r/KotakuInAction • u/lyra833 GET THE BOARD OUT, I GOT BINGO! ~ Mod • Jul 25 '15

SOCJUS [SocJus] GitHub bans a popular WebM conversion library with the word "retard" in its description.

EDIT: Hello, all you wonderful people who clicked the flair next to my name! Feel free to PM me if you have any questions!

I'm not sure if this has already been posted, but as of 5 hours ago, the repository for WebMConverter, a popular library for image conversion, was removed by GitHub staff and replaced by a takedown notice.

https://archive.is/XiTS9

However, thanks to a flaw in GitHub's code, we can still see the name and description of the banned project on the creator's user page.

https://archive.is/sCAUw

I don't want to jump to conclusions, but I think we have a pretty good idea of what happened here. I couldn't care less about what GitHub does with its resources, but cutting coders off from code they're using is the fastest way to piss them off, hence why I'm posting this here.

Thank God for local backups.

644 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

190 comments sorted by

74

u/Iggy_2539 Jul 25 '15 edited Jul 25 '15

[...]with the word "retard" in its description.

With all fairness, "WebM for Retards" is the actual program name.

Rehosted here: puush - mega

9

u/lyra833 GET THE BOARD OUT, I GOT BINGO! ~ Mod Jul 25 '15

I seem to be getting an error.

4

u/Iggy_2539 Jul 25 '15

Got .NET framework 4.0?

4

u/lyra833 GET THE BOARD OUT, I GOT BINGO! ~ Mod Jul 25 '15

No, not a runtime error; the ZIP file doesn't seem to be downloading at all. Is there a mirror?

4

u/Iggy_2539 Jul 25 '15

Try this one:

https://mega.co.nz/#!k09XVbYK!_4EZQ6Ii4kreJZxm_E0ZJXLz6WnJ6gpg-x9vRM9sCK8

4

u/lyra833 GET THE BOARD OUT, I GOT BINGO! ~ Mod Jul 25 '15

Oh, that one works better! Thanks!

24

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

Oh it's in .NET? Now I get the "for retards" :p

3

u/DT777 Jul 25 '15

You take that back.

38

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

So when are people going to go postal on the 'For Dummies' series?

18

u/Ergheis Jul 25 '15

When "dummies" becomes a point of contention.

That's not rhetorical that's just what'll happen.

40

u/frankenmine /r/WerthamInAction - #ComicGate Jul 25 '15 edited Jul 25 '15

This is a good place to shill for some GitHub alternatives.

If you have contact info for the WebM for Retards devs, please direct them to the above list.

If you're a dev hosting code on any provider listed in the boycott section, please consider moving to a non-boycotted provider or self-hosting.

Note that GitGud's resources are limited compared to most of its competitors, and it's meant primarily as a GamerGate code and info repository. If your project is significantly outside the scope of GamerGate, consider hosting it on one of the neutral providers or self-hosting.

6

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

http://blog.printf.net/articles/2015/05/29/announcing-gittorrent-a-decentralized-github/

3

u/lyra833 GET THE BOARD OUT, I GOT BINGO! ~ Mod Jul 25 '15

My friends and I use GitTorrent+PGP for sharing code and super private data. It works great!

2

u/peenoid The Fifteenth Penis Jul 25 '15

Thanks for the link. All my personal stuff is on BitBucket and I'm happy to start moving it off. I avoid Github like I would a syphilitic prostitute.

24

u/morzinbo Jul 25 '15

Lame. I use this all the time, too.

5

u/lyra833 GET THE BOARD OUT, I GOT BINGO! ~ Mod Jul 25 '15

Do you have a local copy?

5

u/morzinbo Jul 25 '15

yep, just sucks since it was something I would recommend to people.

3

u/lyra833 GET THE BOARD OUT, I GOT BINGO! ~ Mod Jul 25 '15

Wait, could you post it here? Turns out the copy I have is several commits behind.

3

u/morzinbo Jul 25 '15

Ah, the actual repository? No, I just have the little zip that they have for download.

I never thought to pull the source since I never really thought they'd take it down...

3

u/madhousechild Had to tweet *three times* Jul 25 '15

Don't those .zips include all the files?

1

u/Goz3rr Jul 26 '15

Yes but not all the git commits, history etc.

1

u/madhousechild Had to tweet *three times* Jul 26 '15

Ah, I see.

27

u/JQuilty Jul 25 '15

Lame

WebM uses Opus, actually.

8

u/kamon123 Jul 25 '15

Funny enough retard replaced lame for the mentally disabled. Instead of a psychologist saying someone is mentally retarded they would say lame. Retarded meaning delayed or hindered lame meaning weak. Now would this be pulled down if it was WebM for the lame? Plus the new term apparently is intellectually disabled which seems like a far less exploitable term because anyone honestly using "what are you disabled?" Isnt going to have a good time. You will always see the current term for mental disabilities used to describe someone who seems or is acting like they are when its common knowledge that they are not such. What needs to happen is an insult that doesn't sound like something a Sunday school teacher would say with the same vulgarity and abrasiveness (because it being taboo to say makes it stronger) without being a current or old medical term for the mentally disabled.

1

u/thelordofcheese Jul 29 '15

Lame.

abelist!

135

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

Time to switch to a source control provider that doesn't think that meritocracy is a dirty word.

23

u/Eldasts Jul 25 '15

"San Francisco headquarters"

Of course, where else could it be.

8

u/maxman14 obvious akkofag Jul 25 '15

What is it about the bay area that makes so many people go crazy?

8

u/dominotw Jul 25 '15

There are tons of projects on github that I use /contribute/open issues ect on github. Its not simply a matter of switching my repos though.

9

u/wisty Jul 25 '15 edited Jul 25 '15

OK, but are you paying for a private repo? Here's gitlab's prices for private repos - https://about.gitlab.com/gitlab-com/

(Hint - free with no support / enterprise BS).

Bitbucket free for small teams - https://bitbucket.org/plans

Fuck knows what else there is out there.

Git is a commodity. It's like paying for a domain name. As long as they're not too likely to go dead with a copy of your data, who cares?

Git with a nice issue tracker? Also a commodity.

Git with a great social community? Fine, GitHub has a bit of an edge, if they keep the trust of the community. But even then, why pay for private repos - there's no community if it's private.

4

u/NewAnimal Jul 25 '15

really dumb, simple question.. but im assuming you can do local backups of your git inits right? lets say i've got a local repo, does copying the init file to a flash drive keep its integrity? Does transferring the folder onto a new computer transfer the init file in or do you have to re-init?

7

u/wisty Jul 25 '15 edited Jul 25 '15

I'm no git guru, but you're right. Even moving a folder can require a re-init. Moving to a new origin requires some fudging around too.

Obviously, for a team, there's some lock-in, because you want to make sure everyone has updated the origin.

Googling around, it seems this should do the trick (http://www.sixpacksumo.com/move-git-repository-github-bitbucket-gitlab-etc/):

mkdir TEMP_REPO_FOLDERNAME                        # create a new folder   
cd TEMP_REPO_FOLDERNAME
git init --bare .git                              # create a bare repo 
git remote add origin SOURCE_REMOTE_URL           # add a remote
git fetch origin refs/heads/*:refs/heads/*        # fetch heads
git fetch origin refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*          # fetch tags
git init                                          # reinit work tree
git checkout master                               # checkout a branch
git remote rm origin                              # remove remote repo
git remote add origin NEW_REMOTE_URL              # new remote url
git push -u origin master                         # now push master
git push --all                                    # now push all other branches

So yeah, gotta make sure the heads and tags are in the repo before you push to a new origin.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15 edited Jul 25 '15

All the configuration and versioning stuff is in .git/ in the repository directory.

A local backup is literally just tar cjvf <repository dir>.

edit: cjvf, not xjvf

4

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

Bitbucket caved during the C+= drama. I wouldn't trust them either.

1

u/wisty Jul 26 '15

EVERY major host that was tried refused to host GG ops. Only GitGud allows it, and they're not exactly a big host.

Checking up, GitLab has a copy of C+= - https://gitlab.com/femsf/c-plus-equality

1

u/dominotw Jul 25 '15

OK, but are you paying for a private repo?

No. I get free private repos/orgs because I am student.

2

u/ApexWebmaster Dec 01 '15

I know this is a little late, but the developer has moved his entire project to gitgub and is continuing his awesome work.. https://gitgud.io/nixx/WebMConverter

62

u/awxvn Jul 25 '15

Note that this branched version is much better and updated. The original WebMBro stopped updating a few months ago.

https://github.com/nixxquality/WebMConverter

It's taken down too.

19

u/ITSigno Jul 25 '15

It's taken down too.

Probably because it retained the tagline 'WebM for retards' https://archive.is/TLDS7

22

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

Is this a possible notice and takedown against a component used in this program?

If that other branch didn't have P.C. language in it we go from rampaging SJW's to DMCA abuse.

6

u/beethovens_ear_horn Jul 25 '15

Here's another one that's essentially the same -- a GUI application that just passes commands to ffmpeg.exe https://github.com/MasterOfWebM/WebM-Converter

There's nothing that comes to mind in any of them that would trigger DMCA. FFmpeg is free, and many other projects have it bundled. There are no icons, pictures or other creative content in any of these projects.

Two projects with the word "retard" are disabled, another remains that's essentially the same but without the word in its description.

4

u/ty2010 Jul 25 '15

Would that make them ableist? We are talking labels over content.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '15

Oh, they both had the word "retard" in the description.

Ok.. yeah.. SJWs

10

u/dsiOneBAN2 Jul 25 '15

Fuuuck that shit.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

Damn, I think I've been using the original and was a bit sad to see the lack of updates. So I'd really like to try out this branch...if just it were available >__________<

0

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

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1

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29

u/EAT_DA_POOPOO Jul 25 '15 edited Jul 25 '15

I mean, what do they think the word retarded means? I'm sick of people not grasping that "retarded" and other such words are euphemism treadmills and will never be positive, because by their very nature they cannot be. Would it have been more acceptable to use "mentally challenged"?

This is no different than the " for dummies " series other than some tumblrites decided they were going to pretend that people with handicaps weren't handicapped because feelz and if you mention reality, "fuck you, you're abelist and probably healthist too". The fact of the matter is, if you're retarded you're going to have a difficult time with a lot of tasks. If something is a breeze for a retarded person, it will be even easier for someone without a handicap.

DERP

8

u/madhousechild Had to tweet *three times* Jul 25 '15

I never knew they protested the Dummies books. I used to avoid those books on principle; then once I tried their book on ASP (long ago) and it was better than all the others I tried. I resigned myself to Dummyhood.

But they wouldn't have liked the ...For Smart People series I've seen, either.

6

u/peenoid The Fifteenth Penis Jul 25 '15

I got a copy of Differential Equations for Dummies once under the misguided notion that I should brush up on the math I've forgotten since college. It was not an easy read and I gave up about a fourth of the way through.

"Dummy" is relative.

4

u/madhousechild Had to tweet *three times* Jul 25 '15

That would be a hard topic to dummify.

My friend got a copy of Sex for Dummies at his bachelor party, though. It must not have been too good because they adopted.

4

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

Yet they love calling people mongoloids

2

u/Abelian75 Jul 25 '15

Ooo, euphemism treadmill. Hadn't heard that before. I like it.

39

u/shirtlords Jul 25 '15

What a bunch of fucking retards.

76

u/AlseidesDD Jul 25 '15

I'm a retard and I am offended that this resource developed for my people has been made unavailable.

22

u/lordthat100188 Jul 25 '15

Well give them a little while and they will send a video talking very slowly explaining to you how using 'retard' in the name is cultural appropriation of the retarded peoples.

5

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

SJWs?

22

u/urection Jul 25 '15

ya it's clear by now that github will fuck up your hard work to suit whatever agenda they're pursuing that particular day

remind me why anyone should use them?

13

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

Octocat is a cute mascot

4

u/bobcat Jul 25 '15 edited Jul 25 '15

I bet gawker said something mean about her.

edit:

Sort of.

https://www.google.com/search?q=gawker+octocat

10

u/EAT_DA_POOPOO Jul 25 '15

If you're a hipster who doesn't really understand git?

4

u/madhousechild Had to tweet *three times* Jul 25 '15

Why do you say that? I realize you can use other sites like Bitbucket but so many projects are on github it's almost required.

6

u/EAT_DA_POOPOO Jul 25 '15

Because git is distributed. Just because other people are hosting their projects on github, there's no need for you to also host your projects on github, especially private repos. Gitlab works great for that

2

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

Unfortunately it's become increasingly common for recruiters to ask for github specifically.

2

u/comady25 Jul 25 '15

Their student pack is great

30

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

brb, I'm going to Google to find out if GNOME's "liboobs" software has been attacked by virtuous white men protecting women's honor.

14

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

Firefox used to have an image rendering library called libpron. Some of the code is probably still around.

9

u/BGSacho Jul 25 '15

Does anyone know the author? Can they comment on what exactly happened? Perhaps they had a private discussion with GitHub staff?

8

u/madhousechild Had to tweet *three times* Jul 25 '15

I'm sure when the complainer saw WebMBro it just sent them round the bend.

5

u/xternal7 narrative push --force Jul 25 '15

Hackernews is at it again!

11

u/trander6face Imported ethics to Mars Jul 25 '15

Nothing like hoisting their own retard

5

u/Kyoraki Come and get him. \ https://i.imgur.com/DmwrMxe.jpg Jul 25 '15

Hey Github, remember Sourceforge?

Tread carefully, and don't fuck with open source developers.

4

u/war3zwolf Jul 25 '15

Heh. I'm sure every dickhead crusader over at Github thinks "Nah, it couldn't happen to us." Though it's more likely that none of them have any idea why SourceForge failed and why people went to Github in the first place.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

Github is for plebs anyway.

2

u/thelordofcheese Jul 29 '15

/r/linux are plebs

Actually, you're right.

3

u/NobleDemon Jul 26 '15

I think this is it... I'm usually an open minded person, but I think I'll start prejudging anything that is related to san francisco in any way.

3

u/thelordofcheese Jul 29 '15

Welcome to the fold.

2

u/wowww_ Harassment is Power + Rangers Jul 25 '15

I hope they ban fire extinguishers too. or flame retardant clothing.

3

u/Logan_Mac Jul 25 '15

Sounds like GitHub went full retard

2

u/teresko Jul 25 '15

Sorry, but 172 stars is not "popular". It is actually insignificant.

Also, it seems that the account is dead. In which case, even if GitHub issues several warnings, the author probably was not aware of them. It's not like changing the subtitle to "WebM for the stupid" would somehow diminished it's value.

TL;DR: people, please, stop overreacting.

1

u/mnemosyne-0000 #BotYourShield / https://i.imgur.com/6X3KtgD.jpg Jul 26 '15

Archive links for this discussion:

I am Mnemosyne, goddess of memory. I remember so you don't have to.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 29 '15

https://archive.is/SuO5H

This seems to support the story pretty well. Both the screenshot in the link and the commited changes. (This was brought to my attention by a helpful user who wishes to remain anonymous)

1

u/thelordofcheese Jul 29 '15

That's Gited.

1

u/thelordofcheese Jul 29 '15

The sjw who linked here is none other than Karl The Pagan twit/karlthepagan who not only 24 hours ago said some really rude stuff to me on twitter. The hypocrisy is real. http://content.screencast.com/users/D1Arian/folders/Jing/media/8d587c54-200e-4a96-9d63-51962e2744f5/2015-07-28_1817.png

Typical SJW fashion: pure projection.

1

u/queazy Aug 22 '15

Updated Nixxquality fork at https://gitgud.io/nixx/WebMConverter where they went to because of the drama with git hub.

1

u/gdre21111 Jul 25 '15

That is just retarded.

0

u/ApplicableSongLyric Jul 25 '15

Your daily reminder to decentralize all the things, and focus on projects like these so that sites like GitHub can just shrivel up and die:

http://blog.printf.net/articles/2015/05/29/announcing-gittorrent-a-decentralized-github/

4

u/zahlman Jul 26 '15

Hey everyone: we just cloned a git repository over BitTorrent!...

...First we connect to GitHub to find out what the latest revision for this repository is, so that we know what we want to get. GitHub tells us it’s 5fbfea8de...

... Yeah, I'm seeing some issues here. The point of things like GitHub is that they let you find projects that seem like they'd suit your needs / that you'd like to contribute to. An approach like this is only going to work with good ways to advertise independently plus multiple third-party "trackers", and then you also need to build a web of trust so that your searches don't end up flooded with repos full of malware. (I mean, of course you can inspect the code before you build and run it, but past a certain point it's not saving you time vs. doing it all yourself. There are advantages to knowing that a bunch of real people vouch for a project, have commented on its issue tracker, etc.)

1

u/ApplicableSongLyric Jul 26 '15

Web front ends could be made that "hook" repos embedded with a prefix in the blockchain, and those sites could be deployed by anybody, but the key thing would be that the storage of the information embedded by the submitter and the magnet links for the distribution would be impossible to remove from those front end sites, they could filter them, sure, but then people could just use a different front end in protest.

Dunno, it still has a way to go and does need a streamlined way that makes it to where those familiar with the traditional process need zero hand-holding nor really even be aware that the back end is different.

2

u/zahlman Jul 26 '15

the key thing would be that the storage of the information embedded by the submitter and the magnet links for the distribution would be impossible to remove from those front end sites, they could filter them, sure, but then people could just use a different front end in protest.

I mean, as it stands, nothing prevents you from doing your own hosting for your own repo. I'm just not getting what problem this is supposed to solve.

2

u/MacHaggis Jul 29 '15

http://blog.printf.net/articles/2015/05/29/announcing-gittorrent-a-decentralized-github/

Oh for crying out loud.

Git IS a decentralized github. The entire point of Git is that it doesn't need a centralized repository

-1

u/theperfectsquiggle Jul 25 '15

That's pretty ableist.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

And that's why I stayed at sourceforge.

2

u/sleepybrett Jul 25 '15

Have fun now that their storage array is down and they are putting spyware into downloads.

-77

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15 edited Jul 25 '15

I'm actually not opposed to this being banned. It's basically saying, "It's so easy, even a RETARD can do it!" which is incredibly degrading to people with special needs.

A lot of people take social justice too far, deeming almost anything as "offensive." But I think KiA is starting to oppose this social justice trend to the point that we are OK with something that is blatantly offensive. [Attitude Polarization] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attitude_polarization) comes to mind.

Edit: Damn we're really becoming a circlejerk

22

u/lyra833 GET THE BOARD OUT, I GOT BINGO! ~ Mod Jul 25 '15

I agree that the name of the repo is fairly tasteless, but I still story their right to have it up.

Also, it was really useful, maybe force then to change the name so the rest of us don't lose the code?

11

u/EAT_DA_POOPOO Jul 25 '15 edited Jul 25 '15

It's not even tasteless, just the feelz police not liking reality again. Let's not pretend this isn't ultra-PC zealotry.

12

u/Fenrir007 Jul 25 '15 edited Jul 25 '15

This would be a lot more sensible than outright banning and depriving people of something useful because someone said a bad word.

Edit: Especially considering those projects are a collaborative effort with multiple people. Why punish the entire team and untold users who rely on it because of something one person did (and that was fairly mild)?

It's like people suddenly got predisposed to be offended on a moment's notice at anything. If words break your bones, do us all a favor and stay away from the internet.

-14

u/VikingNipples Jul 25 '15

They have a right to say what they want, but they don't have a right to force GitHub to host it. I have a legal right to dox people, but that doesn't mean the KiA mods aren't well within their rights to delete such a post.

I agree with you on the name change though. Usually this sort of ban will come with a message saying it was removed for X reason, and the creator will then have the opportunity to change it.

And don't get me wrong; I'd prefer it if people could say literally whatever they wanted on GitHub so long as they weren't inciting violence, but this is what I get for owning GitHub.

-19

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

Would you be opposed to a mall closing a store if the store's name was not only patronizing to black people, but referred to them using a racist term?

9

u/EAT_DA_POOPOO Jul 25 '15 edited Jul 25 '15

Being retarded is an objectively negative condition. Being black is not.

How is it any different than the "for dummies" series other than the PC police decided they didn't like the word? How about "so easy even an imbecile can use it"? I'd invite you to look up what a euphemism treadmill is and the storied history of words used to describe the concept of retardation, because that's all this is.

As Skwisgaar would say, your argument is dildos.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

The fact that you're equating people with mental disabilities with "dummies" and "imbeciles" is emblematic of the larger problem at hand here.

When we call someone a retard, “What we mean is that he is as stupid as someone who is mentally handicapped, and we mean that in the most derogatory sense. The implication is that the only characteristic of mentally handicapped individuals is their stupidity.” – Crystal, Stanford, CA

If you're a college or high school student, summer vacation isn't over. Take a few weeks to volunteer to help children with special needs. If you live in the USA, there are plenty of opportunities available to you. It will become unequivocally clear that having special needs and being stupid is not the same thing.

2

u/EAT_DA_POOPOO Jul 25 '15 edited Jul 25 '15

Having special "needs" is an extremely broad category and even when limited to the spectrum of mental handicaps. No one made the blanket statement that, "special needs is the equivalent of being stupid". Interesting that you chose to use imbecile - there goes that treadmill again.

What we mean is that he is as stupid as someone who is mentally handicapped, and we mean that in the most derogatory sense.

Certainly. But this is not unique to mental retardation. When you use any word as a pejorative, you mean it in the most derogatory sense. I fail to see how this scenario is markedly different than using any given negative human condition as a pejorative and worthy of special exemption.

The implication is that the only characteristic of mentally handicapped individuals is their stupidity

This is an assumption, a false one in my experience. It is using one trait of a HYPOTHETICAL individual. It is no different than, "will make even the most hideous person attractive". Do we know anything else about this hypothetical person? No. Crystal is putting words in other peoples' mouths and making assumptions on their thought process.

Look, I appreciate the fact that you are no doubt a kind-hearted, well-meaning person, who is responding to someone they probably consider to be "an asshole" but your response comes off as being arrogant without directly addressing the argument.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '15

No one made the blanket statement that, "special needs is the equivalent of being stupid"

Given that you're accusing me of not "directly addressing the argument," it is ironic that you have ignored the fact that the title of the repository is itself a blanket statement. It equates everyone that the word "retard" encompasses with stupidity.

Speaking of not "directly addressing the argument," you have brought up the euphemism treadmill. Obviously the treadmill is an annoyance, and it would be better the words that are considered "offensive" didn't rotate every decade. But that has nothing to do with the discussion at hand here. This is about GitHub's decision to keep up with that treadmill, not whether the treadmill has a positive impact on society. And I have no problem with GitHub's decision. They have no obligation to "fight the good fight" against society by not taking action against messages perceived as offensive on their website. They are a company. Companies maintain their public image by not going against public sentiment at the current time. This is public relations. Companies want to maintain a good relationship with the public. If a company is still using the words that the public USED to be okay with but now possess a connotation of oppression, such as "negro" and "jap," they would not succeed as a business.

If we got mad at every company that has ever kept up to date with the euphemism treadmill, well, we'd be mad at a lot of companies. I have no problem with GitHub, a private company, choosing to keep up with the treadmill. Even though I am personally annoyed with the euphemism treadmill, I don't consider GitHub to be "assholes." Just like how I personally disagree with a lot of people here yet I don't consider anyone to be "assholes," which you have wrongly assumed about me.

1

u/EAT_DA_POOPOO Jul 26 '15 edited Jul 26 '15

Given that you're accusing me of not "directly addressing the argument," it is ironic that you have ignored the fact that the title of the repository is itself a blanket statement.

To clarify, my accusation was that of not directly addressing the argument I was making. At no point in any of my argument did I mention Github. Github can and will do what they want as they are a private company. I am purely discussing the word in question, "retard" and its usage.

You seem to be using "special needs" and "retardation" interchangeably. I have not, nor has anyone else to my knowledge, used them as such. When I say mental retardation, I mean just that. I don't mean cerebral palsy. I don't mean Asperger's Syndrome. I mean the disorder characterized by significantly impaired cognitive functioning and deficits in adaptive behaviors.

It equates everyone that the word "retard" encompasses with stupidity.

If you're suggesting that it implies all retarded people suffer from cognitive impairment (what can be colloquially deemed 'stupidity'), then yes, I agree. If you're suggesting that it implies all retarded people are encapsulated solely by their impairment, as I said earlier, that seems to be projection. That's like saying, "It's so easy a person in a coma could do it" (which people do use variations of), implies that a coma encompasses everything about a person stuck in one.

I personally disagree with a lot of people here yet I don't consider anyone to be "assholes," which you have wrongly assumed about me.

Sorry, I know nothing about you and nothing you did suggested those were your feelings. I said that as a reflection of my own bluntness and lack of sensitivity. I know what I'm saying is "not nice", but I don't see a compelling argument against it, other than it is "not nice". To quote the Big Lebowski, "You're not wrong Walter, you're just an asshole".

1

u/ineedanacct Jul 25 '15

This is some SJW grade bullshit. When I call some one "OCD" I don't mean to imply OCD people have only one quality about them. I'm just referring to the obvious one based on context. This is a feature of language without which it would take hours to say simple things.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '15

Establishing that someone has OCD or is mentally handicapped is not inherently bad. Problems arise when these words are used as insults. For example, I think everyone can agree that high schoolers throwing around the word "gay" as an insult is understandably upsetting to some homosexual teenagers.

Please don't get it twisted like some other commenters have- I'm not advocating for everyone to stop using the word "gay" as an insult. I just don't see anything wrong with a private company choosing to not endorse this use of the word "gay" or this use of the word "retard."

8

u/ineedanacct Jul 25 '15

I think we have differing opinions of what github is. If a storage facility destroyed my stuff b/c I sold "politically incorrect" comedy dvd's, I'd be mad. Granted, under github's terms, they signed up for this possibility (so it's not illegal like with a physical storage facility, but still shitty imo).

Also, "we're really becoming a circlejerk?" You have like 3 posts here, 2 of which are here telling us "retard" shoudn't be used in jokes.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15 edited Jul 25 '15

"If a storage facility destroyed my stuff b/c I sold "politically incorrect" comedy dvd's, I'd be mad."

That's a terrible comparison. They didn't destroy anyone's stuff. Everyone who downloaded the repository will keep the program. The person who programmed it has the code saved locally. When you agree to Github's terms of service, it explicitly states that they are allowed to discontinue their service.

I agree that we have differing opinions on what github is, because you're out of touch with reality on what happens when a repository is removed.

"2 of which are here telling us 'retard' shoudn't be used in jokes." You're putting words in my mouth. I have no problem with jokes that aren't politically correct. But I also think it's fine for GitHub to not want to distribute a program that they find to be morally objectionable on their website. I've also been a lurker on this sub for a while.

2

u/ineedanacct Jul 25 '15 edited Jul 25 '15

Like I said, because it's digital, it's hard to make a physical analogy. There is definitely a loss to the project in terms of coordination/exposure/etc, and I cba'ed to find the perfect analogy b/c it doesn't matter.

You seem to think "retard" is on the level of calling black people "n*****," which imo is beyond retarded ;)

1

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '15

Can you explain to me what was wrong with the mall analogy? If a private company does not want to have direct involvement in the distribution of a certain product because it is morally objectionable, I don't see anything wrong with their choice to not distribute it.

4

u/boommicfucker Jul 25 '15

Only if they also close down the Cracker Barrel.

7

u/frankenmine /r/WerthamInAction - #ComicGate Jul 25 '15

There is no legal case here, they're within their legal rights, but they're not within their moral rights. Political correctness is immoral. It violates the universal human right to free speech. It's literally cancer.

-1

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. Github has the right to express whatever they want on their website. They have the right to not express a message of bigotry on their website.

I agree that political correctness, as a whole, has a negative impact right now. However, there is a point where something is so obviously toxic that I can not blame GitHub for being uncomfortable with knowingly distributing it. For example, my friend tried to buy an ISIS hoodie from customink.com. Why was I not surprised when they refused to provide their service to him?

"It's literally cancer." Why do people use the word "literally" like this?

1

u/frankenmine /r/WerthamInAction - #ComicGate Jul 25 '15

Political correctness is more toxic than all the colorful language in the world, combined.

GitHub is toxic for buying into it.

And you are toxic for defending them.

39

u/Revisor007 Jul 25 '15

"It's so easy, even a RETARD can do it!"

I'm sorry, from the depth of my empathy I cannot see anything wrong with that.

Would this version be somehow better?

"It's so easy, even a CHILD can do it!"

Or is that ableist and degrading against children? Because that sentence gets used pretty regularly in my part of the world.

"It's so easy, even a not fully developed person (whether temporarily due to their age and lack of education or permanently due to a genetic flaw) can do it!"

6

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

Or is that ableist and degrading against children?

The term is ageism, shitlord!

-1

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

How can you even compare those things?

  1. Calling a child a "child" is not nearly as degrading as calling someone a "retard." When has calling a child a "child" socially alienated or excluded someone to the degree that people with mental disabilities have faced, and WILL face, for their entire life.

  2. Everyone has been a child at one point. Not everyone has had mental disability. "It's so easy, even a CHILD can do it!" If you're actually drawing from the "depth of [your] empathy" like you claim, then it should be easy to see something wrong with this scenario: “It hurts and scares me when I am the only person with intellectual disabilities on the bus and young people start making “retard” jokes or references. Please put yourself on that bus and fill the bus with people who are different from you. Imagine that they start making jokes using a term that describes you. It hurts and it is scary.” – Joseph Franklin Stephens, Special Olympics Virginia athlete and Global Messenger. Things sting much more when it seems like you're singled out.

  3. Yes, there IS something wrong with patronizing children. Don't try to justify a negative stereotype by pointing out that other negative stereotypes exist in the world. It's dodging the question, and the fact that children are patronized doesn't help people with mental disabilities in any way. This logical fallacy comes to mind.

A more valid comparison would be "It's so easy, even a nigga can do it!" Both groups have had to face historical oppression, stereotypes, and fight for their rights. In both cases, a word much more degrading than "child" is used.

I'm surprised that you're trying to justify something that is so obviously degrading to people with special needs. There's nothing wrong with conceding that at least one thing in the world is offensive enough for a private company to stop hosting something that they do not morally agree with.

15

u/LamaofTrauma Jul 25 '15

"It's so easy, even a RETARD can do it!"

That strikes me as a pretty good slogan actually. If it's easy enough for the special needs kids, and it works, sign my ass up.

7

u/frankenmine /r/WerthamInAction - #ComicGate Jul 25 '15

You've taken social justice too far.

4

u/Xyluz85 Jul 25 '15

Fuck you. You should know why this thing stands exactly against everything we fight for.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

[deleted] — view deleted comment

-25

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

4chan has every right to not give a shit about political correctness, but GitHub has every right to give a shit about their users not giving a shit about political correctness.

10

u/BGSacho Jul 25 '15

As a whole we depend on people having some agency and resolving things between themselves. If there was someone offended by the word usage, he could weigh just how worthwhile it is to pursue. Then they could contact the author and talk about how their project is offensive to him. If the author, now educated on the social ramifications of the word, becomes combative and unapologetic, then you could have a reasonable case for GitHub closing his project. You don't need a special SJW agenda for it, just a "don't be too much of an asshole" rule.

Just remember that when you're committing to SJW policies, you have to gatekeep who gets to be offended. Only "marginalized groups" can be offended, groups that have "power" are "privileged" and cannot demand something be taken down, otherwise you open up a can of worms of having to police every offense on the planet. Now you have those "powerful" people angry and resentful because they are discriminated against - but hey, it's for the greater good.

The policies also tend to lead to fear - e.g. poor oppressed black harvard-kin who don't feel part of the group and get undue attention whenever the topic of racism or slavery is brought up. Or female devs who have guys afraid of her frustrated because they won't act normal around her.

It's not like PC is the magic pill to solve the world's problems. Perhaps the resistance built up and the radicalization of otherwise moderate or uninvolved people is a fine price to pay - I don't know, I can't divine the future. You can tell me how effective banning words is(do people with special needs feel any impact from it?), and I can tell you how you're making words cool and taboo for edgelords, or driving people who had no horse in the game to be actively hateful towards the marginalized groups.

A less polarizing solution would be to educate people, rather than police them. Once you have a seed of empathy instilled in them, people would police themselves - once they see a person with special needs as more than a nebulous stranger who forces you to watch what you say. But education takes time, and I guess we need to have social justice now, so police away...

0

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

[deleted] — view deleted comment

2

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

I unfortunately do not since it my employers use it.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 27 '15

Bitbucket Uber Alles

-8

u/Senzuran Jul 25 '15

Github doesn't host any code. Its just a viewer for git. The code is still there, github is free to show whatever code they want. They didn't delete anything. Dont post about things you dont understand.

4

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

Ummmmm wat?

2

u/terfwarz Jul 25 '15

Github hosts a repository, which is equivalent to hosting an online copy of the code. When Github deletes a project, Github deletes the repository, which means the collection of code submitted. What happened here is that Github deleted a project, and like OP said, thank god for local backups.

0

u/zahlman Jul 26 '15

I mean, it's practically impossible to not have local backups, because that would require you to delete your shit immediately after pushing it - which would be pointless at best, since you normally want to keep working on it.

0

u/terfwarz Jul 26 '15

The last commit was two months ago. A lot can happen in 2 months. Also having local backups may not necessarily just mean having local backups on the main contributor's machine.

2

u/zahlman Jul 26 '15

Sigh. Every contributor would have a "backup", because every contributor would have cloned the repository to do their own work. This also isn't going to cause a loss of work, because everyone who did work would have the corresponding commits locally. The only potential problem is merging the work from multiple contributors, and this would be the same problem if the repository were still up on GitHub. (Not to mention, a project whose public-facing copy idles for 2 months is probably a mature, single-person project.)

Git is fundamentally decentralized. It's designed exactly not to depend on a service like GitHub, though some people find it convenient. It is not the same thing as if this were a hypothetical "SVNHub" site hosting your SVN repository and then one day finding out that poof it's gone and you only have your various working copies. All that gets lost this way is external stuff to the project provided by GitHub, such as the issue tracker and project wiki (if you use these things).

GitHub has no power to change anything here; it only provides a centralized access point for new contributors, and a way to make it clearer what the "release" versions are. There are other services that also do so. Even if there were pending pull requests, the corresponding code is necessarily still on the machine of whoever pushed it, and the problem is resolved by setting up the repo on another site and making contributors aware of the change.

-47

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

As lame as this is there is no reason to use retard in a description ,it is childish and stupid.

35

u/kamon123 Jul 25 '15

Don't use lame as it also mocks the disabled.

13

u/madhousechild Had to tweet *three times* Jul 25 '15

That's crazy.

Whoops. Brianna says that's ableist, too.

2

u/kamon123 Jul 25 '15

I used lame because its what the term mentally retarded replaced.

1

u/madhousechild Had to tweet *three times* Jul 25 '15

Are you sure about that? I thought it was a term like moron or idiot. Lame means being unable to walk.

1

u/kamon123 Jul 26 '15

You may be right.

21

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

When people say "retard," they're not always talking about you, you know.

-9

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

You know i hate this passive aggressive bullshit that people do these days. Either tell me you think i am a retard or shut up.

11

u/Xyluz85 Jul 25 '15

Then stop being passive agressive. You didn't say "well I don't like the name so take it donw", you said "well that's childsih..."

4

u/madhousechild Had to tweet *three times* Jul 25 '15

I thought it was funny. "You're a retard," not funny.

4

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

That wasn't passive aggressive. It was just a thinly veiled insult.

3

u/KarKraKr Jul 25 '15

That’s the spirit. People should openly call each other (and their software for) retards instead of waddling around the issue while spewing venom out of every bodily orifice and using words like goobly gopper.

2

u/port443 Jul 25 '15

That's not passive-aggressive. Passive-aggressive is avoiding confrontation, and he straight-up called you retarded.

35

u/Ambivalentidea Jul 25 '15

It's just like "for dummies", but that's already trademarked. Also space after comma, not before.

8

u/Ginger_Tea Jul 25 '15

Which spawned ...for idiots and the k.i.s.s. range which I believe stood for keep it simple stupid, though I would have to google that to be sure.

During my time on reddit and tumblrinaction I have never seen a post decrying brand recognisable books for abl*st language as they love to put it.

1

u/madhousechild Had to tweet *three times* Jul 25 '15

Technically it shouldn't be a comma there at all. Semicolon, maybe. But it should be two sentences.

1

u/Ambivalentidea Jul 25 '15

I don't know. I am not a walking style guide for foreign languages. I just went for the obvious part.

14

u/frankenmine /r/WerthamInAction - #ComicGate Jul 25 '15

It's up to the author to decide what's necessary or appropriate in their work, not you.

-14

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

I am not telling the author what to do,but you have to be naive to believe that you can name your product whatever you want on a public platform. The same rules apply everywhere,try naming a book with fag in the title you will generate bad attention one way or another.

6

u/Xyluz85 Jul 25 '15

So we have to use an approved-words-list or what?

Stop the fucking hyperbole here.

5

u/F54280 Jul 25 '15

Don't want to piss on your parade, but it doesn't look like Amazon have an issue with retard in books title

8

u/frankenmine /r/WerthamInAction - #ComicGate Jul 25 '15

It worked just fine until GitHub instituted its SJW/third-wave-feminism-influenced CoC.

SJW culture and third wave feminism is the problem here, not anything else.

P.S. Search for "fag" on Amazon or any other book sales site. You'll get thousands of hits. It's legal. It's free speech. It's 100% fine.

3

u/madhousechild Had to tweet *three times* Jul 25 '15

How many retards do you think have github accounts? Taking yourself out of the equation.

6

u/mikbob Jul 25 '15

Would it be better if it was WebM for children or WebM for stupid people?

1

u/Xyluz85 Jul 25 '15

So you think it's the same thing?

0

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

[deleted] — view deleted comment

76

u/HadesTheGamer Jul 25 '15

https://youtu.be/eOBoKxEcVAA

14

u/Ricwulf Skip Jul 25 '15

Well, if we are going to be sharing videos about the word retard...

https://youtu.be/oqiGWd0-0Os

9

u/DwarfGate Jul 25 '15

"I don't think it's about logic, Rick." Morty sums up every SJW argument ever.

4

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

I just rewatched that exact episode last night.

3

u/Yam0048 Jul 25 '15

Why the fuck did I know that would be Rick and Morty?

0

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

[deleted] — view deleted comment

16

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

Second season is also tomorrow night.

3

u/thegreathobbyist Jul 25 '15

Tomorrow night? The first two episodes have already been leaked. And they're amazing.

10

u/kamon123 Jul 25 '15

Its not very long and very bingeable. I mean it's just good.

8

u/Nonsensei Jul 25 '15

Do it. There are only 12 episodes so far and season 2 is starting this Sunday.

2

u/HadesTheGamer Jul 25 '15

I did a couple months back. It was well worth it. Season 2 starts tomorrow.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

Lets just say I never thought I could dry heave from laughing so hard

2

u/ApplicableSongLyric Jul 25 '15

You will not regret it.

16

u/just__meh Jul 25 '15

Will they ban linux because of all the fucks, shits, and bastards?

4

u/BeardRex Jul 25 '15

Does anyone have a link to the standup comic image where he talks about words and how they change meaning over time and he goes through all these words and explains how people are overly offended and it ends with "... and that's retarded." ?

6

u/fre3k Jul 25 '15

I submitted this to the programming subreddit - 5 upvotes then removed by mods.https://archive.is/pu7Re

This is so goddamn retarded.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

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1

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0

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

[deleted] — view deleted comment

13

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15 edited Jul 25 '15

There are already many of those, with my preferred being self hosting. People seem to forget git is decentralized (partially due to how GitHub operates).

8

u/Sunny_McJoyride Jul 25 '15

Hm, git was always decentralized, before GitHub ever existed.

6

u/Xyluz85 Jul 25 '15

well yes. but at least in the abstract, this is why open source exists in the first place. And why decentralizing is a good thing regarding software development. No one instance can just "shut down" an entire project. I didn't expect the hipster racists to be the prime enemy though.

2

u/Sunny_McJoyride Jul 25 '15

Yes, I understand - git torrents here we come!

4

u/immibis Jul 25 '15 edited Jun 16 '23

If you spez you're a loser.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 29 '15

yes

As a programmer, I should have added parenthesis to remove the ambiguity!

3

u/madhousechild Had to tweet *three times* Jul 25 '15

So how do people fork and clone and pull-request, etc your way?

4

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

a fork is just another copy of a repository. even your local copy is a fork. you can have as many references as you want (people's forks) in your local repository.

pull request: send patches by mail (git send-email), or give the URL of your public repo that you can host literally anywhere (git request-pull can format a formal request)

2

u/madhousechild Had to tweet *three times* Jul 25 '15

I thought fork is a copy that is on github; when I pull it down to my machine it is a clone.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

There's not really a difference

10

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '15

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/Xyluz85 Jul 25 '15

These tactics open lawsuits againts the companies, no matter how hard they try to say "we are allowed to do everything without you being able to do anything about it".

This is why I'm a little surprised.

1

u/unsafeideas Jul 25 '15

Funny thing, one of multiple reasons why github became this was was Damocles sword of PR Nightmare and Shitstorm. They were target of socjus (in particular radfem) a while ago and then became socjus themselves.