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GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'

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Re: GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'

#31

Post by JoshTriplett »

mdekkers wrote: post #19

Yeah, when you host all your code with a 3rd party, and you run all your services with a 3rd party, and you depend on another 3rd party for significant chunks of your functionality, you will find that starting up is a lot easier, as long as you don't mind giving up a very significant chunk of your independence and freedom to do as you wish. I don't understand the obsession with github, google, amazon and the like. We…

Are you really trying to make this about "a very significant chunk of your independence and freedom"? Yes, when you host with people who have standards of conduct and civility, you have to respect those standards. Get over it, or host derogatory content on your own dime.

Re: GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'

#32

Post by slavik81 »

avolcano wrote: post #6

Fine with me. It's an offensive term and GitHub has every right to police their service and ban content like this. Am I supposed to be concerned by this, and if so, why?

In the future, if they decide not to take down some other repository, there will be an implication that they find the content less offensive than this.

Re: GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'

#33

Post by niuzeta »

avolcano wrote: post #6

Fine with me. It's an offensive term and GitHub has every right to police their service and ban content like this. Am I supposed to be concerned by this, and if so, why?

Because "retard" may not be the last time, but the first. A precedence would be set that a repository may be shut down due to an arbitrary(not the word I'd use here, but for the sake of argument) reason.

Re: GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'

#34

Post by qwreasdfkjhiouy »

avolcano wrote: post #6

Fine with me. It's an offensive term and GitHub has every right to police their service and ban content like this. Am I supposed to be concerned by this, and if so, why?

wow, you have to be kidding. Nice troll, almost had me.

Re: GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'

#35

Post by rtpg »

aerovistae wrote: post #7
schneidmaster wrote: post #4

I am perfectly alright with this.

Can't say I am. People should be free to use the language they wish. The words that were offensive 200 years ago are laughable today. It's just such a superficial thing, almost arbitrarily deciding which words are 'sensitive' and which ones aren't, I cannot stand behind efforts to censor the world. Once upon a time 'idiot' was the more common word for the mentally disabled. Has GitHub banned 'idiot,' too? Good long w…

>It's just such a superficial thing, almost arbitrarily deciding which words are 'sensitive' and which ones aren't

This cannot be further from the truth. Words that are deemed offensive are deemed so because of the attitude and the meaning behind using these words

The reason white people get yelled at for using n (don't know if I can post it on HN) is because it represents hundreds of years of oppression by white people that has basically continued. People who were "retarded" used to be thrown into asylums or abandoned as small children because they were just a pain to deal with

The thing about words is that they have context and actual loaded meanings, and trying to ignore that is to ignore how language works

Re: GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'

#37

Post by onewaystreet »

avolcano wrote: post #6

Fine with me. It's an offensive term and GitHub has every right to police their service and ban content like this. Am I supposed to be concerned by this, and if so, why?

The term was being used in the same context as "dummies" is in the "for dummies" books. Do you consider dummies an offensive term? If not, why not?

Re: GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'

#40

Post by CoryG89 »

For people who don't see what's wrong here. The issue is not about whether the word 'retard' is or is not offensive to anyone. You need to consider that GitHub currently hosts a large percentage of the web's open source repositories. This is censorship plain and simple, something that IMO has no place in open source. The issue is that there are plenty of things some people might find offensive on GitHub but you dont see them threatening everyone with takedown notices. It is the selective censorship of certain reasonable uses of free speech that is concerning here. Retarded is off limits, but cursing is okay (maybe?). Who decides what is and is not appropriate?
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