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Show HN: Kikked – check if any of your NPM repos is trademarked

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Re: Show HN: Kikked – check if any of your NPM repos is trademarked

#61

Post by kedean »

josai wrote: post #58

Without wishing to otherwise get involved at all, I'd like to say that as an Australian native english speaker, I have never heard of the word "kike" or that it is apparently a slur against jews. Why would anyone else in the world know that? I have nothing against jews, but it pisses me off that some local slang is elevated into a global "character sequence you can't use", so long as that slang originates in NYC. Ima…

That rule usually only applies if the word doesn't have other valid uses. For example, 'cracker' is a racial slur for white people, but it also means an edible snack, so it's in the clear. To my knowledge, the word 'kike' does not have a non-offensive meaning, at least in the english speaking world.

Re: Show HN: Kikked – check if any of your NPM repos is trademarked

#62

Post by josai »

kedean wrote: post #61
josai wrote: post #58

Without wishing to otherwise get involved at all, I'd like to say that as an Australian native english speaker, I have never heard of the word "kike" or that it is apparently a slur against jews. Why would anyone else in the world know that? I have nothing against jews, but it pisses me off that some local slang is elevated into a global "character sequence you can't use", so long as that slang originates in NYC. Ima…

That rule usually only applies if the word doesn't have other valid uses. For example, 'cracker' is a racial slur for white people, but it also means an edible snack, so it's in the clear. To my knowledge, the word 'kike' does not have a non-offensive meaning, at least in the english speaking world.

But no-one said "kike". You guys regexed it out of a larger word, a totally reasonable word. My point is that no-one but you would even have that word in their regex, so it's wrong to get all upset about it.

Re: Show HN: Kikked – check if any of your NPM repos is trademarked

#63

Post by burfog »

mynameisvlad wrote: post #53
earlyresort wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author's intentions are not remotely obvious . It just as easily could be an anti-Semitic double entendre referring to both the kik situation and Jews, and I'm still not at all certain HN isn't being deliberately trolled with this submission. Determining how I respond to ethnic slurs against me or my people really isn't up to you, either.

It may come as a surprise to you, but "ethnic slurs" is not in the curriculum for English, especially not overseas. This thread is the first time I have ever heard it, and I grew up in Canada with some of my best friends being Jewish. If I hadn't heard it till now, I can sure as hell tell you the author most likely hasn't as well. And seriously, what do you honestly believe happened here? That an Italian, non-native…

Teacher: "Be sure to read the next chapter for Monday. It's on ethnic slurs. You'll need to know this for trolling."

Re: Show HN: Kikked – check if any of your NPM repos is trademarked

#66

Post by rashkov »

josai wrote: post #62
kedean wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That rule usually only applies if the word doesn't have other valid uses. For example, 'cracker' is a racial slur for white people, but it also means an edible snack, so it's in the clear. To my knowledge, the word 'kike' does not have a non-offensive meaning, at least in the english speaking world.

But no-one said "kike". You guys regexed it out of a larger word, a totally reasonable word. My point is that no-one but you would even have that word in their regex, so it's wrong to get all upset about it.

It's not just matching strings. It's the obvious way to pronounce the word, as it is spelled, in English.

Re: Show HN: Kikked – check if any of your NPM repos is trademarked

#67

Post by cphoover »

Don't think this really solves the problem... I think the real issue here is security of what happens when a deep dependency in NPM's graph get's removed... Right now it is possible for anyone to republish said dependency with any (perhaps evil) package. What needs to happen is either unpublish needs to be disabled, or when you remove a dependency that is heavily depended on, an empty placeholder has to be automatically added by NPM so no one can hijack the package name. The question becomes what constitutes a heavily depended on package. (100 dependents? 1000?)

Re: Show HN: Kikked – check if any of your NPM repos is trademarked

#69

Post by Dr_tldr »

kedean wrote: post #61
josai wrote: post #58

Without wishing to otherwise get involved at all, I'd like to say that as an Australian native english speaker, I have never heard of the word "kike" or that it is apparently a slur against jews. Why would anyone else in the world know that? I have nothing against jews, but it pisses me off that some local slang is elevated into a global "character sequence you can't use", so long as that slang originates in NYC. Ima…

That rule usually only applies if the word doesn't have other valid uses. For example, 'cracker' is a racial slur for white people, but it also means an edible snack, so it's in the clear. To my knowledge, the word 'kike' does not have a non-offensive meaning, at least in the english speaking world.

Again, only in the United States. The word "kikel" is the yiddish word for "circle", and illiterate Jewish immigrants coming to the US didn't want to write an X by their name because they inferred they were being asked to draw a cross.

Once this was figured out as the problem, Jewish immigrants were instructed (in yiddish) to write a circle instead, thus they were referred to as "kikes" by immigration officials.

Since the origin of the term is specifically american, why should the rest of the world have to deal with it? You're not really addressing the original concern. Your theory of offensiveness as being "words with only one possible meaning" is fallacious, since again, that meaning is derived from the very specific mores of only one society. Very disappointing to see this kind of thoughtless "america is the center of the universe" opinion in HN.

Re: Show HN: Kikked – check if any of your NPM repos is trademarked

#70

Post by jessaustin »

Tehnix wrote: post #33
jessaustin wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are reading correctly. The project name doesn't follow English inflection rules. Just as e.g. "tap" becomes "tapped", "kik" should become "kikked". "Kiked" is an inflection of "kike", just as "liked" is an inflection of "like" and "taped" is an inflection of "tape". This mistake is easy to make, since there aren't any English verbs spelled ending "ik"; words with this sound are instead spelled ending "ick".

The "Kiked" should probably be read as "Kik'ed" and in any regards, "Kikked" would be wrong. Kik is an entity and not a word in itself here. Try replacing it with "IBM'ed", "Microsoft'ed", "Facebook'ed" etc. The last one is the closest one, you wouldn't be saying "Facebookked". As a side-note, I in no way think the author made any association with the word kike. Even though I know the word, I didn't jump to that conc…

Other languages might have special rules regarding proper nouns and their use as verbs, but English doesn't. Basically, we follow the normal rules for words, except in cases where that would cause a problem. In this case, following the normal rules prevents a problem.

Incidentally, I would suggest "Microsoftened", since "soften" is already a verb that everyone is comfortable using. "Facebooked", of course, was a normal word in common use before anyone ever heard of Zuckerberg. Two vowels followed by a consonant is simply a different situation than one vowel followed by a consonant.

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