Re: No Flags "Policy"

[Danilo Segan <danilo gnome org>]

Hi Nestor,

Nestor Diaz Valencia <nestordiaz barriolinux net> writes:
> If grown ups cannot distinguish between governments/flags/languages/human 
> people, maybe we should start a no-language ungraphical interface, so nobody 
> will be upset by anything.

Please read this bit again:

>> Flags are one of the source of problems that we *can* solve. There
>> are many problems that we can't solve.

As with Temujin, it's entirely unreasonable (from "to reason") to
consider it offensive, yet emotionally, it's quite understandable that
people are offended. Actually, it may not even be understandable, but
people *were* offended, as we could see on this and other lists. I'm
not planning on judging whether they should be offended or not
(though I _believe_ they *shouldn't* be), nor am I going to say to
them that they're not offended. If we can avoid the mere chance of
them being offended by a particular non-essential thing (such as
naming release "Temujin" or using flags in UI -- you surely don't
consider them essential, do you?), we should avoid it.

It's as simple as that. And yes, grown ups have that problem too, and
probably a majority of them too (all of the wars are fought by
grownups, or was it just my perception?). Also, a part of it has to
do with education and environment: if you grew up listening the entire
life that something is bad, you're bound to believe it. Of course,
there would be several who will still not believe it, but they would
certainly not be a majority.

If what you want to do is to educate people that relating symbols
with people is wrong, than this seems like a wrong way to do it. You
first have to approach them, if you want them to listen to you.

Cheers,
Danilo