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Ethanol-fueled and darkfeline wrote in with an Ars Technica article on a demonstration of how promoted tweets can be easily abused:
Promoted tweets have been part of the Twitter service since 2010, and they've allowed advertisers to pick and choose who sees specific ads based on "what a user chooses to follow, how they interact with a Tweet, what they retweet, and more." But users have found how loosely those ads are monitored or filtered before they reach users' eyeballs—and how cheap, fast, and easy the system can be exploited to annoy users as opposed to "engaging" them.
"I decided to spend a few pennies on Twitter ads today," [Weev's] post started, and he asserted that the platform's pricing structures "don't seem to take into account that one might want only to generate negative reactions to ad campaigns." Though Auernheimer didn't say exactly which users/groups he chose to target in his trolling campaign, he listed examples that appeared to jive with the sample of angry responses that followed: people who are active in Democratic political campaigns or animal rights groups; women who shop for fine jewelry; followers of known feminist sites like Jezebel and Feministing.
(Score: -1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2015, @09:47AM
Should sexist opensource developers have their projects censored or removed?
Recently an opensource game release story was removed due to the game developer's open sexism(0) and harrasment(1) of women in tech.
A story posted by the editor of the popular Phoronix linux news site about a release of an Open Source videogame was later manually removed(2). The reason cited was the game developer's unacceptable views on social issues such as gender equality (3).
The release story was titled "Xonotic-Forked ChaosEsqueAnthology Sees New Release - Phoronix" and can be accessed via the google cache(4).
With the recent inclusion of a code of conduct(5) for those wishing to contribute to the Linux Kernel some questions now need to be asked and answered about the inclusion of code from people who are known to engage in or promote socially unacceptable attitudes or harrasments of those whom the free-software movement would prefer to attract in their place:
* Are the social or political views of an author of free software relevant to that software's inherent quality?
* Should the beliefs of an opensource developer weigh when when evaluating whether a piece of opensource software is worthy of any publicity or public notice?
* Should men with unpopular or "forbidden" views be excised from the opensource movement and "not allowed" to contribute, in a manner similar to that which is done in employment?
* Has the free/opensource software movement changed in these respects since its founding? If so is this a positive change?
* Should there be gatekeepers to opensource that decide who may and who may not contribute. Should abusive developers be "blackballed" to maintain proper social order and controls?
and
* What are the consequences of not doing this
Citations:
(0) Past related incident: http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=1310 [ibiblio.org]
(1) http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Debian_and_LinuxChix_harassment_by_MikeeUSA [wikia.com]
(2) Removed story URL: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=ChaosEsqueAnthology-Rel-51 [phoronix.com]
(3) http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?115776-Xonotic-Forked-ChaosEsqueAnthology-Sees-New-Release/page2 [phoronix.com]
"Fortunately, the article has been removed now."
"Thanks everybody for speaking up."
(4) https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:JeCIgSFrBlgJ:http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page%3Dnews_item%26px%3DChaosEsqueAnthology-Rel-51%2Bchaosesque&gbv=1&tbs=qdr:w&hl=en&&ct=clnk [googleusercontent.com]
(5) Linux "Code of Conflict"
http://whatwillweuse.com/fodder/terrorware/ [whatwillweuse.com]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by kaszz on Thursday May 07 2015, @09:58AM
It will be the same way as software done by corporate cubicles vs FOSS software. But with a new twist. Software done by approved people vs people that are just good at what they are doing.
And who gets to decide who will be "ok" ..? It smells gatekeeping, privileges, irrelevant agenda etc. All feel good but bad results in reality.
Being polite to other group members in projects you work on is one thing. Policing their personal life something completely different.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2015, @10:02AM
They've already gotten free software deleted from it's host because the author was a sexist: http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=1310 [ibiblio.org]
http://whatwillweuse.com/fodder/terrorware/ [whatwillweuse.com]
They passed that milestone years ago even.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2015, @01:15PM
dont feed the fucking troll......
(Score: 2) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Thursday May 07 2015, @02:38PM
What about ReiserFS?
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday May 07 2015, @02:45PM
Not being polite is one thing. Murder is another..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @03:59AM
A filesystem by a man who did the correct thing.
Deuteronomy supports his actions. He followed the law of God.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by bradley13 on Thursday May 07 2015, @10:41AM
Your comment has been moderated "off-topic", which is fair enough. But you raise valid questions, and I think your comment could be turned into an interesting submission.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2015, @10:50AM
Submitted:
http://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=7253¬e=&title=Should+sexist+opensource+developers+be+banned%3F [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by moondrake on Thursday May 07 2015, @11:40AM
eh...you are not seriously proposing giving our biggest troll more air time?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2015, @04:45PM
Oh please, this guy is just a lame broken record. The only big thing here is his head.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2015, @08:34PM
Why not?
Are you afraid of his words?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2015, @08:51PM
> Are you afraid of his words?
Yes, the righteous power of his words have me cowering in fear!!!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @03:55AM
The submission is nolonger in the queue
(Score: 4, Insightful) by kurenai.tsubasa on Thursday May 07 2015, @01:23PM
Go the fuck away, MikeeUSA.