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Notepad++ issues attacked by Chinese commenters

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Re: Notepad++ issues attacked by Chinese commenters

#32
post #26
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might be the equivalent of a street protest. Why is throwing rocks at cops good but writing "fuck you" in an Internet forum not good?

The devs of notepad++ aren't cops. And I disagree that using physical violence in a protest is "good" or even productive.

The devs of Notepad++ aligned themselves by naming a release "Free Uyghur" in the same way that a cop puts himself out there by signing up for the force. It's not like they have been gratuitously targeted.

They named a release in a way that they knew would piss off Chinese users. Now Chinese users are pissed off. Shall we say "mission accomplished"?

Re: Notepad++ issues attacked by Chinese commenters

#33

Are they maybe irritated at the author because they won't be able to use N++ anymore in China due to censorship? Or is that a silly idea. Some of the issues seem to just be made of text that's purposefully made to be censored, including e.g. "winnie the pooh". Or maybe they're trying to show that they're "good citizens"... Update: looks like 4chan has started their trolling...

Reading the few comments that were (machine) translated into English, it seems they are angry that the dev dared to speak badly about their country. This is just Chinese people being angry at someone calling out China for its concentration camps.

There seem to be two groups of commenters. Chinese — who I suspect are mostly self-appointed keyboard warriors, not some government backed troll-factory like the Russians have — and trolls trolling the trolls — e.g., imageboard counterculture; these are the commenters mostly just copy/pasting the keywords that get services and Chinese netizens banned or flagged.

If there is a coherent English comment in there anywhere making a reasonable case (i.e., beyond not liking it) for not including a phrase like 'Free Uyghur' in their release notes, I haven't found it.

Re: Notepad++ issues attacked by Chinese commenters

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I must say that I've only now realised that there is no "report abuse" button on github. Regardless of politics and Chinese propaganda, hurling insults at someone on Github should be reason enough for action against their account. You can say that the news media is lying and all that, that's just daily grind for most English-themed media as well now, but yelling "fuck you" and "wishing a rotten vagina" upon people is…

There is. It's on the user profile page. It really should be on each comment and issue the user has created.

Ah, thank you. Reporting specific comments would make a lot more sense, but I guess github isn't expecting people to use issue trackers as conversation battlegrounds.

Re: Notepad++ issues attacked by Chinese commenters

#35
post #14

I am finding it fascinating looking at the abusive accounts and their repositories and history of issues and pull requests over various other repositories. I wonder if some kind of pattern could be apparent? (Currently the few accounts I have visited are front end JS developers) Could some of them be active in your own communities?

So they should be ostracised for not thinking like the West wants them to think? My issue with this is that some people think that all online supporters of the Chinese government are paid shills or just bots. It might surprise you to know that there are normal Chinese people, just like you and I, that simply like things are going in China. I see no reason to disrespect or ostracise them for their politics.

I am of the view that attempting to systematically eliminate an entire culture though the use of force is represenible. If someone likes that they are deserving of ostracisation.

Given that 150 states have signed the genocide convention I don’t think that being against Genocide is a western view.

Re: Notepad++ issues attacked by Chinese commenters

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the notes: "People will tell me again to not mix politics with software/business. Doing so surely impacts the popularity of Notepad++: talking about politics is exactly what software and commercial companies generally try to avoid. The problem is, if we don’t deal with politics, politics will deal with us. We can choose to not act when people are being oppressed, but when it’s our turn to be oppressed, it will b…

its great when simple facts can obliterate the propaganda. Politics isn't about humans, its about power.

Power over humans. No humans, no power.

Re: Notepad++ issues attacked by Chinese commenters

#37
post #18

So is Github going to ban all of these accounts of chinese devs spreading their nationalistic nonsense? I know they've handed out bans for much less in the past. Many of these accounts seem to be very active outside of the Notepad++ repo.

I must say that I've only now realised that there is no "report abuse" button on github. Regardless of politics and Chinese propaganda, hurling insults at someone on Github should be reason enough for action against their account. You can say that the news media is lying and all that, that's just daily grind for most English-themed media as well now, but yelling "fuck you" and "wishing a rotten vagina" upon people is…

> I must say that I've only now realised that there is no "report abuse" button on github.

There is. If you go to github.com/$user on the bottom of the sidebar left: "Block or report user"

Re: Notepad++ issues attacked by Chinese commenters

#38

It's astounding how well insidious daily propaganda works. I'm sure these guys mean well but they've been manipulated as much as the 'other side' has been. Edit: What news are reported and how they are reported in not random [1]. There has very clearly been a campaign against China and this shows that it is working. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_model

There's lots of evidence about China's human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Campaigning against China is the right thing to do as long as they persist in these uncivilized policies.

Re: Notepad++ issues attacked by Chinese commenters

#39
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the notes: "People will tell me again to not mix politics with software/business. Doing so surely impacts the popularity of Notepad++: talking about politics is exactly what software and commercial companies generally try to avoid. The problem is, if we don’t deal with politics, politics will deal with us. We can choose to not act when people are being oppressed, but when it’s our turn to be oppressed, it will b…

I have wondered about the following question in roundabout ways, but this note has finally made the phrasing clear to me: if humanity finds a way to weed out the people who speak up for themselves and for others over a long-enough time scale, then what happens to humanity game-theoretically in that scale and on a longer scale? Please feel free to replace “humanity” with “a population” if it helps you think of an answ…

My take on this is that it's not possible on a long enough time scale. If you try to curtail freedom of knowledge and trade, eventually you will get artifacts that will slow down the progress of your society (just look at the Github bans). Look at how hopelessly antiquated "parallel" societies like the ex-GDR, North Korea or Cuba have become.

North Korea still holds out as they completely closed down their population. But if you try to have all the good parts of western society while still limiting intellectual freedom, I think all of this will come apart eventually. Travel from and to China is not severely limited, and eventually there will be an influx and a core cell of Chinese people wanting to have the same freedoms for their country.

Fighting those minds will show the true faces of any authoritarian regime, which in turn will get more people upset. I think in these days of full technical mind control, it will be an interesting excercise in how long a government can keep this critical mass contained and intimidated.

But once they can get some visibility and they hit a weak spot in the regime, it's usually over: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monday_demonstrations_in_East_...

The human mind is meant to be free. Any dictatorship is actively working at destroying itself.

Re: Notepad++ issues attacked by Chinese commenters

#40
I made a remark about the author(s) of Notepad++ naming his release "Free Uyghur", quite unpopular I would say, I meant it to be like that, I told him/them that Uyghurs are just a ethnic group of China, not a nation, etc... But in this case , bloating someone's project for political reason's is just plain wrong, is awful. Github should have something in place to protect open source projects against something like this.
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