Re: No Flags "Policy"

[Christian Fredrik Kalager Schaller <uraeus gnome org>]

On Sat, 2003-11-22 at 04:30, Chipzz wrote:
> On Sat, 22 Nov 2003, Jeff Waugh wrote:
> 
> > From: Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>
> > Subject: Re: No Flags "Policy"
> >
> > <quote who="Julien Olivier">
> >
> > > > Because it means that GNOME will not be used in some parts of the world,
> > > > regardless of what the United Nations says [1].
> > >
> > > I know you won't agree with me (and you might even be right), but I
> > > wouldn't mind if GNOME wasn't used in such countries.
> > >
> > > I know China is a very big *market* for companies distributing GNOME but I
> > > guess those companies should remove the politically-charged flags
> > > themselves.
> >
> > Think about the Free Software market though. If we piss off Chinese and
> > Taiwanese hackers - to use the favourite example - who might be inspired to
> > contribute to GNOME, that's a really bad thing. Lots of potential hackers.
> >
> > It comes down to:
> >
> >   a) Using flags is impractical and confusing (despite the "pretty pictures"
> >      and "icons are easier to spot" arguments).
> >
> >   b) Using flags may artificially reduce our audience.
> >
> >   c) Using flags may offend some users.
> >
> > - Jeff
> 
> One solution to this whole problem may be to make it a compile-time
> option, something like --enable-politicly-charged-flags, in whatever
> module these flags are included.
> 
This is a horrible solution, who is do determine which flags are
'politicaly charged'? Personally I think this whole issue is a stirring
up a storm in a glass of water.

One thing that struck me this morning is that the issues Jeff raise for
flags could also be said to be true for the names of countries so I
guess if we are to ban the flags we should ban the names too. 

So from this day on using the word Taiwain is banned on all mailing
lists and on IRC, we should istead say 'the other China' or something
like that.

Christian