u/Relevant_ToneMaker wrote (the comment Michael replied to):
That...is...really fucking weird wow. Codesmith oddness kinda bleeds through when you pay attention (the fact that they monitor the CSX slack to see how often you try to pair program or whatever, so much surveillance and judging based on the findings of said surveillance. That s
u/michaelnovati replied · · edited ★ FEATURED
Yeah the OSP posts that get tons of engagement have also been controversial. On the one hand, an incredibly supportive and engaged community. On the other hand, Codemsith steers that raw awesomeness and it comes across people spending almost more time promoting their OSP with posts, websites etc.. than they actually spend on the OSP itself and then get celebrated for it.
I also think some of that fear above is misplaced. Like it's very very very rare someone disappears out of the community (from what I've heard) but people seem to really really want to do what Codemsith tells them to do because the community is so close and the remote possibility of losing touch is so scary that people are super cautious.
I mean why the community is abnormally strong is for you to decide. Some say it's a family who have "family dinners" every week and some say it's unintentionally cult like.
I watched a recording of a session where everyone was snapping all the time. "Snaps for Laura, everyone!" the teacher (a former student) said. So I can see how these kinds of tight knit cultural norms can come across both ways.