How did the author of Javascript come to answer a newbie Javascript question?

September 14, 2011 8:52 AM

This AskMe thread which began as a fairly simple "help me understand JavaScript" thread, took an unexpected awesome turn when the original author of Javascript not only made a post to this thread, but signed up for an account just to do it.

Following a great response from Jeb on this thread, all of a sudden Brendan Eich comes in and wrote a few paragraphs talking about his experience cooking up Javascript with Marc Andreessen over what sounds like ice cream cones.

My question is: I know the internet is vast and interconnected, but how on Earth did this happen on this thread? Any speculation on how Mr. Eich caught wind of this post? Maybe Jeb's a buddy? I'm specifically interested in the chain of events that would lead to that thread post.

(I hope this is a valid MetaTalk question, I've not posted here before. It felt wrong for AskMe)

posted by mcstayinskool to MetaFilter-Related at 8:52 AM (49 comments total)

Jeb doesn't know him. I have no idea how that happened. I do know that I sidebarred jeb's comment (jeb is a friend of a friend, but I don't know him) and maybe that hit the Twitters and I don't really know...?
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:55 AM on September 14, 2011

I don't know exactly how it went down—I wasn't involved, and it's not a gift account so probably not Matt or Jess either—but I saw that comment from jeb really, really making the rounds on Twitter well before Brendan signed up and responded, so I'm guessing he just saw it the same way a ton of other people did, realized he was in fact Brendan Eich, and signed up to comment about it further.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:56 AM on September 14, 2011

Ah yes, the Twitters. Silly me. That makes total sense. I'm just a caveman.
posted by mcstayinskool at 8:57 AM on September 14, 2011

The sidebarred comment was posted on Hacker News and who knows where else.
posted by enn at 8:57 AM on September 14, 2011

And yeah, right on asking this here rather than AskMe, since it's pretty directly site-related.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:57 AM on September 14, 2011

mcstayinskool: " My question is: I know the internet is vast and interconnected, but how on Earth did this happen on this thread? Any speculation on how Mr. Eich caught wind of this post? Maybe Jeb's a buddy? I'm specifically interested in the chain of events that would lead to that thread post."

Could be someone who saw the post forwarded it to him. Or, on the rare occasions when I've had clients mentioned in Metafilter posts or comments, they've shown up in my email through a Google Alert. Perhaps he has one set up?
posted by zarq at 8:57 AM on September 14, 2011

Yeah but he signed his post so BURN HIM.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 8:57 AM on September 14, 2011

Actually cortex is behind that BrendanEich account. Sorry. I made him change donuts to ice cream so no one would be the wiser.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:58 AM on September 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

Any speculation on how Mr. Eich caught wind of this post?

Probably one of the dozens of backdoors that Eich secretly wrote into the core of Javascript itself alerting him to any mentions of him on sites using the technology. Occam's razor.
posted by odinsdream at 9:02 AM on September 14, 2011 [9 favorites]

mmmm...donuts.

also, note to self: post AskMe question asking about how government works and then camp by phone so I'll be there when Obama calls.
posted by mcstayinskool at 9:03 AM on September 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

Sorry. I made him change donuts to ice cream

Just like Android!
posted by SpiffyRob at 9:07 AM on September 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

SpiffyRob: "Just like Android!"

Cortex probably prefers the term "artificial person."
posted by zarq at 9:11 AM on September 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

The 7418s always were a bit twitchy.
posted by cashman at 9:15 AM on September 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

OMG Cortex is all my spouses?
posted by infini at 9:17 AM on September 14, 2011

I saw prominent JavaScript hackers sharing it like crazy on twitter so I bet he found it that way.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:18 AM on September 14, 2011

It is impossible for me to harm or by omission of action, allow to be harmed, a metafilter member.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:18 AM on September 14, 2011 [21 favorites]

Yeah but he signed his post so BURN HIM.

Why?

Quizically yours,
cmoj
posted by cmoj at 9:22 AM on September 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

It's a violation of the Todd Lokken Protocol, as set down in the 2004 peace talks.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:24 AM on September 14, 2011 [10 favorites]

Let us not scare this one away, alright?
posted by edgeways at 9:27 AM on September 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

I just assumed this was part of mathowie's moneymaking scheme i.e. create interesting posts about real individuals to see if they'll pony up the $5. One person at a time.
posted by neuromodulator at 9:30 AM on September 14, 2011 [5 favorites]

@cortex moar like penis talks #boyzone #OBAMACARE
posted by odinsdream at 9:30 AM on September 14, 2011

Well I don't know about you guys but I want to wish Brendan Eich all the best against Andy Murray.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 9:31 AM on September 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

I have google alerts set up on my name so I can tell what you people say about me in other places. Maybe this guy did the same.
posted by cjorgensen at 9:34 AM on September 14, 2011

What is this obamacare thing? Yesterday i was googling for monsoon insurance for buffalos aimed at indian farmers and one of the search results was about obamacare - I grabbed a screen shot because not a single bolded keyword of that matched my search terms.

Secondly, the Twitters are more than just a tweet apparently: Taliban and Nato-led forces engage in war of words on Twitter
posted by infini at 9:34 AM on September 14, 2011

It is impossible for me to harm or by omission of action, allow to be harmed, a metafilter member.

So think of the five bucks as... insurance, see?
posted by arto at 9:41 AM on September 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yeah but he signed his post so BURN HIM.

What? No. That wasn't a signature, that was a zen-like command. Now go forth, and /be.
posted by adamdschneider at 9:48 AM on September 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

It was posted on /r/programming on friday, which I'm sure helped it spread over the weekend.
posted by Rhomboid at 9:49 AM on September 14, 2011

And yeah, right on asking this here rather than AskMe, since it's pretty directly site-related.

Um, well if the guy's a MeFite you could have asked him in-thread or via MeFiMail.
posted by headnsouth at 9:54 AM on September 14, 2011

I made him change donuts to ice cream

When the ice cream ran out, Jessamyn said to him, “They have no ice cream left.” 4 Cortex replied, “Woman, why are you saying this to me?"
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:56 AM on September 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

Brenden: web :: Kibo : usenet?
posted by morganw at 10:31 AM on September 14, 2011

Google Alerts makes Kibos of us all.

Except for Spot.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:35 AM on September 14, 2011

Yeah, I suspect Kibo's .sig wouldn't be welcome here.
posted by bonehead at 10:45 AM on September 14, 2011

Have you guys ever thought of doing a YouTube style "pages that are linking to this page" thing?
posted by smackfu at 12:03 PM on September 14, 2011

Jeb's comment got pretty popular on /r/programming a few days ago.
posted by knave at 12:04 PM on September 14, 2011

Yup. That was me - saw it on the sidebar Twitter, liked it and posted it. No idea if that prompted Brendan to sign up, but it did spark some lively debate, including a conversational thread about Metafilter itself.

/resumes lurking.
posted by Artw at 12:54 PM on September 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

Welcome back, Artw. :)
posted by SpiffyRob at 1:08 PM on September 14, 2011

Welcome back, Artw.
posted by zarq at 1:33 PM on September 14, 2011

Lurkome back, Artw.
posted by chavenet at 1:35 PM on September 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

Hahahah. Thats MY AskMe and I've been so busy that I haven't been back there in a few days. RAD!
posted by Senor Cardgage at 1:35 PM on September 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

It is perhaps informative about AskMe that even the inventor of the language can't get a "best answer".
posted by meinvt at 3:24 PM on September 14, 2011

Yeah, I suspect Kibo's .sig wouldn't be welcome here.

Actually...
posted by dersins at 3:35 PM on September 14, 2011

I don't know how, but I somehow never realized that javascript was written by just one guy.
posted by crunchland at 4:00 PM on September 14, 2011

I didn't have anything to do with it, but I wouldn't be surprised if Gen is the one who tipped off Brendan. In addition to being a long-term mefite, Gen has been kicking ass at Mozilla Japan for years now.
posted by zachlipton at 5:07 PM on September 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

cortex: "It is impossible for me to harm or by omission of action, allow to be harmed, a metafilter member."

Assuming that includes all definitions of "member", it seems you've just asimoved yourself into deleting Punch 'Em In The Dick.
posted by Riki tiki at 7:37 PM on September 14, 2011 [5 favorites]

BrendanEich is my sock-puppet. Sorry for the confusion.











;)
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 4:18 PM on September 15, 2011

posted by jeb at 10:05 PM on September 7

posted by BrendanEich at 4:32 PM on September 10

Is it bad that 2 and a half days seems like too long to me? I mean come on!

The internet has ruined me.

I know, I know. "It's going to space! Give it a second!"
posted by juliplease at 8:04 PM on September 15, 2011

He's active on Hacker News, where Jeb's comment made an appearance.
posted by PueExMachina at 7:30 AM on September 16, 2011

/Todd Lokken
posted by tr33hggr at 12:32 PM on September 16, 2011

I've met Kibo in person.
posted by sammyo at 8:31 PM on September 18, 2011