Is Hubitat perfect, not by a long shot, but it's better than any other home automation system I have ever used and I contribute bugs that I discover, recommendations on how to improve the UI, feature requests, questions, and answers to earnestly help improve the product and community.
Unfortunately, it appears Hubitat has grown successful enough to attract some undesirables. Just this week, someone called my wife "lazy" and me a "nit picker." Is it a big deal? No. Is it rude, unnecessary, and detrimental to the great conversations that the more civilized of us are participating in? Yes.
So what should we do about it?
Don't reply to their post publicly (doing so rewards their need for attention)
PM them and ask that they delete their message because it does not contribute to the conversation and is offensive. If they refuse, which they most likely will because they are the kind of person who would make such a statement,
Block their posts from your view: Click on your icon on the top right, then the person icon, then 'Preferences', 'Users' from the list on the left, then add their screen name to the Ignored list, and click 'Save Changes'
I too love my hub & this community. I've learned SO much on here.
I'm old enough to remember life before the internet (and home computers of any kind!!) and remember the days of IRC. Of all the forums I've been part of over the years this is possibly the nicest, safest place I've experienced; filled (in the largest part) with people who genuinely want to help.
Here's my two-penneth on the minority.
Just like any walk of life, they WILL inadvertently crop up from time to time.
Some might be otherwise good people who are just having a crappy day. This doesn't justify their comments, but might help to understand a "glitch" in someone's personality.
Others might just be ar$eh01es.
Either way, give them the attention they deserve, which (of course) is none. I'm a great believer in Karma. She may work slowly sometimes but usually gets around to working her cosmic magic! At the end of the day these people are shooting themselves in the foot. I (and others) will surely be more inclined to help someone who's nice, and less inclined to offer the same help to an ar$eh01e
If it becomes personal, repetitive or targeted in any way that's a whole different kettle of fish. I'm sure that abusive posts will be dealt with swiftly when reported.
I would generally recommend doing this as well, if one feels they are the target of a post that violates the community guidelines.
Putting a user on “ignore” is a fairly extreme measure and I suggest doing it only for habitually problematic users.
Without disputing your right to feel offended in response to statements directed at you, I think you should also reconsider making such broad assumptions about other people so quickly.
From the threads I've read these kinds of issues are very rare but I have run into it a few times. As the community grows no doubt there will be an increase in such activity but it seems to self correct fairly quickly. Staff is also pretty good about handling the most difficult cases.
Sometimes a poster who is very frustrated has a hard time listening to advice and/or treats the well meaning responders like they are working for Hubitat, Inc. and not generously donating their free time.
The other issue is this community is international so there is likely to be inadvertent misunderstandings - patience and humility is usually the best way forward. Always address the issue not the poster if you can help it.
It can be difficult at times to convey meaning in a forum and it is possible that a post was meant in jest and not as an attempt to offend. Letting a fellow user know you did not appreciate the post (you can use a private message) can often go a long way to resolving the situation. If you have a problem with a user, deal with them directly, if that is unsuccessful notify a moderator.
Users should also feel free to ignore those who are passive aggressive.
As an American and particularly a New Jerseyian I always err on the side of loud aggression as is our custom with particular emphasis on the "loud". You Canadians have mastered the art of passive-aggressiveness.. it's amazing and deadly.
Emoji's do help to indicate joking/sarcasm etc.. I always worry about the hand signs though ( , ) which can mean different things to different peoples.
Should people be less aggressive, and polite? Sure. Do they "have to" be in order to have productive dialog in a thread? Not really, no - at least in most cases.
Should people participating in forums have "thicker skins" and not engage with those that they think are being ruder than they prefer? Sure. Should people be more patient and tolerant of the fact that others may have different opinions than theirs, and may even express them? Absolutely.
Unless everything gets devolved into a completely unemotional, facts only based discussion someone will always be annoyed. So unless you want 100% clinical discussion, "no one being annoyed" should not be the goal.
The best you can do is get back to basics - no direct attacks of others (e.g. saying you think a certain behavior is lazy is an opinion and OK [albeit maybe rude]. Saying I think you are lazy is not OK). No illegal activity discussed. Etc.
I would say it is very prevalent in Canada. I guess it is just part of our culture. Probably why it is one of the first things I saw when I read the op's post. I was not involved in any previous posts with the op or the users in question and have no rapport either positive or negative with these users. But I found it interesting that a post that calls out insults is doing exactly that. From the post I know @ourmessages and @davidcwright59 are the users the post is referring to (it would have been so easy to prevent this, you are already blotting out their names, just blot out their entire name). The post calls these members
This is passive aggressiveness in an art form, maybe he is Canadian.
True, I am one of the "offenders". I am sorry, I didn't know that my post would be taken as offensive. If you call me a nit picker I won't be offended. If you read the forum guidelines, then yes it is required that all posts be 100% clinical. It also stated that we all be "reasonable people". I guess I am unreasonable. You can call me anything you want, I have heard it all.
I would also argue that the opposite is happening.. the community is actually now a lot more responsive than it used to be. With so many different setups and experiences the likelihood of someone having and resolving a similar issue increases. I know back in the day I had a few posts that were never responded to.
I tend to agree with @JasonJoel 's balanced view and in particular:
And from some of the earlier comments, my personal opinion is that we all have blind spots and slip up from time-to-time, whether it be having a bad day or a misguided attempt at humour, etc, but I feel like as long as people are open to having the impact of these comments pointed out and take on board peoples reactions to them and try to work out a way to avoid the same situation, then I think that is all we can ask.
If I can be pedantic for a moment..... And go slightly off topic myself...
I do have a very small issue with the title of the post.... Whilst the experience of the OP may be something that has also happened elsewhere on the Community, I feel like they are relatively isolated cases, so I don't feel it is fair to label these incidents as being some kind of failing or reflection of the Community as a whole.
I have similar views when people post topics with titles that indicate some pre-determined view on some part of the HE system without having gone through the process of troubleshooting / discussing it first.... Admittedly this topic is phrased as a question, but..... Just my 2c....
I have been around here long enough to know that certain users can be banned, and will definitely be kicked off.
I am personally very indebted to this forum, because I have learnt a lot from many of you. I use a few things that I have learnt here, and I have always been thankful of the time and effort that many contributers have put in. As well, I have reached out a number of times to ask about certain things, and I've always been pleasantly surprised at the excellent response that I've gotten.
It's also a shame that many superb developers have left this forum over the last few years. I'm still using one or two of their programs. Hubitat has gone through a "maturing" experience over the last few years, and it hasn't always been smooth (but it has always gotten better).
While everyone should be respectful, I won’t block, etc. anyone. An “offensive” poster may someday solve a problem for me or give me an idea. I have more important things to deal with than if someone on a (relatively) anonymous forum called me a [fillintheblank.]
, 
) which can mean different things to different peoples.
