Slashdot Mirror
When Software Offends
ndogg writes "The open source Python projects Pantyshot and Upskirt have caused quite a stir within the Python community, and catalyzed the leaving of one of their developers (a woman whose native language is not English.) The original developer, Frank Smit, has renamed Pantyshot to Misaka, but that too has suspect etymology, as Violet Blue points out."
Would anyone working for/at a real-world business ever use any of that software? I highly doubt that anything that can bring about a sexual harassment suit just from publishing its documentation is worth even a penny.
No. I'm sorry. No. Theres a difference between having fun with software names and this. It is incredibly misogynistic, and it is perfectly reasonable to be offended by it. The name refers to a non-consensual sexual intrusion, something you might consider light rape.
There's a big difference between this and something adolescent and immaturely sexual, but not horribly offensive like, oh, 'booblib'.
If your goal is to build a community to develop software, doing things which drive people from the community tend to be counterproductive. If, in the alternative, your goal is to establish a community for the purpose of being antisocial jerks, then doing things which drive people who don't like antisocial jerks from the community would be worthwhile, I suppose.
I had thought the goal of this Python community had more to do with the former than the latter, but I could be wrong.
I'm a lawyer, but not yours. I wouldn't represent someone who thinks taking legal advice from Slashdot is a good idea.
To be fair, FCKeditor was named after its author, Frederico Caldeira Knabben, who is from Brazil. Evidently that was his real name and he didn't at first realize the unfortunate similarity of his initials to an English swear word--but even if he had realized this, they were still his real initials, so I think he would still have some right to name it that. In any case, the name of the editor has now been changed to CKEditor.
And the managers are free not to allow a package with an offensive name in. Look, (non-government) censorship isn't always bad. We self-censor ourselves everyday. That’s part of living in a society. What if the package was called Childr@per or nigg3r? Should those be included? No. Is that censorship? You bet!
.The only question is, does this cross the line? I say this is the kind of behavior that keeps women excluded from geek culture. But just calling it "censorship" isn't a valid reason to enforce non-offensive package names.. I mean, come on.
Now, some people take offense at every little thing. Some people are very thick skinned.
No, one barely risque project name is not indicative of being a community of antisocial jerks. Tricking a non-English-speaking woman into naming her project something demeaning to women in general, then responding, "Eh, she's too thin-skinned," when she realizes what's happened and leaves the community; that is indicative of being a community of antisocial jerks. Being asked to name your project something less offensive than "Project Pantyshot", and naming it after what is apparently a child famous for pantyshots; that is indicative of being an antisocial jerk.
This is not about women's underwear. This is about having a level of basic human empathy, and realizing that because you can do something doesn't mean that you should.