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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'

#381

Post by lordfoom »

ectoplasm wrote: post #302
JungleGymSam wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's willful ignorance of the real issue. This is not an isolated incident. Society is increasingly rejecting any and all "offensive" language and behavior. Should we all be nice and respectful to each other? Yes, of course. Are people that way? No. Can we police ourselves fairly and achieve a society that is not offensive? Absolutely not.

> Can we police ourselves fairly and achieve a society that is not offensive? Absolutely not. Hacker News is a pretty nice place.

And yet one is allowed to use the word retard.

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

#382

Post by pankkake »

immibis wrote: post #83
rtpg wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you serious? Maintaining things is hard. Even for relatively simple stuff, things fall over all the time and suddenly your job is "make sure your mail server is up" instead of "accomplish your core business task". I don't have that sort of free time anymore.

For git, literally all you need is a server with Git and SSH installed.

More people need to know this. The prices of GitHub plans are hilarious; I've discussed this with paying GitHub users and they had no idea.

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

#383

Post by makomk »

chipsy wrote: post #200
gruez wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sure, they're legally entitled to do whatever they want, but you're failing to consider the most important point: >You need to consider that GitHub currently hosts a large percentage of the web's open source repositories would you be happy if google abused its position as the leading search engine to favor right leaning websites over left leaning websites? what about censoring websites that are "offensive" to muslims…

Or what about if your comment were mass-downvoted on HN? Would you be happy? The censorship card ultimately falls into a relativistic trap - it's always okay to broadcast hate if it's the speech of you or your friends, because you and I can protest ignorance, humor, or lack of wrongdoing, and your more overtly bigoted friends "are good guys when you get to know them." Criticism of such speech, on the other hand, is n…

Funny, the same thing seems to happen with the "it's not censorship" card. For example, a while ago a social justice activist got banned from Twitter for death threats against Wil Wheaton, and suddenly all the tech industry folks who claimed sites should ban people for harassment were going after Twitter for doing it because it was an approved social justice death threat.

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

#384

Post by realusername »

Zikes wrote: post #111
mbillie1 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A private company choosing not to allow content for whatever reason is not censorship . People who choose to use the word "retard" are not a protected class, Github can ban this word as they see fit.

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…

I never really understood this part of the american culture. I'm not american and to me they are just words, censoring offensive words with beeps on TV is really an american/british thing, it's really strange to me.

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

#385

Post by tehbeard »

Retra wrote: post #122
crgt wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about the "Idiot's Guide To WebM" or "WebM for Dummies". Are those OK? I guess I'm not seeing the difference..

The difference is that fewer people would get offended by those.

Do those fewer people have less right to not be offended than those who are offended by "retard"?

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

#386

Post by krainboltgreene »

grkvlt wrote: post #374

So, why on earth are similarly 'offensive' repositories like https://github.com/meh/retarded (may be NSFW based on language) still available? This seems either a very selective policy, or there is something else going on beyond the mere use of the word 'Retard' here. I found the example above with a simple Google search, and I'm sure there are many more that can be picked out, depending on the choice of obscenity or…

I'm hoping they get to his repositories soon. Fuck that guy.

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

#387

Post by DanBC »

lordfoom wrote: post #378
DanBC wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your first line is wrong. This is not about swearing, it's about using a word that causes harm. > Then they came for me, and there was none left to speak out. ...apart from the vast majority of people, because most people don't feel the need to use words like nigger or retard in their open source projects.

So why should you be able to say nigger and retard on hacker news? Why stop at open source repos? Why not extend it to all forums and social media?

You have to be careful in the way you use nigger or retard on HN. Calling other people a those will probably result in a comment killed by user flags. Repeated use will result in a shadow ban. Casual use of the word retard (not in the context of mechanisms) might see a few downvotes to poke people into more creative insults.

Most people don't want to use such words and are glad they aren't used in normal conversation. They don't miss cross-burnings; they don't miss similarly violent words.

This is probably a cultural thing. I live in the UK which does not have a free press and which does not have freedom of speech. Most UK citizens find the US position to be extreme. Most UK citizens don't worry about banning Westboro Baptist Church from protesting funerals.

(And, again, this is assuming that Github has actually done something. They might not have; they might be ignoring all reports about the retard word and this is all a troll who faked an email.)

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

#388

Post by makomk »

EugeneOZ wrote: post #255
brandonmenc wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They are caricaturists, nothing can offend them. You miss the point of their reasoning.

Someone actually got arrested and went to jail in France for an offensive parody of one of the equally offensive Charlie Hebdo covers: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/france-beg... (because it was insensitive to French people rather than Egyptians).

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

#389

Post by euske »

Asbostos wrote: post #223
euske wrote: post #94

It's sad that they had to "ban" them instead of having the community boycott/ridicule/shun the repo. The latter would be a healthier approach.

Are you saying that bullying and shunning people who don't behave according to social norms is healthy? Isn't that essentially the root of all racism, bigotry, sexism, etc? That's what already happens with large scale trolling of celebrities who become disliked and it can be quite harmful.

These people were saying silly things publicly and they should expect some backlash. Of course any extreme behavior is bad, but I don't know how this is the root of all racism, bigotry, sexism, etc. In this case they are judged by their action, not by their looks/belief.

edit: judged by what they said -> judged by their action

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

#390

Post by krainboltgreene »

kamjam wrote: post #377
kentonv wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> Is it offensive? Yes. It depends. Maybe to you and maybe to me (it isn;t). But we are both english speakers. Github has a global presence. What if I am a french speaker and I want to say something is delayed or running a little slow? https://translate.google.co.uk/#fr/en/retard

We both know that's not what the developer meant. Nice try.
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