I'm not the guy who voted you down, but I'm guessing other people did it because your posts' attitude imply that new users are absolutely not worth accommodating for and that usability is not important. It comes over as rather elitist.
Your posts remind me of typical Linux-on-the-desktop-defending posts that claim Linux's usability is just fine. Making X.org work isn't difficult, just run these 4 incomprehensible commands, edit this configuration file and insert this snippet for which you have to read a 50 page manual to understand. It's easy! What, can't do it? Then you're not deserving to use Linux, but Linux is oh so user friendly! (disclaimer: I love Linux, I want it to succeed on the desktop, but this kind of attitude is helping neither Linux nor Git)
You are reading things into my post that are not there. jamesgeck0 was arguing that every single user has to configure name/email, so this is clearly a "common" case. My counter-argument was that every single user has to configure this once. The common case is to be using git in its already-configured state.
What's more, most users are going to end up setting user/email as instructed via a tutorial before they even try to make their first commit. The case of someone trying to make a commit with zero configuration while not following a tutorial is a relatively exceptional case.
And you know what? The entire premise of the argument is flawed. I just tested. If user/email is not set up, git will infer your name and email from your username and hostname. It's almost certainly going to be wrong, but it'll let you continue on your merry way without giving the obscure error that was suggested.
Your posts remind me of typical Linux-on-the-desktop-defending posts that claim Linux's usability is just fine. Making X.org work isn't difficult, just run these 4 incomprehensible commands, edit this configuration file and insert this snippet for which you have to read a 50 page manual to understand. It's easy! What, can't do it? Then you're not deserving to use Linux, but Linux is oh so user friendly! (disclaimer: I love Linux, I want it to succeed on the desktop, but this kind of attitude is helping neither Linux nor Git)