
VS Installer welcome image contains offensive element for Chinese - tambre
https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/content/problem/475341/vs-installer-welcome-image-contains-offensive-elem.html
======
verytrivial
Sorry, who was being offended here? Who's shame is being protected? Maybe
"his" partner did "cheat" on him. Visual Studio should not be used by people
with unfaithful partners? I understand being culturally sensitive, but I fail
to see who was being wronged here, and who benefits from the change.

~~~
seba_dos1
Maybe "he" got bored of "his" hat and replaced it? Visual Studio should not be
used by people who change their hats from time to time?

/s

------
fedxc
I love the following comment because it begs the question: Where do we draw
the line? When do we, as a society, stop contemplating every single person
special needs? When do we stop the "everyone is a snowflake" mentality?

"Very disappointing. The most stupid change ever made. I found the new color
offensive to me and many i know so change it to another color".

~~~
sdwa
Also the question: on who does the responsibility to be tolerant and
understanding lie in such a situation? Is it our responsibility to change
green hats to blue, or their responsibility to understand that not everyone
sees any negative connotations with green hats? I think in this case, where
there is absolutely no protected class being victimised (cuckolds are surely
not a protected class), it should not be changed.

~~~
seba_dos1
Both. And with fix being so easy and self-contained, it shouldn't even trigger
any discussion. You just fix it and are done with it.

If fixing it meant more work, like redesigning all of the artwork, then you
can ask the other side to be tolerant and understanding. In this case, there
was no need to.

~~~
sdwa
I agree the pragmatic thing to do is just to change it, but how much work the
fix requires is not really the point here. We're talking about something more
than what is simply the optimal business decision. I think it's wrong to
indulge people's prejudices.

------
andyonthewings
"Green hat" itself is not offensive at all, unless it's put on top of a user's
profile picture.

A green hat on a random unidentified figure in an illustration is funny at
worst.

------
buboard
That's ridiculous. Horns in my culture mean the same thing

------
kkarakk
[https://www.echineselearning.com/blog/wife-cheat-on-you-
ther...](https://www.echineselearning.com/blog/wife-cheat-on-you-there-is-a-
hat-for-that) \- relevant learning resource

~~~
ap3
Interesting to learn the source behind the story, pretty harmless stuff

------
yread
The new image

[https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/storage/temp/633...](https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/storage/temp/63312-picturemessage-
magoe4ghfah.png)

contains a woman (or is it?) driving a male bicyle (with a horizontal bar)

~~~
bassman9000
did you just assume xir gender?

~~~
joelhoffman
It's hard to ask the bicycle what its preferred pronouns are.

------
rinchik
Globalism and PC culture aside, aren't "cultural" biases bad? Aren't we are
supposed to stand united and be against dogmatic principles, prejudices and
intolerance? I should be able to wear a green hat or/and a skirt outside if I
want to, without being shamed or threatened. As well as I should be able to
incorporate that hat and a skirt in any of my designs or mockups if those
please my senses and fit my vision, right?

~~~
dragonwriter
> Globalism and PC culture aside, aren't "cultural" biases bad?

No, not inherently. Cultural “biases” about the meaning of symbols
particularly, unless you think language itself is bad.

> Aren't we are supposed to stand united and be against dogmatic principles,
> prejudices and intolerance?

The meaning of symbols in a particular culture may be influenced by any of
those things, but it is not intrinsically any one of them, so those are at
best tangentially relevant, and more likely irrelevant, to the issue at hand.

Also, those are tenets of PC culture, not “PC culture aside”.

> As well as I should be able to incorporate that hat and a skirt in any of my
> designs or mockups if those please my senses and fit my vision, right?

You can, just as you can include a figure with and extended middle finger.
OTOH, product designs are a form of communication, and communication done
without awareness of what symbols mean to the audience tends to be less
effective or even counterproductive.

~~~
rinchik
Middle finger is universal. I feels like you are saying oranges and I'm
talking about apples.

What about me seeing a (what I perceive as) bag of oats on some drawn porch in
one of the Huawei adds? Should I scream of indecency and insensitivity,
suggesting that Huawei promotes something offensive, and start trolling their
support channels?

------
fluffyto
I have a question... Mao Zedong used to wear a green hat... that means that he
was a cuckold? Are chinese people offended by maoists with the green hat? Is
Luigi offensive in China? Or Link from Zelda? I just want to understand.

~~~
dang
Please don't post unsubstantive comments here.

~~~
fluffyto
Perhaps you can explain me why you think my comment is unsubstantive. I was in
China, and the images of Mao with the green hat with the communist star are
very common. And he is like a god there. So please, explain me the difference.
And of course is not an unsbstantive comment, you're offending me.

~~~
dang
I'm sure you have a lot of interesting things to say about your experiences,
and they're welcome here. But your comment upthread was not the way to do this
on HN. The ratio of inflammation to information was too high in your comment.

If you'd like to post a longer, thoughtful comment about your experience, that
would be fine. Such a comment should include information that people can learn
from. If it contains inflammatory details, it should convey them neutrally,
rather than in a way that is likely to provoke fiery reactions. That way your
post will more likely lead to good conversation, which is what this site is
for, rather than angry argument, which it is not.

These considerations grow in importance as a topic becomes more divisive, the
way nationalistic topics and especially large ideological topics (e.g. Mao)
inevitably are.

In addition to
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html),
you might find these links helpful for getting the spirit of this site:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/hackernews.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/hackernews.html)

[http://www.paulgraham.com/trolls.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/trolls.html)

[http://www.paulgraham.com/hackernews.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/hackernews.html)

------
xfitm3
Quoted comment:

“Sorry, but it's a bit ridiculous that something as minor as the color of a
tiny hat in an image that's only going to be seen once can be "fixed" so
quickly, when other REAL issues that are actually related to Visual Studio
itself get closed as "not a priority".”

~~~
mcphage
That's not a useful comment. Changing a hat color can be changed quickly
because it's easy. Fixing "real" issues is a lot more difficult, requiring
more time, people, development, qa, and so on.

------
alexandernst
The biggest BS of the year...

------
chews
It’s a me, Luigi.... :-( Mario, you’re my brother...

------
jimueller
It's not offensive. This title is overblown.

