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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'

#231

Post by Zikes »

mbillie1 wrote: post #222
Zikes wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, in the literal sense it is censorship, being the suppression of materials deemed objectionable on moral, political, military, or other grounds. A bit like a (likely American) TV censor might "bleep" a word they don't want to expose people's delicate sensibilities to. I mean, that doesn't make it "evil", but a lot of people might say that censorship of any sort is a bit of a grey area. That whole "I disagree wit…

So if a restaurant asks you to leave because you're shouting ethnic slurs, that's censorship? Come on. GitHub is not the entirety of your expressive domain. If you were disallowed by law from saying "retard" I would be sympathetic to this case. As is this entire thread reads like a series of entitled children whinging that their mums told them not to be nasty at school. If you dislike what GitHub has done, host your…

Hey, if you want to argue with the dictionary be my guest. I'm afraid my name isn't Oxford, though, and I'm not really sure how to reach him. Sorry about that.

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

#232

Post by EugeneOZ »

brandonmenc wrote: post #228
EugeneOZ wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Charlie Hebdo did.

They did not. Charlie Hebdo did not publish, then get attacked for, content they themselves found offensive.

No, they know it's offensive and their fight was exactly about freedom of speech.

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

#233

Post by barsonme »

forthwall wrote: post #168
barsonme wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, decidedly even more offensive: https://github.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=nigger&type=Code&...

Most of those are badwordlists.

On the first couple pages, yeah. Skip 10+ pages and you get stuff like "nigger stole my bike" etc.

As a side question, shouldn't it be fairly easy to flag those repositories and then sort through those who have it as an offensive word list and those who are just being derogatory?

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

#234

Post by Asbostos »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #24
general_failure wrote: post #13

Is there a list of objectionable words/language that one is not supposed to use? A quick search on the f-work gives thousands of hits on github.

Those aren't typically derogatory descriptions of people , though. Profanity isn't necessarily an issue; derogatory language is. I'd expect Github to take down repositories containing slurs of any kind, while leaving up things like https://github.com/nvbn/thefuck/

That doesn't explain why they were seemingly allowed to replace "retards" with "gits" which is obviously still being used with the same derogatory meaning.

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

#235

Post by brandonmenc »

Zikes wrote: post #229
brandonmenc wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You don't think that people would defend to the death one of the basic principles of human rights? A progressive making that claim would never take a bullet so that someone could fly the Confederate flag, for example. It's just not going to happen. They may fight to defend the 1st Amendment, but that's easy because it's a proxy behind which exists all the specific instances of speech they would find horrible along…

Ah, it looks like the train didn't make it very far, did it.

To be fair, I agree with your original comment. I'm just nit picking on that particular phrase, independent of what you wrote. I think your use of the phrase is appropriate.

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

#236

Post by iwwr »

mbillie1 wrote: post #222
Zikes wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, in the literal sense it is censorship, being the suppression of materials deemed objectionable on moral, political, military, or other grounds. A bit like a (likely American) TV censor might "bleep" a word they don't want to expose people's delicate sensibilities to. I mean, that doesn't make it "evil", but a lot of people might say that censorship of any sort is a bit of a grey area. That whole "I disagree wit…

So if a restaurant asks you to leave because you're shouting ethnic slurs, that's censorship? Come on. GitHub is not the entirety of your expressive domain. If you were disallowed by law from saying "retard" I would be sympathetic to this case. As is this entire thread reads like a series of entitled children whinging that their mums told them not to be nasty at school. If you dislike what GitHub has done, host your…

The difference being that there are no network effects in restaurants and usually there is another one just around the corner.

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

#237

Post by hhandoko »

CoryG89 wrote: post #40

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…

It sounds like entitlement to me.

Just because it's an open source project, does not grant the author free pass to do whatever he/she likes. If I come and visit someone at their house, I make sure I observe their house rules.

So GitHub makes it clear that this is unacceptable. Whilst their actions / decisions may sometimes look arbitrary, we need to remember that GitHub is not just one person.

In addition, in a public space you would expect respectful public decorum. This repository is publicly visible and anyone could stumble upon it.

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

#238

Post by Animats »

iwwr wrote: post #210
thedz wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We now need to think about a backup plan in case Github management gets out of line. This is a distributed source control system. Keep a clone of the repo somewhere. Your source code is now no longer bound to Github.

That's not the only reason people use Github. It's the Facebook of programmers in some sense and it's got a critical mass that switching to something else is not practicable (not without some serious momentum).

"It's the Facebook of programmers"

Business Insider agrees.[1] Github, Inc. is now valued at $2 billion.

Right. Which means we have to worry about Github's management starting to think like Zuckerberg: "All your life is belong to us."

[1] http://www.businessinsider.com/github-raises-200-million-wor...

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

#239

Post by PopeOfNope »

Retra wrote: post #221
PopeOfNope wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When are you referring to? Do you use twitter at all? And nobody here jumps on me like jackals because they use downvotes to do that for them. Hacker News is a device of exclusion. That's not a bad thing. You can't claim to be for free and open source software for all humanity, except for those people. Those people aren't ideologically pure, they can't participate. That mindset is why GNU is a footnote in programming…

No, I don't use Twitter. Any communication medium that severely limits the amount of text you can send is going to be prone to miscommunication, aggression, and triteness. Anyway, nobody is forcing you to not write free and open source software. GitHub doesn't have a problem with the software. Nor are they preventing anyone from getting it or using it. They've erected what I would call a rather trivial obstacle for t…

No, I don't use Twitter.

You should pay attention to what's happening over there. It's a good preview for what's coming.

Nor are they preventing anyone from getting it or using it.

You have an odd view of banning. Yes, that does prevent anyone from getting it or using it. That's like saying banning a book doesn't prevent anyone from getting it or reading it. People will find a way, but that doesn't mean we should encourage banning books.

You can have good code quality while making politically favorable decisions.

You can also have good code quality while making politically unfavorable decisions. You can also have good code quality while eating an all cucumber diet. The ridiculousness you would feel about being required to eat a cucumber sandwich before being allowed to commit code to github is exactly how I feel about being required to think politically correct thoughts before being allowed to commit code to github.

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

#240

Post by brandonmenc »

EugeneOZ wrote: post #232
brandonmenc wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They did not. Charlie Hebdo did not publish, then get attacked for, content they themselves found offensive.

No, they know it's offensive and their fight was exactly about freedom of speech.

Yes, they knew it was offensive - to others. There is no indication that it actually offended them. Which, unless it did, it's not the same thing.
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