Good job GH. It's sad this is shocking to some people. Perhaps they haven't dealt with anyone with mental disabilities or seen what their families deal with, and that's not their fault, nor is it an excuse. It's called empathy.
GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'
61–70 of 845 posts
Re: GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'
#62Fine 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?
Is it offensive? Yes.
Does Github have the right to take it down? Yes.
Is it unethical for Github to take it down? Not at all.
But should they? I don't know, I don't think I would have. It's kind of scary to use cloud services where it's hard to tell if your content might be judged in violation of some rule and might suddenly disappear as a result. If the offensiveness were more extreme (say, a repo dedicated to making fun of the mentally disabled), then yes, remove it... but the actual case here looks pretty benign to me. A poor choice of words, but with no intended malice. Coming down hard in this case looks arbitrary and unexpected, and arbitrary and unexpected rule enforcement is scary.
Certainly, though, it's Github's choice what kind of rules they want to enforce and whether or not they care if this scares users.
Re: GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'
#63This brings up a point that's been nagging at me for a while: does making a community more inclusive necessarily mean making it less distinctive? GenderDetector (formerly SexMachine [1]) is another example of this process, wherein what was formerly considered within the norm of politeness is now sufficiently far outside to cause outcry. I'm curious what other people think -- this has been on my mind for a while, and although I like parts of the predicted conclusion (more people for me to share my hobby with!) others frighten me (genericization to the point of losing meaningful cultural identity).
Re: GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'
#64A honest question, why are most people here okay with this, but they’re not okay with for example Facebook censoring certain content?
Probably because facebook is by design a mechanism of human communication. Github is a mechanism for sharing code. The words used and then rejected were useless, and substituting them did not affect the communication in any meaningful way. Calling vocabulary subs like this "censorship" greatly glorifies the users of said language, as unless they're deliberately trying to be offensive there is always an equally useful…
I personally feel that offensive language should be censored because they’re intended to be offensive and hurtful to people, while OTOH if its obviously not purposely offensive but just a method of expression, it should be given a pass. Leave that to self-censorship / the readers / users.
Also, given the semi-monopoly that these sites have, I think that they have some sort of responsibility to not exploit network effects and alienate users just because they can.
Re: GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'
#65Time for GitHub follow their own rules and change their name to something that's not offensive.
Re: GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The words that were offensive 200 years ago are laughable today. Even if we take this at face value, we are not living 200 years ago. We're here now, and your words can have impact beyond what you realize. You're lucky that words don't affect you so. That's your good fortune. Some words evoke experiences and implications that can drive people to depression and suicide. Basic. Civility. Is. Not. Unreasonable. > my p…
Should we ban all these 'useless' words too? Like eggplant, spade, and oreo? After all, many people find them offensive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs_by_ethnic...
Would it actually bother you if you couldn't use those words in those contexts? You're arguing over a principle while dismissing the real harm people have suffered. The word that got banned has no meaning or use outside the most base kind of interactions.
It's not like you can no longer say the word "eggplant" at the supermarket to refer to a vegetable.
Re: GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Would it be alright, then, if it said, "WebM for Black People?" It isn't important to quibble over what words we consider offensive in the past, present, or future. The real problem is speaking about a classification of human being as being less than fully human or using those classifications as shortcuts for "inferior." A person with darker skin is no less human than one with lighter skin. Similarly, two people with…
Normally, I don't argue with people on the internet. Tonight, I'm bored and I'm making an exception.
That being said, this isn't an argument about how we should treat people. This is an argument over whether we should be allowed to say what we wish and let others react how they will. If people don't want to use this individual's code because of his questionable mentality, let that be their choice. Instead we're now papering over it and making him perhaps look nicer than he is.
Would you also like to halt publication of Mein Kampf? It's available in bookstores near you, and I assure you there are many people who are offended by its content, myself included.
Shall we reword the sections of the Bible chastising homosexual behavior?
Or do we only censor the little things?
Re: GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'
#68A honest question, why are most people here okay with this, but they’re not okay with for example Facebook censoring certain content?
Who says that it's the same set of people? Personally, I have no problem with Facebook choosing what not to host on their platform either. And I'd certainly love to see them exercise that a little more often when it comes to personal attacks, especially those directed at specific people.
Re: GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'
#69If someone was interested in moving their content off of GitHub, how would they go about doing so? Doesn't popcorn time use something else? Asking for a friend, of course... :3 Edit: Looks like they're running GitLab Community Edition https://about.gitlab.com/downloads/
Which content?
If you are only interested in the repository itself, then you are already done, as everyone who cloned it would have a local copy of it. If you want to use a similar workflow (as in, an always available publicly addressable git server to push and pull to), you can do that with "git remote set-url origin ".
If you want to move the wiki, you can also 'git clone' that, although I believe github uses a slightly nonstandard markdown language.
I do not believe their is a good way to migrate your issue tracker.
Re: GitHub threatens to shut down a repository for using the word 'retard'
#70For 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…
Github does. If you don't like it, fork it... just not on GitHub.