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GitHub, the git repository hosting service, recently disabled access to the repository of the video converter "WebM for Retards".
This tool, allowing a user to easily convert portions of a video to the increasingly supported WebM format, is mostly used on image-boards and image sharing websites. Despite its name, the project is a fully working tool.
Even the forks hosted on GitHub have been affected by this ban.
At the time of writing, the GitHub staff hasn't offered any form of explanation as to why access to the repo has been limited. However it is not hard to imagine that this may have to do with the name of the project. The recent news regarding DICCS come to mind.
takyon: From GitHub's Terms of Service:
We may, but have no obligation to, remove Content and Accounts containing Content that we determine in our sole discretion are unlawful, offensive, threatening, libelous, defamatory, pornographic, obscene or otherwise objectionable or violates any party's intellectual property or these Terms of Service.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2015, @08:20PM
> But retard is a legitimate medical term indicating someone that had their development limited against their original potential.
And fag means cigarette. That words can have more than one meaning doesn't exonerate someone who is clearly using the derogatory meaning. That is developmentally limited thinking.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2015, @09:53PM
But what of those who self identify as fag or retard. In the former case in the form of reclaiming a word for a community whilst removing it from pejorative usage. In the latter those that merely doubt their skills in a significant way.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2015, @11:03PM
> In the former case in the form of reclaiming a word for a community
Since they are actually part of that community then it isn't a derogatory usage.
> In the latter those that merely doubt their skills in a significant way.
That's derogatory usage since they medical definition doesn't actually apply.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2015, @11:53PM
You're a derogatory moron simpleton idiot fool retard dope cocksucker.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 26 2015, @02:45AM
> You're a derogatory moron simpleton idiot fool retard dope cocksucker.
And since you are a member of all those groups it is OK for you to use those terms.
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Sunday July 26 2015, @12:49PM
Since they are actually part of that community then it isn't a derogatory usage.
Even if you aren't part of that community, that doesn't mean the usage is "derogatory". There's no such thing as a word that is inherently "bad." Whether they meant it in a "derogatory" way depends on their intent.
(Score: 1) by Pino P on Sunday July 26 2015, @09:36PM
There's no such thing as a word that is inherently "bad." Whether they meant it in a "derogatory" way depends on their intent.
Perhaps a word is deemed "bad" if a supermajority of its recent uses have carried derogatory intent.
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Sunday July 26 2015, @09:45PM
But that's still subjective. Furthermore, even a supermajority use it in a way that people deem derogatory, it's still possible to use it without that intent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 27 2015, @07:08AM
What is your goal in making this argument?
Are you just nit-picking or is there a meaningful point to stating the obvious fact that nothing that humans do is 100% black and white?
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Monday July 27 2015, @11:30AM
There is a meaningful point when a great number of people don't realize that. And I can't tell the difference between people who truly believe it's an objective matter and people who realize it's a subjective matter but frame the matter as if it's an objective matter; I have to ask or make some comment to find out.
(Score: 2) by Francis on Saturday July 25 2015, @11:14PM
Since they're a part of the community, they should know where the precise line lies. The problem isn't so much the words themselves, it's when people using them inccorectly. For words like nigger, there's very few contexts in which it's OK for anybody to say them. Other words like fag have contexts in which it's OK for pretty much anybody to say and contexts in which it's not OK for anybody to say.
I personally think it's foolish for people to continue to use such words as it just serves to give cover to bigots, but I don't really get to tell other people that they can't use those words.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by No Respect on Saturday July 25 2015, @11:28PM
What I find most offensive is efforts to legislate morality. It cannot be effectively done, yet so many people persist in trying to do it. Next they'll try to make it illegal to even think the bad words in one's mind, even while never giving them voice. I don't use a lot of so-called offensive words in my day-to-day life mainly because I try to be considerate of others. That doesn't mean if I let a few slip now and then that I should be ostracized or forever afterward be looked down at as a thought-criminal. Fuck that.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Francis on Saturday July 25 2015, @11:42PM
This isn't an effort to legislate morality. This is a private business that chooses not to endorse offensive language. Unless they're picking and choosing to suit themselves, I don't see a problem here. It's hard to say why they're just doing it now, it might well be that nobody had complained. Automating searches for offensive words is not something that works out very well. Sometimes people don't even notice it until it's pointed out. I can't imagine that the Penis-land people really meant to name their website that rather than the more likely Pen-island.
And it's all well and good to be offended by efforts to get people to have a bit more sensitivity when you're not the one that the language is being targeted at.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by jmorris on Sunday July 26 2015, @01:30AM
Don't think anybody would argue against the notion that as a private entity they are free to toss anyone off they feel like... unless they are a government protected minority of course. Doublethink at its finest.
What should be going through the mind of everyone who hosts content there or depends on content hosted there is this: Github is not under the control of the suits and any remaining geeks are out of power. The only rational response is RUN! See Slashdot, Sourceforge, etc. for examples of what is going to happen soon.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Francis on Sunday July 26 2015, @02:13AM
This should have happened long ago. Or really somebody should have pointed out how it looks. Same goes for Gimp, it's a harmless acronym, but as a name it probably doesn't send the kind of message they intend to send.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 26 2015, @02:43AM
> Github is not under the control of the suits and any remaining geeks are out of power.
You don't get to speak for all geeks. There are tons of bigotted suits and tons of respectful geeks. Just because you are kind of an asshole geek doesn't mean the rest of us are.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anal Pumpernickel on Sunday July 26 2015, @12:52PM
I don't think that someone is an "asshole" merely for using certain words or not being oversensitive.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 26 2015, @07:58PM
> I don't think that someone is an "asshole" merely for using certain words or not being oversensitive.
Aren't you a clever little asshole, trying to define away what it means to be an asshole in order to avoid facing uncomfortable truths.
Yay for being an ostrich!
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Sunday July 26 2015, @09:33PM
Aren't you a clever little asshole, trying to define away what it means to be an asshole in order to avoid facing uncomfortable truths.
Funny how it can be so easily turned against you. As far as I'm aware, there's no scientific and objective definition of "asshole" in this context. I was merely giving my opinion about this subjective matter.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 27 2015, @07:10AM
> I was merely giving my opinion about this subjective matter.
To what end? As they say opinions are like assholes...
If your point is that context matters, congratulations captain obvious!
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Monday July 27 2015, @11:27AM
And yet many people don't realize that simple fact, getting offended by mere words no matter how they're used, and denouncing certain words as objectively "bad". Furthermore, the word "asshole" was used above as if it had an objective meaning; it wasn't stated as an opinion.
(Score: 1) by goose on Monday July 27 2015, @10:08AM
This isn't an effort to legislate morality. This is a private business that chooses not to endorse offensive language.
Maybe - or maybe it is a (stupid) attempt from github to spread their own particular ideology. If it was really about offensive words then they shouldn't have allowed people to use the 'git' source control software, or allow them to host gimp plugins. Allowing 'git', 'gimp' (and others) while denying retard is just plain stupid. For crying out loud, do a search for "government idiots" on github and see what you come up with.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 26 2015, @12:57PM
For words like nigger, there's very few contexts in which it's OK for anybody to say them.
Whether it's okay or not is subjective. There is no such thing as a word that is objectively bad.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by curunir_wolf on Sunday July 26 2015, @02:59PM
I am a crackpot
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 27 2015, @07:15AM
> And the most popular series of books ever is the "... For Dummies" series.
So what? This isn't about using generic insults, it's about using words that have implications against people who do not deserve those implications.
There isn't a group of dummies out there who are unfairly invoked by reference when someone uses the word dummy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 26 2015, @06:12AM
Frankly this whole thing is entirely dishonest coming from an entity called a hub for gits.