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When software offends, the pantyshot package controversy

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Re: When software offends, the pantyshot package controversy

#51
post #40

Seems relatively simple. This Frank Smit guy loves anime in a borderline-creepy way and is, like the original developer, not a native english speaker. [1]: http://61924.nl/04-11-2011/ubuntu-10-dot-10.html [2]: http://61924.nl/about.html

Just curious, but how is this borderline creepy?

It isn't. It's just people talking about things which they know next to nothing about. Move on, nothing to see here.

Re: When software offends, the pantyshot package controversy

#52
post #50
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Point is... original author clearly knew what he was doing with these package names. That seems very likely, but from what I have read so far, all the evidence is circumstantial and guilt is being inferred. So it is still possible it's a stupid mistake. Seriously. (Perhaps there is damning, definitive evidence out there. But what I have read so far contains no smoking gun.)

Possible, yes. But so absurdly unlikely that I find it strange to seriously suggest the package maintainer did not know what he was doing.

Possible, yes. But so absurdly unlikely that I find it strange to seriously suggest the package maintainer did not know what he was doing.

There has already been evidence posted here that the woman involved in the project, like me, had some idea it was kind of risque but no idea just how negatively it would be viewed. So far, no one has posted any definitive evidence to the contrary -- it is all circumstantial. And I have repeatedly seen instances of this on HN and in every case, simply politely informing them of how negative it was got them to change it. I think it is far from "absurdly unlikely" that they vastly underestimated how negatively this would be viewed.

Re: When software offends, the pantyshot package controversy

#53
post #21

There are times where I envy the straight forward rationale of these beasts of burden we instruct in our daily routines. The name of the package is irrelevant to them, its just an identifier that represents a thing that does stuff. As software engineers you'd hope we were some of the most logical peoples of this planet but then we find ourselves tripping over our own societal taboos and inferences we are perceiving t…

I don't know how upset she really is here (the page you linked to seems pretty measured) but she's had an "us vs. them" narrative going with her library for awhile, ever since Github forked it. I can't find it now, but she had a commit-for-commit commentary for Github's "Redcarpet" fork which at times seemed unhinged. I paid attention to this only because we helped with Github's audit of the code, and am motivated to…

Now this is what I'm much more interested in. Security of the code is a off-the-charts more important than what the package happens to be called. ;)

Thanks for the insight. The article suggests the author is upset due to controversy due to the name but I assume her anguish is more due to the forking of the library and what she feels is the removal of her credit?

Re: When software offends, the pantyshot package controversy

#54
post #12

I was surprised at how the article characterized the terms "pantyshot" and "upskirt" -- how extremely negative. My familiarity with the terms is not from porn but from celebrities who, whoops, get caught flashing their panties inadvertently in public. So to my mind this was relatively innocent activity and I would have never thought of it in the extremely negative way the article portrays it. Also, people often have…

I upvoted you because I think your description of the normal response to this kind of unintentionally provocative language is indeed normal.

I speculate that you were downvoted, because the incident in question is fairly clearly an aberration from the normal course of events; an aberration in which someone who wanted to be playful now feels betrayed.

Re: When software offends, the pantyshot package controversy

#55
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Man spends hours developing free software for the world and gives it a tongue in cheek name. World judges man and software by name, wants the software out of repository and the man gone from the planet. I think John Cleese would like to send you all to the front line of a gruesome war – in panties, of course – to learn to deal with an actual problem.

That's a big brush you're painting with, but the core is true: this is about judging how they chose to name their project.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who changed his project name after seeing how crazy people can get over a name.

It's free publicity, after all :p

Re: When software offends, the pantyshot package controversy

#56

Tbh, I slightly frowned when I installed the unicode-nazi python package last week. It's just not what you want to call your package..

Uh, since it's quite obviously a pun on "grammar-nazi" I fail to see your point. Even the description of the package makes it obvious:

Annoying helper module that finds unicode/bytestring comparisions and other problems.

Re: When software offends, the pantyshot package controversy

#57
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how upset she really is here (the page you linked to seems pretty measured) but she's had an "us vs. them" narrative going with her library for awhile, ever since Github forked it. I can't find it now, but she had a commit-for-commit commentary for Github's "Redcarpet" fork which at times seemed unhinged. I paid attention to this only because we helped with Github's audit of the code, and am motivated to…

Now this is what I'm much more interested in. Security of the code is a off-the-charts more important than what the package happens to be called. ;) Thanks for the insight. The article suggests the author is upset due to controversy due to the name but I assume her anguish is more due to the forking of the library and what she feels is the removal of her credit?

No; Github gave her credit immediately on starting the project. She was irritated that they chose to fork her code at all, and disapproved of many of the changes. But her code, as Github found it, was absolutely not safe to run on a popular public web app.

Re: When software offends, the pantyshot package controversy

#58
post #54
post #12

I was surprised at how the article characterized the terms "pantyshot" and "upskirt" -- how extremely negative. My familiarity with the terms is not from porn but from celebrities who, whoops, get caught flashing their panties inadvertently in public. So to my mind this was relatively innocent activity and I would have never thought of it in the extremely negative way the article portrays it. Also, people often have…

I upvoted you because I think your description of the normal response to this kind of unintentionally provocative language is indeed normal. I speculate that you were downvoted, because the incident in question is fairly clearly an aberration from the normal course of events; an aberration in which someone who wanted to be playful now feels betrayed.

I speculate that you were downvoted, because the incident in question is fairly clearly an aberration from the normal course of events; an aberration in which someone who wanted to be playful now feels betrayed.

Thanks for your feedback, but I honestly don't know what you are talking about. Care to clarify what is supposed to be so clear? :-/

Re: When software offends, the pantyshot package controversy

#59
post #52
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possible, yes. But so absurdly unlikely that I find it strange to seriously suggest the package maintainer did not know what he was doing.

Possible, yes. But so absurdly unlikely that I find it strange to seriously suggest the package maintainer did not know what he was doing. There has already been evidence posted here that the woman involved in the project, like me, had some idea it was kind of risque but no idea just how negatively it would be viewed. So far, no one has posted any definitive evidence to the contrary -- it is all circumstantial. And I…

We're talking about two different things. You're referring to the female author of Panyshot, who was a non-native English speaker who did not know the full meaning of "pantyshot". I'm talking about the author of Upskirt who is a native English speaker and changed the name of his package to that of a young anime character famous for upskirt shots.

Re: When software offends, the pantyshot package controversy

#60
post #12

I was surprised at how the article characterized the terms "pantyshot" and "upskirt" -- how extremely negative. My familiarity with the terms is not from porn but from celebrities who, whoops, get caught flashing their panties inadvertently in public. So to my mind this was relatively innocent activity and I would have never thought of it in the extremely negative way the article portrays it. Also, people often have…

For the record celebrities rarely "flash" their panties. Its a case of being followed around by paparazzi and the inevitable occurring. I'd actually suggest that the full implications of celebrity magazines (and how they obtain their photographs) is anything but relatively innocent.

It's weird that my only encounter with the term is through mainstream manga, not hentai, manga. Shonen Jump, stuff like that (and for the record I wish stuff like Cages of Eden and Highschool of the Dead toned that down and focused more on the plot). I wonder if its a bit of culture-shock as I would expect it is seen as "relatively innocent" in Japan.

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