Update 3/30/2007: I am “an asshat”, I spelled Hani’s name wrong in the original post. Was spelling Suleiman as Sulemani. Maybe it is the Spring 2.0 XML that is curdling my brain?
If you haven’t already, you should read Sierra’s blog and then write her a quick note of encouragement. If you don’t know, she’s the brains behind the heads up series, and, trust me, I know you have a copy on your desk even if you are too embarrassed to admit it. Those books are both incredibly effective and dense. Everyone who has a copy should take a moment, and thank her for her contribution.
But, this entry isn’t about Ms. Sierra, it is really about another prominent member of the community who’s under some fire, in part, because of the experiences of Ms. Sierra. Hani Suleiman, most of the readers of this blog, probably know who Hani is, and if the name doesn’t ring a bell, than saying “BileBlog” probably will. You’ve read it, and if you haven’t, then Google it. I’m not going to link to it, not because I disapprove, but because it does contain some obscenities. In addition to writing the BileBlog, Hani also sits on the Executive Committee of the Java Community Process.
Bray’s take on the BileBlog
Bray wrote an entry entitled “On Aggression”, in which he makes a clear connection between the kind of blogging that forced Kathy to cancel a presentation and Hani’s obscenity-laden dress down of people throughout Javaland. quote from Bray:
Its contents are almost entirely viciously obscene rants against individuals and factions in the Java community, based on Hani’s perception of their technical or ethical failings. Hani seems to have a fixation on violent, degrading male-male sexual abuse and this constitutes the core of his attack technique.
He gets away with it–is fairly popular in fact–because he’s also funny. A couple of years ago I and another person were talking this over and proposed a scenario: suppose one of Hani’s victims were mugged by four or five random hoodlums and beaten up severely, while the hoodlums made witty and amusing remarks to entertain the passers-by and watchers. Would the violence be OK because of the leavening with humor? I don’t think so. So why is what Hani does OK?
In the comment thread you’ll see that the main discussion point is Bray’s use of Hani as an example.
Hani Responds
Hani didn’t waste time, and responded directly in the comment thread of Bray’s blog.
I think you’re being hugely unfair here. What I do is very, very, clearly humour. I abhor violence and am one of the few people I know who has never, ever been in a fight or thrown a punch. I find the whole concept of physical violence revolting, and view it as a throwback to the time when we were all far less socially evolved than we are now.
Three paragraphs later:
…It’s very insulting and offensive to be put in that same bucket as those who made serious threats of physical violence. Perhaps you’re better off running into whatever shell you’d like to live under, and stick to a world whereby everyone does socially acceptable things (by your standards) and nobody ever challenges your sense of propriety.
I dare you to find anyone who thinks the bileblog’s sexual references and abusive language is anything but humour. Many people find it distasteful and not funny, and that’s perfectly acceptable. You’d have to be a complete idiot and in need of professional help if you think it’s serious.
My take on Hani’s blog
The sexual references don’t add anything to the message, they detract from it. I think that some of his writing plays off of the same childish appeal that makes people want to listen to Howard Stern in the morning. In this sense Hani is a shock jock completely crossing the line of decency. I think people read him for the same reason that people have been refreshing the DrudgeReport every ten minutes for the last decade. For some reason, Hani’s blog captured a huge audience, in part, because there’s not much interesting going on in Java blogging. He provided good theater, that’s all.
On the other hand, he has some very valuable things to say (even if they are hidden under a layer of filth). One example (cleaned up), “Maven is a joke and people who evangelize it are all idiots”. Even though I’ve helped to write a book on Maven, I’ll have to agree that there is a kernel of truth in what he has to say about Maven. Maven is far from perfect, it was released as a 1.x only to be completely rewritten as a 2.x, and it still languishes as a project that people love to loathe. Hani has attacked some of the biggest in Java, sometimes deservedly, sometimes not. He loves to dig into ASF projects as well, read this one on commons-io. (Note: I think he’s wrong about commons-io, I use it every single day.) He makes fun of Craig McClanahan’s name, which I think is unwarranted and annoying.
Then there are the various places you’ll see Hani pop up. For instance, he popped up on the ASF incubator discussion list a few months back as an initial committer to incubating XFire. He’s admitted that his contributions were few, but you still have to give him some credit for trying to participate in a Foundation he has skewered, and you have to believe that his participation on the conference committee for TheServerSide and the JCP Executive Committee are not a joke. On top of that he’s an external reviewer for the JavaOne JEE and Web tracks. He’s not the evil menace his targets make him out to be.
I don’t fault Bray for bringing Hani up in the post, I can’t say I didn’t have the same thought when I read Sierra’s blog. Hani has written some really personal, negative attacks on people I’ve met and respect who didn’t deserve it, but at the same time, I do not think it is valid to lump Hani in with the people who posted death threats. I stand his obscenity riddled maniac posts because in the middle of all of the vitriol is an opinion. And, for all the annoyingly vauge corporate Java blogs out there, we need an opinion every now and then, even if it stinks.
Do I agree with what he has to say? maybe 20% of the time.. Does the obscenity get in the way? yes. Should Hani’s style of blogging be banned in a new Blogging Code of Conduct? No, a thousand times no. Should he get rid of the references to genitalia, etc? My recommendation: immediately.
Would be nice though if you had my last name right! It's Suleiman.
I agree that the message is often diluted with the obscenity, and it does make it very easy to dismiss (rightly so). The parallel you draw to Howard Stern (and Fox news, really) is pretty apt. It draws a crowd. Ironically, I despise both of those and have long since outgrown finding either funny.
Which of course begs the question of why do it, and the hypocricy thereof. Well, people are complicated! Within each of us is a person who *does* find it funny when someone falls over (or else how do you explain the proliferation of 'blahblah's funniest home videos'?) I admire people who have evolved past that basic human instinct, but I'll admit I'm not one of them.
So kudos to those who manage to look past the childish and malicious ranting and find the kernel of truth lurking within (sometimes), and for those who find it offputting, good for you too!
I can accept and even agree with many who say my content is vile and distasteful and should be ignored. It's a perfectly valid and sensible argument. Those who think however that I'm 'evil' are less easy to understand. Certainly, they're within their right to do so. The urge to call me 'evil' though is the exact same one that makes me spout off, so the holier than thou thing (while being very abusive and obnoxious) rings somewhat hollow.
Will there be less genitalia? Unlikely, not as long as I find it funny (much to my shame). I'd feel far less motivated and compelled to do it though if I saw more skepticism and disgust in the community. People always prefer to remain quiet instead of be negative, which is on the whole a good thing, but a small corner of negativity is surprisingly refreshing, even when laced with pointless sexual references.
The Bile Blog (and it's author) are the delicious creamy center of the otherwise relatively average and bland pastry of the Java blog-o-sphere. I'll hang out on Hani's rung of the evolutionary ladder.
Nothing bad happened to "Ms. Sierra". She wasn't harmed, wasn't cheated, etc. She woke up to the realization that out there in the world, there are people who don't like her, her "head flush" books, or her blog, or whatever else "Ms. Sierra" has to offer. Boo hoo.
So just because "Ms. Sierra" is going all out to play the victim, is that grounds to force "total political correctness" on every single blog writer on the planet? Is it really?
Because that is what you are saying. You don't care about the facts. All you seem to care about is being able to impose your will on others. Because some hyped up blog writer started singing the victim song. It is pathetic.
Please no less genetalia. I admit i am also childish enough to find those posts funny. There are gazillion of "standard" java blogs, there should be enough freedom to have one different blog. Despite of the language, most of the times there is some technical truth in there. Of course Hani is biased and you can see clearly where he is a committer, but thats quite human right?
Alright, keep the genitalia, there was another prominent author who laced all of his writings with sexual references that crossed the line - Shakespeare.
And, apologies for the name misspelling, I always knew I was an asshat after all.
@info,
you might not have read all the details, what happened to her is multiple orders of magnitude worse than just being called a couple of silly names. There were direct threats of violence and graphic depictions of abuse. There were also threats against her family.
What can you say, people get the enemies the deserve..
I will just talk around Hani here, sorry if it is rude. :P
I am a huge fan of Hani's blog. Is the humor juvenile? Of course it is, but it isn't just dick and fart jokes that really makes it funny. It is the juxtaposition of the humor with topics that people normally treat with such dry seriousness. It is not unlike the puns and bad voices on the Daily Show. It isn't even that they are funny on their own -- Stewart is certainly not good at the "traditional" comedy bits -- it is that they are injected into what is generally fairly high-brow humor.
I also can't say enough about how good it is to have something negative in the Java Blog world. So much Java blogging is Press-Release driven, or people hyping whatever it is they are working on, that there isn't a real outlet for frustration. Hani's blog represents the tribulations the average Java developer goes through, and that is a great thing to have around in an otherwise happy happy world. The fact that he douses it with anal sex jokes, frankly, makes it less likely to actually hurt someone's feelings because it is, after all, mostly just a dirty joke. I would say I agree with what he has to say about 80% of the time, and a lot of times am happy to hear someone actually say it.
Finally, I don't really care about Bray's opinion of BileBlog. I can certainly understand people not liking it. Though, I would never spend my time listening to Stern, if you want to make that comparison, OK. But I think even passively lumping Hani in with Sierra's attackers really is offensive. It walks right up to, and jumps over the line of Godwin's Law.
Your onjava.com articles are always sensational pooh with no unique thought.
Very "fox" like of you.
Is the entire Java community really so farcical? Although many of Hani's observations are warranted, his style probably encouraged the threat mongers and just adds to the mayhem.
I love the Bile Blog, not only because it is funny. It's just different from almost everything you read in Javaland, which reads like this: My product is the best EJB3 Persinstance Web Framework IOC Ajax Container Controller.
I like Hani's style. I like the waay he slices through the BS. I'm going to keep reading his bile.