I'm confused. You double clicked an application icon, and the application opened? You seem to be conflating the popular hate for focus being stolen due to some non-consensual event, and the consensual starting of an app. If GIMP didn't have a splash screen, there'd be no indication it was loading at all (and it's one big fat app.. several generations of code including a huge chunk of Python loaded at boot).
OS X app icons bounce in the dock while the app is loading. If it takes a really long time, a splash screen is ok, but a splash screen that sticks around for a full minute and thwarts every attempt to raise a window above it is just insulting.
I agree that they should change this, but I don't find it offensive, because I know that the GIMP project has been around since it was acceptable to get a cup of coffee while your app loads. I'm just saying, that they've got a lot of legacy code. I'm just happy that it works, for now.
The toolbox window is also set to 'always on top'. It's not a huge deal, compared to the x11 version though. I just open another virtual desktop for it in Lion.
It sounds like your parent poster is saying it shows the splash screen over all applications and there's nothing you can do about it. Which is needlessly inconsiderate.
Hellbanning can be really disturbing. This guy's been leaving comments for a year now with no idea that almost no one sees them.
That feels almost like a form of psychological torment to me. I recognise the value of hellbanning as a way to trap griefers, but I do think it's overused on HackerNews.
Do: email pg if you're hellbanned.
Do: Be civil and respond politely.
Don't: create a throwaway account and whine about being hellbanned.
Don't: create a new account without talking to pg first.
Don't: take it personally.
Is that from the guidelines? The whole point of hellbanning is that the affected user doesn't know they're hellbanned (HN appears to them as if they aren't). So they can't do nr.1 unless someone tells them.
In addition, the guidelines can say "don't take it personally" all they want, but when someone wastes my time for 150 days when there are so many perfectly reasonable ways of solving the problem in common usage on successful discussion forums all over the web, yeah I would probably be a little bit miffed, myself.
It's one of the main reasons I keep an eye on my karma score, if it sometimes doesn't go up for a few days, I get nervous and check if I can still see my own comments via a proxy. It's absolutely ridiculous that I have to do it that way, but I've seen people get hellbanned for such petty things that yes, I really couldn't say I never will be one of "those people" that catch the wrong mod's attention at the wrong time before their coffee hit.
