Comment by erikerikson

Hrm, I'm very sorry. There it is, a little buried but I missed it, and it sucks that I falsely impugned your honor. The entirety of my criticism was based on my failure and I made it while you are helping fix things.

FWIW, if anything, my invalid criticism was only a footnote to my comment. I was irritated by the article. It felt like a low blow on a dynamic that is a terrible, if minor, example of how small but impactful set of people are shitty to others in the world. Their accumulated behaviors mean we don't have nice things and we get stuck on defense rather than dreaming and creativity. It went further and made universal false claims about the users of npm and what we say and believe. Impugning you was just a mistaken tack on. Again, I apologize. The article hit some sore spots and it sucks that I added to the pile of crappiness in the world. I try hard not to and to improve things instead.

No, it's certainly not a crime to promote your project. Especially if it's free and open source and you won't be attempting to bleed your adopters in the future. Promoting your tool is marketing IMO, even if not financially motivated, and regardless of your job title. I'm going to just avoid the scree I'm thinking about with regards to open source and it's role in the industry that I am more and more distant from anymore.

Would it matter if you hadn't disclosed? I think it's complicated. I'm definitely from the camp that thinks one should. Being an expert on the thing, likely having better insight in the space, and the bias inherent therein are important signals. I always disclosed on comments about my own projects though I don't list them in my bio. They're mostly outdated these days. Of course you get your own opinion and should act accordingly.