Yes, your code is likely better and you have a more stable solution, but did you consider the context of the code you are commenting on?
I haven't been learning about coding for very long. I am hardly a zygote in coding, but I do know good and bad feedback from one-another.
My Husband's Experience
My husband is a professional programmer and over all a quite clever and dedicated one at that. Like most programmers, he likes to challenge himself with tasks and problems from websites such as Leetcode.
So, he wrote some code in Rust to solve a particular problem and ran it through Leetcode's compiler. This is what he got for his solution:
He was quite pleased with the run speed, because why wouldn't you be if your code is faster than everyone else's? Within the given context, that is impressive. Is the code supposed to be stable, memory savvy, and scalable? NO! It is a Leetcode challenge that looks at compile times and memory usage and whether the solution even bloody works.
His code isn't meant to be the end-all-be-all best rust code for the problem. It is cool that it's fast, and that's it.
The "Community" Issue
I draw your attention to the main problem at the core of this post--dickhead programmers trying to one-up and belittle others.
The singular comment below my husband's solution on Reddit is neither helpful to my husband nor acceptable when run through Leetcode's compiler. It is completely moot and meant to knock my husband down a peg for no conceivable reason.
As I have stated before, I am completely new to coding and therefore I am unfamiliar with the "community."
My Experience
I have now done three frontend mentor challenges, and the last one was difficult due to the outline. My solution is practically identical to what you see outlined for desktop and mobile view--which I would consider a success. If it looks exactly like the example, then it should be considered successful and best practice criticisms should be considered in context with how the project was built.
What I got for feedback was a mixture of helpful and nit-pickiness which ignored the context of how I built this single-page site.
First off, I used Bootstrap, which I was learning in my course at the time as an introduction to libraries. I wanted to further my understanding of how libraries and Bootstrap function, which is why I chose to use it for this project. Frontend mentor makes it abundantly clear that you can use any tools you like and if there is anything specifically you would like to practice, then that is what you should try and do. That is why there is a read.me blueprint given by frontend mentor, so that you can outline exactly what you did and why.
Second off, it seems as if developers like to sit and farm points on websites like reddit and frontend mentor and ignore the precise context of these projects and nit-pick about best practice. This makes the "feedback" given almost useless. Granted, some of the feedback was helpful, but more than half of it was this person's own personal opinion about how things should be.
The person who left this feedback for me recommended I slow down and not take on "big" projects like this, which I find a bit discouraging, especially since I worked so hard to meticulously understand how I can override certain settings in Bootstrap to make things look a particular way if I want to, but keep the easy-to-use functionality of Bootstrap. I understand Bootstrap so much better now and its limitations, which is what I wanted out of this project. Not only that, but my solution LOOKS like it should and REACTS the way it should. It is a success, even if the code itself isn't perfect, to absolute best practice, or is the most accessible.
I am a BEGINNER and want to sharpen the few skills I have. Let me do that and I promise I will learn best practice along the way and slowly grow my understanding, but please let me do these projects without leaving feedback that ignores the context and purpose of why I am making it in the first place.
Takeaway
I am aware that websites like Reddit and Stackoverflow are overflowing with negative and belittling comments on innocent questions and code. But why are people hell-bent on being unhelpful rat dicks to others?
I tried my hand at leaving feedback for someone else who had finished the same frontend mentor challenge as me and my feedback focused not on the code, but on an overall way they could achieve the EXACT same look for the challenge solution, because that is what frontend stuff is for--does it look good and does it have the functionality it needs. It doesn't NEED to have all the perfect and best-practice coding. It is helpful for that to be noted, but to package that helpfulness in a message of "You aren't good enough and should tackle something easier, ALSO you [insert vaguely helpful, but mostly nit-picky personal crusade commentary]."
Please don't be like this. I don't like to use "autistic" as a pejorative, but the myopic view of people who comment like this makes it fitting to use.
/rant
Top comments (3)
I hate this type of feedback and comments as well. Usually most of the replies and comments are from people who see themselves as elitists. However, they really don't know what they are talking about. Like you mentioned, the comment on your husbands post didn't even pass through the compiler. Could that code be better suited than what your husbands solution is? Possibly, and there is a right way to provide that feedback. What I have come to learn in this career is to honestly ignore most of the negative comments and steer towards the individuals that provide positive feedback and constructive feedback that actually explains the reasoning why code isn't correct or an approach could be better.
That's what my husband husband said as well and showed me that specific comment on the Rust subreddit as an example after I got some mostly unhelpful feedback.
I suppose there is a lot of room for snobbery in programming, which is unfortunate, because I would imagine a lot of these people in real life can't afford to be this antisocial. I suppose one powergrabs where they can.
Cheers for the comment.
That’s exactly how I look at it. Those that have to try and impress or put others down have their own issues. I try to be helpful and receptive to feedback to grow. Makes the world a much easier place when we work together to make things work.