Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

391–400 of 845 posts

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

#391

Post by DanBC »

ectoplasm wrote: post #370
Mikushi wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

> You're offended? So what. Not my problem, step away from the computer. Fortunately, you don't own GitHub.

The cognitive dissonance of people downvoting comments when they are complaining about censorship is baffling.

The hypocrisy is weird.

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

#392

Post by bad_user »

onion2k wrote: post #367
Frozenlock wrote: post #129

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…

It's about a company acting in a way that is alienating to its userbase. 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…

How do you know that the majority of users don't care? Did you or anybody else run any surveys or was that thought pulled out of your ass?

I'm hearing this argument a lot on HN, yet it is never accompanied by numbers and because it's always contrary to my experience. Would you say the same thing about Sourceforge? Of course, there's a difference between piggybacking on the work of others to distribute malware and censoring some words, however there's also similarity. GitHub censoring content means they are not a neutral platform for hosting public repositories and they are showing their potential for becoming the next Sourceforge.

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

#393

Post by sklogic »

DanBC wrote: post #338
manicdee wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First they came for the cussers and swearers, but I didn't speak out because I don't cuss or swear. Then they came for the homophobes and cisgendered bigots, and I cheered them on, because I value diversity. Then they came for the conspiracy theorists, and I didn't speak out because I don't believe the reptoids are evil. Then they came for me, and there was none left to speak out.

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.

> it's about using a word that causes harm

Words do not cause harm. It's a slippery slope to total censorship and thought policing to think otherwise.

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

#394

Post by Ygg2 »

anewhnaccount wrote: post #280
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.

What about your issues, pull requests, visiblity of forks?

I think issues/wiki can be exported, no?

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

#395

Post by tomjen3 »

jamie_ca wrote: post #212
Animats wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"This isn't censorship of the type that is illegal or not allowed. It is a private company deciding a word was inappropriate." As a Github user, that kind of thinking worries me. Google Code went away, and Sourceforge started packaging adware and spyware with other people's projects. They could do this because "they were a private company". Now Github's management is starting to throw their weight around. We now need…

You mean like https://gitlab.com/ or http://gogs.io/ or http://getgitorious.com/ or any of the other open source git servers that you can install on your own machine? Not to say that Github couldn't close down some of their API endpoints in the future (like reading issues/comments), but they're one of the web services I use that I _don't_ actually fear lock-in on.

If I want to migrate to any of platforms, how difficult is it to get everything of of github (including tickets, etc) and set up a redirect on github?

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

#396

Post by weland »

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…

> Who decides what is and is not appropriate?

GitHub, because that stuff is hosted on their servers.

This is not about Open Source. This is about GitHub.

Yes, it has no place in Open Source. Whether or not it has a place on GitHub is, however, up to GitHub itself.

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

#397

Post by learnstats2 »

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…

There is plenty of more harmful censorship on this very HN thread.

People with controversial or different opinions are downvoted until they don't appear on the site any more, ultimately meaning that only a small range of human opinions are welcome and valid here.

Github asked for the use of a single word to be reconsidered - nothing has been censored in any meaningful way, and the result is that a different word has been used, which means the same in this context.

Who decides what is and is not appropriate? Github does. Github chooses exactly the terms that you need to meet to host there, and decides when those terms change. That's agreed contractually and implicitly when you sign up to use Github. It's important to understand that this applies to every online service you might use.

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

#398

Post by chronic40 »

mcintyre1994 wrote: post #301
Animats wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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...

I think this is an unfair jump because they do have a legitimate business model with enterprise revenue - they don't need to start owning your life to continue to exist.

Advertising is a higher margin business.

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

#399

Post by ersii »

It might be worth mentioning here that Launchpad.net (Owned, Operated by Canonical Ltd of Ubuntu fame) recently launched (rudimentary) Git support [1]. They obviously need to integrate it better, but that is on it's way.

Launchpad.net might be a (more?) suitable option to consider if you're mainly developing Free and Open Source Software.

[1] http://blog.launchpad.net/general/git-code-hosting-beta

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

#400

Post by tomjen3 »

PopeOfNope wrote: post #175
andylei wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what kind of doomsday scenario are you imagining? all the open source repos in the world slowly die as github starts censoring increasingly larger portions of the english language?

The worst that would happen is what's happening in GamerGate right now: a split along ideological lines. Those who want to judge the merit of a work based on its code and those who want to judge the merit of a work based on the political opinions of the author.

I don't see that split happening right now and I often browse /r/kotakuinaction, which is one of the central gamergater hubs.

Also user Snesker, you have been hell-banned.

Post reply on HN