
Why the 'Git'?  Linus: I‘m an egotistical bastard... - tvvocold
http://1.qinghuai.org/s/okzbke/github_retard/comments/fydl1r#c_fydl1r
======
nindalf
I think this submission is related to yesterday's discussion on Github's
banning of the word "retard". Some people pointed out that git is a "bad word"
and they should censor projects that use the word, such as
[http://github.com/git/git](http://github.com/git/git)

The word as its used today means a person who is “pig headed, thinks they are
always correct, argumentative”. The original meaning was "a person of
illegitimate parentage". If we applied Github's logic to this, it is clear
that people born out of wedlock feel unwelcome in the open source community.

~~~
anon3_
The problem is it's not the business of GH to take a political side - but with
arbitrary censorship - you end up having to.

If you make a satire of feminism (C+=, ToleranUX) you get banned.

It's ok to harass
[https://github.com/freebsdgirl/ggautoblocker/blob/master/sou...](https://github.com/freebsdgirl/ggautoblocker/blob/master/sourcelist.txt)
in the open, because it's a girl running the project.

~~~
tzs
Be careful when you talk about that blocker. Roberto Rosario criticized it,
calling it's algorithm the most idiotic algorithm he's seen in 29 years of
programming. He later apologized for that wording, but said he still disagrees
with the algorithm.

This, and a tweet where he said that while he takes no stance on #gamergate,
as Chairman of IDGA Puerto Rico he has to denounce someone who said everybody
who is pro #gamergate should be sent to Nazi gas chambers, got him labeled a
harasser, and a _leader_ of gamergate.

In the 9 months since then, he and his family have been harassed. Much of that
is linked to in the discussion here [1].

He has since been forced to stepped down as Chair of the Python Cuba working
group due to the harassers contacting his employer and his employers clients
[2].

[1] [https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-
cuba/2015-June/0000...](https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-
cuba/2015-June/000071.html)

[2] [https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-
cuba/2015-July/0001...](https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-
cuba/2015-July/000106.html)

~~~
tptacek
This sounded like an unusually cut-and-dry case, which is unusual for, like,
the world we actually live in, so I dug in further and read this dude's tweet
stream back through 2014. I'm surprised at how much nuance you left out, since
you're someone I bucket as a "nuance junkie".

* Rosario wasn't criticizing the implementation of the block list but rather the policies it was based on; in particular, he was upset that he'd been added based on his use of the #gamergate tag.

* A reasonable person reading that tweet stream could easily come to the conclusion that Rosario was a GamerGate person; he used the tag consistently and, in every case I saw, positively. I take no position (here) on the implications of supporting GamerGate, but do object to the paragraph you wrote suggesting Rosario should have been surprised to see himself associated with them.

* In response to being added to the blocklist, he escalated, threatening to resign from IDGA unless they repudiated his inclusion on the blocklist. A reasonable person can argue that his response to the blocklist made this about his role at IDGA.

Not that it matters, but by way of bona fides: I'm not a fan of Harper and I
think her block list, like every other block list created in the history of
humanity, has stopped being about principle and become an instrument of
factional politics. On the other hand, having a temper tantrum about being
included on a Twitter blacklist seems to me like not a particularly good use
of time and energy, and I think less of people who are vocally upset about
Harper's blocklist.

~~~
nindalf
Do you mind if I ask you an OT question? How do you spend time on HN making
these long, seemingly well researched comments and still get time to do all
the other productive things you do?

~~~
tptacek
When I was 15 years old I hitchhiked with an old blind BBS sysop I met in jail
to a BellSouth central office in rural Mississipi, where the devil appeared
before me and allowed me to bet my soul that I couldn't best him in an
alt.atheism flamewar. I wrote a comment that worked Kibo, Hitler, the game of
Diplomacy, and 15 logical fallacies, 3 of which I invented on the spot, and a
vanquished prince of the underworld gave me the gift of "Most Powerful Message
Board Nerd on the Planet". The blind sysop went on to become Steve Vai. You
can still find Satan if you know the right subreddit to look in.

~~~
tptacek
I think the shorter answer might just be "was a teenager on Usenet".

~~~
tzs
Ahh...usenet. I was on usenet a long time...early 1984 [1] until a couple or
so years ago.

Every time I have to deal with some crappy forum software on the web, I
remember how much nicer newsreaders were, and wish people would do web based
forums by using an NNTP server and providing a browser-based NNTP client for
it, and would allow people to use their own clients if they wished.

[1] [https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/net.unix-
wizards/CYh...](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/net.unix-
wizards/CYhCInFq2bA)

------
Yhippa
As an aside Google Translate has come a long way. I was able to figure out
what people were saying despite never learned any Mandarin ever.

------
ngoldbaum
I've never seen qinghuai.org. It seems to be a Chinese-language HN. Is that
correct?

~~~
jmduke
Specifically, it appears to be a fork of Lobsters
([https://lobste.rs/](https://lobste.rs/)).

