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A fast, modern API for TV, Movies, Podcasts and more

openmedia.io

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Re: A fast, modern API for TV, Movies, Podcasts and more

#31

Post by RyanMcGreal »

nicholassmith wrote: post #23
RyanMcGreal wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dear Hacker News: this persistent blind spot about the many casual, unconscious and dismissive ways the tech community excludes women - and get nerd-rage defensive about it when confronted - is a big part of why there are not more women in tech.

I'm generally in favour of calling out sexist bullshit in tech, but in this case you're talking about a very specific phrase that's been in semi-popular usage since the 1800s.

An appeal to 19th century cultural norms is less than helpful when considering whether a turn of phrase is sexist.

Re: A fast, modern API for TV, Movies, Podcasts and more

#32

Post by RyanMcGreal »

jtiernan wrote: post #28
RyanMcGreal wrote: post #12

> supported on every platform known to man. How about some non-sexist boilerplate?

That quote isn't sexist. However asking "Your name please Sir..." for the beta list sign up is.

They're both sexist, and apparently unconsciously so.

Re: A fast, modern API for TV, Movies, Podcasts and more

#33

Post by RyanMcGreal »

fallenhitokiri wrote: post #29
RyanMcGreal wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you could ask a woman what she thinks about a mass noun for humanity that excludes half of the humans.

To quote my significant other: "who the f* actually cares about this!?" Of course you will find women who support your point - as you will find people who support $something, no matter what it is. The fine line between caring and taking care of a problem and moving every topic off topic, justifying it with something small, unimportant, knowingly wrong interpreted and ripped out of context is the key to change somethi…

If it's small and unimportant, why not do the right thing and use a non-sexist term instead of a sexist term?

Why are we defending the use of a masculine mass noun to refer to all humans when it confers no advantage over an equivalent non-sexist term while adding, however incrementally, to the totality of messages that women are not welcome in tech?

Re: A fast, modern API for TV, Movies, Podcasts and more

#34

Post by RyanMcGreal »

nanijoe wrote: post #27
RyanMcGreal wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you could ask a woman what she thinks about a mass noun for humanity that excludes half of the humans.

You know..I just did, and she does not give a shit. She cares a heck of a lot more that her male colleagues earn more than she does.And that being of child bearing age somehow counts as a strike against her at her job. Maybe YOU should try talking to an actual woman and asking her what she cares about.

How can we fix the big stuff - discrimination and pay disparities - if we can't even fix the small stuff like choosing to use non-sexist language?

Re: A fast, modern API for TV, Movies, Podcasts and more

#36

Post by nicholassmith »

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #31
nicholassmith wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm generally in favour of calling out sexist bullshit in tech, but in this case you're talking about a very specific phrase that's been in semi-popular usage since the 1800s.

An appeal to 19th century cultural norms is less than helpful when considering whether a turn of phrase is sexist.

I don't believe it is cultural, I believe it was based off shortening 'mankind' to 'man'. However, I'm not a linguistics specialist and have no idea the roots of the phrase, but I've come across it in many contexts.

Re: A fast, modern API for TV, Movies, Podcasts and more

#37

Post by quesera »

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #33
fallenhitokiri wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To quote my significant other: "who the f* actually cares about this!?" Of course you will find women who support your point - as you will find people who support $something, no matter what it is. The fine line between caring and taking care of a problem and moving every topic off topic, justifying it with something small, unimportant, knowingly wrong interpreted and ripped out of context is the key to change somethi…

If it's small and unimportant, why not do the right thing and use a non-sexist term instead of a sexist term? Why are we defending the use of a masculine mass noun to refer to all humans when it confers no advantage over an equivalent non-sexist term while adding, however incrementally, to the totality of messages that women are not welcome in tech?

> If it's small and unimportant, why not do the right thing and use a non-sexist term instead of a sexist term?

Because we don't agree that it is a sexist term at all, and altering common usage to suit the sensibilities of a tiny group of people[1] is a) pandering, which is discriminatory, and b) impossible.

> Why are we defending the use of a masculine noun to refer..

Well that's just it. It isn't a masculine noun. It's gender neutral. It takes no stance on the debate whatsoever. Its resemblance to a masculine noun is interesting but not relevant. If the author had meant it in a gender specific way, he would have committed a grammatical error.

Right bark, wrong tree, I think. You're just making easy noise. If you are passionate about the underlying issue which you've conflated here, I hope you also spend energy in more fruitful efforts.

[1] by which I mean the tiny group of people offended on behalf of the larger 51% of the population, the vast majority of which doesn't even recognize this conversation as linguistically, much less socially, interesting.

Re: A fast, modern API for TV, Movies, Podcasts and more

#38

Post by codebeaker »

victoknight wrote: post #35

Have you made any direct effort to integrate with home media solutions like XBMC or Plex? Edit: I would also very much like to see something like this in ifttt.com

Plex and XBMC would be ideal candidates for this API, each user could easily maintain their own pointer to the data set, and their synchronisation would be faster and more efficient than it is right now.

There's also a provision with the API (for personal use, so far) which turns a filename (and metadata, if you have it) into a JSON hash (or msgpack, of course) of the episode, show and season, etc.

This is also a potential avenue for being more widely made available.

Re: A fast, modern API for TV, Movies, Podcasts and more

#39

Post by joshka »

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #31
nicholassmith wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm generally in favour of calling out sexist bullshit in tech, but in this case you're talking about a very specific phrase that's been in semi-popular usage since the 1800s.

An appeal to 19th century cultural norms is less than helpful when considering whether a turn of phrase is sexist.

... and yet by 21st century cultural norms the word 'man' is still not considered sexist by many.

Besides, strictly from an etymological perspective you should not be calling for the eradication of the 'man' when used to speak of the species, rather you should call for a prefix to be used when talking of the gender (e.g. werman).

Re: A fast, modern API for TV, Movies, Podcasts and more

#40

Post by joshka »

RyanMcGreal wrote: post #34
nanijoe wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know..I just did, and she does not give a shit. She cares a heck of a lot more that her male colleagues earn more than she does.And that being of child bearing age somehow counts as a strike against her at her job. Maybe YOU should try talking to an actual woman and asking her what she cares about.

How can we fix the big stuff - discrimination and pay disparities - if we can't even fix the small stuff like choosing to use non-sexist language?

Focussing on the stuff which is broken, rather than the stuff which is not is a good start.
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