>> - Everybody else on the Internet is an asshole.
> 
> There are a lot of assholes out there..
> 
>> - I'm an asshole.
> 
> You're not ...

If it was just one person who thinks I'm an idiot, I probably wouldn't 
care too much. But when several of the experts you look up to all 
unanimously agree, it's quite upsetting.

>> I could sit here complaining about how everybody seems to have it in 
>> for me. Or I could just face up to the fact that I UPSET PEOPLE, and 
>> ask myself why...
> 
> You only really bother me when you're so down on yourself. I must have 
> missed the database discussion involving Darren, but I don't think 
> you're the only person to be flamed by Warp (I think I've had a run-in 
> with him at some point in the past) so it's not necessarily you.
> 
> A lot of internet groups tend to be a bit cliquish, and I suspect that's 
> what is happening at the Haskell group.

[IIRC, the database debate happened on this server's haskell group, 
which few people know exists.]

Warp seems to access the Internet only to tell me I've mis-spelt things. 
(As if I couldn't have guessed that. My inability to spell is legend.) 
To be honest, that doesn't really bother me. Mostly.

OTOH, Warp is clearly a God-like programmer, and when He says something 
about programming, he's usually right. (Though not always.) Go ask him 
what the most efficient way to implement a Huffman tree in C++ is; I bet 
he knows.

It seems like only a few months ago I started learning Haskell, but the 
other day I found an assay about it, written by me, dated 2004. I've 
been using this thing for *years*! And during all that time, Warp keeps 
telling me that it's hopelessly inefficient, and I keep saying it isn't.

It got to the point where I'd see a post from Warp saying that Haskell 
sucks because of X, and I'd spent half an hour trying to come up with a 
reason why X is false. It ceased to be about the truth, and about 
wanting to be right. I *wanted* Haskell to be the best.

But wanting something to be true doesn't make it true. And, 
unfortunately for me, Warp is right, as usual. Haskell sucks. And no 
amount of words from me is going to change it. My pride and joy actually 
sucks, and I can't do anything about it.

Similarly, Darren is obviously an expert when it comes to computer 
theory. I have no idea what the hell a recursively enumerable set is, 
but I bet Darren does. When somebody like that tells you you're an 
idiot, you sit up and take notice.

Yet again, the Haskell mailing lists collectively have more PhDs than 
you can shake a stick at. There are people there who know the difference 
between an endomorphism and an epimorphism, and people who actually 
comprehend the Curry-Howard isomorphism. And, almost unanimously, they 
all regard me as some kind of troll. They think I'm there just to cause 
disruption.

Nobody else on the forum gets singled out as a troll. (Except for that 
one guy who really *is* a troll!) Lots of other people, many of them 
beginners like myself, manage to coexist quite happily. So clearly I 
personally must be doing something very wrong to attract this kind of 
negative attention.

If it was just one person who disliked me, it probably wouldn't bother 
me. But when so many otherwise rational, intelligent people all say 
you're stupid... eventually it starts to sink in.

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