Re: Proposal: DNS change irc.gnome.org becomes A record and irc.gimpnet.org starts getting phased out.

[Sumana Harihareswara <sumanah panix com>]

On 05/10/2013 10:17 AM, Rui Tiago Cação Matos wrote:
> Seriously, can everyone relax and not take every little detail so
> seriously? I'm all for advertising irc.gnome.org in our websites etc.
> But there's really no need to take down DNS entries and whatnot.

It's sort of odd for a member of a software organization to advocate
being less serious about details.  We have a bug tracker because details
matter.

Asking others to "relax" implies that other people are working too hard
or caring too much about an issue, as though it is unimportant.
Different issues are important to different people and it's a bit
annoying to be told to "relax" about what matters to you.

> On 10 May 2013 15:55, meg ford <meg387 gmail com> wrote:
> > I'm saying that it's an I18n issue. I recently read that the GNOME foot is
> > insulting in Thailand so we are trying not to use it there.
>
> And this why you can't ever win. There will always be something that's
> offensive for someone in this planet so yeah just don't bother too
> much.

If by "win" you mean "get a special permanent I AM NOT OFFENSIVE
designation from the United Nations," no, you can't "win".  However, as
a person deciding where to spend my time and what organizations to take
seriously, I will say that organizations that make some efforts to act
sensitively "win" my time and attention.  And communities that act as
though one person complaining deserves exactly the same amount of effort
as lots of people backing a reasonable proposal -- that is, zero effort
-- do lose my willingness to help out.

> If someone you're speaking to takes it offensively you can certainly
> explain why the name is how it is. People aren't stupid and will
> understand.

You are presuming that the only time "the GIMP" comes up is in
one-on-one conversations where the other person feels totally
comfortable saying "I don't like that name" to one of us, who will take
all the time necessary to help the other person feel comfortable.
That's a pretty rare use case.  Usually it's in signage, the IRC network
name, and other places where the other person may just make the very
understandable choice to just walk away.  Or it's in a group, or a
conference, or something like that where - instead of making a fuss -
some of our potential users and community members just make a mental
note not to bother even trying to use our software or help out.

Does that help you see why it's not enough to just be willing to explain
"this is why our software and IRC network seem to be named after the
slur bullies call your brother in school, on the street, and while
rejecting him for jobs"?

> And btw, if you have to speak about the GIMP you can also pronounce it
> as /ʒɪmp/ instead of /gɪmp/ or just spell it out G I M P.

I will probably use that pronunciation when possible.  Thanks for the idea.

> Cheers,
> Rui

best,
Sumana

-- 
Sumana Harihareswara
http://www.harihareswara.net/