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posted by on Monday April 10 2017, @07:43AM   Printer-friendly
from the i-can't-tell-who-is-toxic-anymore dept.

Michael Larabel over at Phoronix brings us news of a stealth Social Justice coup over at FreeDesktop.org:

X.Org, GStreamer, Wayland, LibreOffice, Mesa, VA-API, Harfbuzz, and SPICE are among the many projects hosted by FreeDesktop.org that now appear to be on a contributor covenant / code of conduct.

The Contributor Covenant for those unfamiliar with it is trying to promote a code of conduct for open-source projects that is trying to promote diversity and equality of contributors to libre software projects. From the covenant's website, "Part of this problem [of "free, libre, and open source projects suffer from a startling lack of diversity, with dramatically low representation by women, people of color, and other marginalized populations"] lies with the very structure of some projects: the use of insensitive language, thoughtless use of pronouns, assumptions of gender, and even sexualized or culturally insensitive names."

The covenant states in part that those contributing should use welcoming and inclusive language, be respectful to others, showing empathy towards others, avoid insulting comments, and avoid inappropriate conduct. For the most part, it's basically common sense.

Now it seems this Contributor Covenant is being forced onto all FreeDesktop.org-hosted projects.


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  • (Score: 2) by Zyx Abacab on Monday April 10 2017, @09:42PM (2 children)

    by Zyx Abacab (3701) on Monday April 10 2017, @09:42PM (#491950)

    An AC made this point, but it bears repeating: correlation is not causation.

    • All the places you name are quite warm, with long periods of little or no precipitation. Temperature has a measurable effect on decision-making [scientificamerican.com]. Why isn't climate to blame?
    • Those places are also generally low-lying, geographically speaking, with large areas of smooth terrain. Why isn't geography to blame?
    • Being more southernly, these places also experience less seasonal variation in the amount of daylight. Why isn't the monotony to blame?

    There are a lot of common factors and any one of them could be the culprit. Evidence is necessary to make this kind of judgment.

    I'm not saying it isn't religion; the reason for a lack of innovation might very well be religion. What I am saying is that your opinion is predicated on a shaky premise.

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  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday April 10 2017, @10:16PM (1 child)

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Monday April 10 2017, @10:16PM (#491969)

    All the places you name are quite warm, with long periods of little or no precipitation.

    You'll have to support this one. Are you talking about the southerly, uninnovative places? In the American southeast at least, this is completely false: it rains there all the time, and weather is notoriously hard to predict as rainstorms can last for very short periods. Also, South America extends pretty far south; it isn't tropical-warm in south Argentina. And a good part of Australia is pretty warm (even tropical in the north).

    Those places are also generally low-lying, geographically speaking, with large areas of smooth terrain. Why isn't geography to blame?

    Western Europe fits this description very well, and according to Jared Diamond is a big reason it was so successful historically. So why were they successful yet many other places with large areas of smooth terrain weren't? And Japan doesn't fit this description at all (very mountainous), yet also is successful.

    Finally, I point to ancient Rome. It was quite warm, low-lying with smooth terrain, southerly with less variation in daylight, and yet it was extremely successful and innovative for a while, with aquaducts, plumbing, concrete, etc. They had religion of a sort (the Roman Pagan gods), but then notice that after they adopted Christianity, it all fell apart and the innovation was gone. Other ancient civilizations were very innovative too, and had polytheistic religions. Perhaps the common thread is monotheistic Abrahamic religions: places that adopt those in a strong way seem to invariably become non-innovative.

    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday April 11 2017, @12:36PM

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Tuesday April 11 2017, @12:36PM (#492231) Homepage
      >> Those places are also generally low-lying, geographically speaking, with large areas of smooth terrain. Why isn't geography to blame?

      > Western Europe fits this description very well

      Ah, yes, the Alps, that well-known salt-flat.
      --
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