Re: Formalising the release naming process [Was: GNOME Development Release 2.5.3]

[Malcolm Tredinnick <malcolm commsecure com au>]

On Tue, 2004-02-10 at 12:28, Rob Adams wrote:
> It's a shame how the fun has to be sucked out of absolutely everything
> by crap like this.  This is not a flame against Jeff -- I recognize that
> his stance is one born of diplomacy and that he is merely recognizing
> the situation as it stands.  This is rather a condemnation of the
> societal situation that results in everything but the most banal being
> interpreted as "offensive" or otherwise \w*-ist.  It's a tyranny of the
> overly sensitive and humorless.
> 
> It's interesting though that in this case there seems to be no one who
> was actually offended, but rather all this resulted merely from the
> thought that there theoretically _might_ be someone offended.

Ahh ... now see, I was going to stay out of this, but then you had go
and make these claims. :-(

I *was* offended. Not so much by the title itself -- although it was
something I would not choose myself and would have encouraged others not
to choose -- but by the fact that this was the title on something that
was going to get reasonably wide coverage. Whether we like it or not,
and whether people realise and intend it or not, the GNOME development
releases *do* get coverage outside of GNOME. This can hardly be a
surpise: we send out a release announcement for these releases!

People are going to dispute this and say "we say they mean nothing,
others should not do otherwise", but the publicity process does not work
like that unfortunately.

As as result, we need to be aware of how potential users (corporate and
personal) will view the project. The GNOME 2.5.3 name seems to me to
give the impression of more juvenile behaviour than really feels
appropriate for a professional desktop. Yes, we should have fun and yes,
keeping things light is important. But putting out something that could
very reasonably be viewed as inappopriate when put up on an office
noticeboard is probably going too far (and if you think that does not
happen, please stand corrected).

So now I'm going to be accused of being too politically correct
(Ppphhttpth!) and too humourless (doubtful); apparently I am also
encouragaing banality. So be it. But I was embarassed for the GNOME
project when this particular release went out and somewhat offended as a
participant. On the grounds that putting the genie back into this
particular bottle is impossible, however, I think continuing all the
fuss is probably not worth it.

Malcolm (who is now completely depressed).