361–370 of 845 posts
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.
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They also gladly index and help you find brainfuck repos. I can't say fuck on TV, but it's ok on Github. I can't say retard on Github, but it's ok on TV. I'm glad we've accomplished something here.
Doesn't that reassure you? Assuming this letter is true: they're not stopping you from using offensive words, they're stopping you from using a very small set of words because those words contribute to a culture that cause actual harm. TV is a poor example: it's fine to make jokes about male rape on TV, but everyone loses their shit when an obscured nipple is shown.
Says who? What you are describing is textbook censorship.
You're offended? So what. Not my problem, step away from the computer.
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?
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 maki…
Can we stop saying this as a universal truth?
You find it offensive. I and millions other people don't. You deal with it.
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…
Your argument is incoherant. You complain about censorship, but then you complain that Github doesn't censor everything. You ask for free speech, but you seek to deny Github the freedom to chose what they want to publish. The sense of entitlement in this thread is baffling. "I want the freedom to use your property whoever I like, and how dare you try to stop me". You're also not allowed to use github to insult your e…
It is baffling indeed. I am also baffled by open source fanatics who want to force everyone to release the source code to their work for the reason "I want to see how you built what you worked so hard on so I can fork and then take the credit for it.". Of course FOSS fanatics will tell you that you shouldn't care who takes the credit for you work, that the reward is in contributing to the community however when it comes to Microsoft "I DONT WANT THEM TO TAKE THE CREDIT FOR MY WORK" and hence we have the GPL which is no different from any Microsoft EULA agreement.
Sense of entitlement, hypocrisy and incoherent arguments are commonplace in the open source community.
Meanwhile the guy with Hitler profile picture is still enjoying GitHub despite multiple reports! https://github.com/followtheart
You probably know the movie "Der Untergang" and all the fake-dub videos on youtube. Guess someone uses an angry Hitler face out of this movie? Most people know that it must be ironical, however…
to cut it short: It's probably unprofessional, maybe childish. But that's not illegal.
For those arguing that they are within their rights, and free speech laws don't apply there: that's not the point. (Like most of similar situations by the way.) It's about a company acting in a way that is alienating to its userbase. Now, many people might think retard is offensive and would prefer a sanitized environment... but many people don't. Saying "we disagree with what you did" is a way to the users to tell t…
Wouldn't that depend on the userbase? If there are more people using Github who would prefer it was a sanitized environment than people who think anything should be allowed then Github removing this content would be them acting not to alienate its userbase. The majority of users probably don't care either way, so we're only talking about the two extremes - and I'd hazard a guess that there are far more people who would rather Github didn't have an "anything goes" policy than did.
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> The word was offensive. It's not offensive to me, or a lot of people I know. I can think of far more offensive words to use for disabled people, but retard is just colloquial slang now AFAIC.
...And I'm being downvoted, as proof of what `otherusername2` said above: "That's just because those of us who don't are afraid we'll get chewed out here, so we're not commenting." Words have different meanings for different people it's that simple. These guys shouldn't have had to change their docs. Where will this end? Will we not be able to use cretin next either? What about moron or imbecile? PC gone mad because…
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…
1. This isn't censorship of the type that is illegal or not allowed. It is a private company deciding a word was inappropriate. 2. It seems like most in this comment thread agree that this action, as a singular act, is a good thing. The word was offensive. Github asked the repo to change it. They did. The end. 3. As for the larger context, the problem with the frequent use of slippery slope arguments and cries of "ce…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Doesn't that reassure you? Assuming this letter is true: they're not stopping you from using offensive words, they're stopping you from using a very small set of words because those words contribute to a culture that cause actual harm. TV is a poor example: it's fine to make jokes about male rape on TV, but everyone loses their shit when an obscured nipple is shown.
>Assuming this letter is true: they're not stopping you from using offensive words, they're stopping you from using a very small set of words because those words contribute to a culture that cause actual harm. Says who? What you are describing is textbook censorship. You're offended? So what. Not my problem, step away from the computer.
Fortunately, you don't own GitHub.