only been made aware of ONE cause Wube supports - Ukraine - and it matches my feelings.