Controversy

Static fields are culturally controversial. Specifically static fields which can change.

class Counter {
    static int value = 0;
}

In the example above, any part of the code can change the value at any time by writing to Counter.value.

This is "fine" in small to mid-sized programs, but once you have a hundred thousand lines it can become difficult to reason about what code changes that field and when.

For this reason¹ you will probably get a lot of mean comments if you share code that uses a static field you can change.

Using static fields for constants is less controverial.

class Constants {
    static final int DAYS_IN_A_WEEK = 7;
}