[KLUG Advocacy] Re: Decency Standards for Open Source

[Bruce Smith]

> >>http://digg.com/technology/Decency_Standards_for_Open_Source

Nice article!

I will say that the term "community" that decides where draw the line 
is rather hard to define in this day of the _world_ wide web.

I'm starting to come to the conclusion that in this day and age 
that it's impossible to do anything that doesn't offend someone.  
This leads to more and more "politically correctness", which in 
turn leads to a more dull and bland world.  (IMO)

Here's some more examples:  I'm a developer on the Devil-Linux
distribution, and every few months someone emails us saying they are
offended by the word "Devil".  They claim that the name is holding us
back because of all the people who won't use it just because of the
name.  And of course they try to get us to change the name.

I always ask them if they are also offended by Devil's Food Cake and
Dirt-Devil vacuum cleaners.  (but I've never got an answer to that)

I also point out that there are other definitions for "Devil" that are
not related to Satan.   i.e.:
4 : a person of notable energy, recklessness, and dashing spirit; also :
one who is mischievous <those kids are little devils today>
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=devil&x=15&y=21

But with fanatics, it's a waste of time to argue with them.  They have
their mind made up and closed.

Someone else pointed out that the word "Devil" means even worse things
in part of Africa (not sure exactly what).  Which leads me to believe
that even choosing the most bland name possible for something, it'll
probably be translated to something offensive in some other language.

So far we've resisted all attempts to change the name of Devil-Linux,
but it is very annoying every time this comes up.


I've also read stories about people being refused service in stores and
restaurants because they had a FreeBSD T-shirt on.  After all, those
guys must be Satan worshipers since they have a devil on their shirt!


Another story:  I ate at a very popular, out of the way, restaurant last
weekend.  Great food and a really cool place.  It's a half+ hour drive
from Kalamazoo and we usually make it there a couple times a year.

Until recently, they had some really nice poster sized pictures in the
rest room (the men's room anyway, not sure about the other).  These
posters were all of really sweet classic cars.  They also had a nice
looking bikini clad woman in the pictures, but noting explicit.  The
last couple times we went there, these pictures are gone, replaced by
the empty wall.  I don't know this for a fact, but I'd be willing to bet
that the reason the posters were removed is because someone complained.
That just pisses me off!  If I was the restaurant owner, I would have
had some choice words for the person who complained, the pictures would
have stayed, and I would have lost a customer.   (probably a good thing
I don't own a business catering to the general public! :)

The last example has nothing to do with open-source, but it still has me
fuming that some people are so intolerant and "politically correct"
these days, and I just wanted to vent.  :-)

 - BS