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New GitHub Upgrades Respond To Recent Complaints (thenewstack.io)
destinyland writes: Last week GitHub announced the ability to create templates for Issues and Pull Requests, in an apparent response to an open letter signed by 600+ project maintainers. "This is the first of many improvements to Issues and Pull Requests that we're working on based on feedback from the community," "wrote Ben Bleikamp, Product Manager at GitHub. The original letter, hosted in a "Dear-Github" repository, noted that "If GitHub were open source itself, we would be implementing these things ourselves as a community..." But this week GitHub continued releasing new improvements, offering a new feature with to upload files directly into repositories without leaving their browser.
Wonder if they'll drop the social justice BS too
So stop using them.
If you don't want to host:
Or if you're a slashdotter that knows how to self host:
It might be difficult to charge for the enterprise platform - which is part of what funds the availability of GitHub in the first place.
I am an open source developer - I work on an open source platform - but I'm not a zealot. I *like* the principles of open source, but pragmatically it can't always provide a means to have supported software in all cases. Having an organisation that can keep the lights on at GitHub is more important than the whole of their code being open source - but maybe there is an opportunity to open up parts of it, like the issues.
You can say that people using a free service have no right to complain - but ultimately, you would think that the people paying for a hosted repository, or paying for the enterprise edition, might share similar concerns. So it is a little surprising that the issue tracking features have been as neglected.
Stop using GitHub.
They are racist idiots that need to go.
You can easily switch to GitLab, you can even import from gith*b straightforward.
... like almost all startup workers using OSX, they don't believe in the power of open source tools. Aside the fact they use HTML/CSS/JS/jQuery/Boostratp, Rails, Jekyll, MySQL-or-Postgres-or-any-FOSS-NoSQL and probably Linux in the server.
The parent comment shouldn't have been modded down.
The use of "social justice" as an online weapon of sorts is actually a very serious issue for many of who have considered using GitHub.
There's the whole Open Code of Conduct debacle. On that very page, under the "What companies or communities support or use the Open Code of Conduct?" section, it clearly states "GitHub".
I encourage everyone to read the code of conduct for themselves. It's just absurd how detailed and controlling that code of conduct actually is.
But it's even crazier when it comes to stuff like its "reverse -isms" clause, which basically makes discrimination against certain groups of people mandatory!
You can read some of the comments supporting the code of conduct. It's unbelievable how hypocritical, contradictory and just outright hateful so many of the Open Code of Conduct's supporters are.
Code of conducts like that, and the people who support them, aren't there to foster a friendly, open community. They're there to brutally control others, and to force their views and opinions on others through censorship and harassment, even while claiming that such behavior is wrong!
I want absolutely nothing to do with those people, their twisted ideas, their rampant hypocrisy, and their atrocious codes of conduct. That's why I can't bring myself to use GitHub.
That was the last part of the complaint, github itself is not open source and thus they couldn't not fork it.
When you test for an infection, you don't look for the infection itself, but the antibodies that fight the infection. No antibodies, no infection.
It's because real programmers like to be praised for their merit, ability and contributions. Not made to feel like their contributions are only being accepted based on the colour of their skin or gender identity. When a project makes a big deal out of being "diverse" what they're telling women and minorities is they aren't welcome because they're talented and have valid contributions to make. They're being told they're a token to make creepy socially awkward self-flagellating white males feel less guilty for being white males.
It's disgusting on so many levels.
It's neat how you use the aversion to ugly racial prejudice to excuse different ugly racial prejudices because oh well, they're not as bad. With that logic, we can excuse nearly any behavior whatsoever, simply by pointing out that someone else did something worse!
Naturally, anyone who disagrees clearly has no rationality on the subject and is just stifled by the weight of social opprobrium, being on the wrong side of history. Anyone who has ever studied the progress of history knows that there are clearly marked "forwards" and "backwards" positions and that nobody ever disagrees on what they are or uses them as part of a bandwagon appeal.
I think the row is about the Open Code of Conduct that GitHub claims to support, not its terms of service.
The Open Code of Conduct, for the most part, is a reasonable document. If I had a project I cared to implement it for, I would implement v1.0 sans this excerpt (not fixing the UTF for /.):
Our open source community prioritizes marginalized peopleâ(TM)s safety over privileged peopleâ(TM)s comfort. We will not act on complaints regarding:
- âReverseâ(TM) -isms, including âreverse racism,â(TM) âreverse sexism,â(TM) and âcisphobiaâ(TM)
- Reasonable communication of boundaries, such as âoeleave me alone,â âoego away,â or âoeIâ(TM)m not discussing this with youâ
- Refusal to explain or debate social justice concepts
- Communicating in a âtoneâ(TM) you donâ(TM)t find congenial
- Criticizing racist, sexist, cissexist, or otherwise oppressive behavior or assumptions
That part of the document makes no sense to me and seems to throw the rest of the document out the window. This is little different from the hostile environment I encountered at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, USA around the turn of the century.
The first point is the bombshell. Sexism and racism are not allowed except for the sexism and racism that are allowed. The second and fourth points are acceptable; not everybody is a good communicator (not saying I am). The fifth point I'm ambivalent about. The third point is the detonator cap because it shuts down dialog; combined with the first point, we have a real can of worms.
If I have a disagreement with a womyn-born-womyn who is sending me hateful messages, am I allowed to pull out my trans status so that I can make a complaint that will be heard? Who determines whether I'm eligible to be part of either/both the female demographic or the transgender demographic? What if I get shouted down for having male privilege? Will my trans status protect me from that or does it count as protected reverse sexism? Nobody knows.
This is the danger of statements like the quoted excerpt. Somebody wrote, "All people are equal." Then the social justice crowd came around and scribbled beneath, "Except some people are more equal than others."
I really think the social justice crowd does not know what it is actually like to face systematic, institutional discrimination. I do. It's not nice. I have no intention to ever again allow myself to be subjected to institutional discrimination again. I am an individual. I am not accountable for the actions of others. My individuality will either be recognized, or I will go elsewhere.
The social justice crowd seems hell bent on holding the wrong people accountable for the career choices of womyn-born-womyn and for the sexual harassment that gaslighting asshole managers pour on women. Yes, it bothers the hell out of me when womyn-born-womyn $x holds me accountable for womyn-born-womyn $y's decision that being a mother and a wife is more important to her than pursuing a career. It bothers the hell out of me when womyn-born-womyn $z uses sexist language (a plumber is always a he, a doctor is always a he, a nurse is always a she, etc) and it bothers the hell out of me even more when $x holds me accountable for $z's internalized misogyny.
In that scenario, all that $x has accomplished is convincing me that having a tech career is just too toxic. S/he hasn't created a single womyn-born-womyn programmer. Since I can never be certain who's a TERF and who isn't and when I'm more equal due to being trans or less equal due to assignment to the male gender at birth, I'll just leave tech. Nobody cares about the gender situation of somebody who's flipping burgers and whether or not they might secretly have male privilege.
There needs to be dialog about these things. Shutting down dialog is the first sign of a hostile environment.
(That's a 50 DKP minus if you respond to me again as though I'm a man who regularly sexually abuses women.)
So you look at someone who appears to be white and male and based only on gender and race you ASSUME that they must also be rich and personally guilty of some *-ism or another?
If you somehow have proven to you that they are wealth impaired you presume them to be ignorant?
I note that you seem to have no problem using the pejorative "redneck".
Even if reverse racism were remotely equivalent to racism, which it is, because it is racism, plain and simple.
It's incredibly hypocritical to think any grouping of people is without fault. Racism is racism, and it should be treated as such no matter which grouping of people is attacking which grouping.
An allegation of reverse racism is an allegation of racism, just different to the perceived-most-common-form and thus should be treated exactly the same as any other allegation of racism. (And like any other allegation, an individual allegation may or may not be true, no matter if it is 'reverse' or not.)
Remember this is anonymous persons making claims on the Internet - take it with some salt.
However I agree if this is true people should record their interviews and post them. And then post the interview and not a select part of it after making someone angry etc.!
Ah, ok. Thanks for the clarification. I had read the jargon and interpreted it as a license to harass since that's been what I've encountered for the most part from people claiming to be "feminists."
If what you're saying is true, I would be able to support the Open Code of Conduct with the provision that it should be more clear that it is not facilitating the kind of revenge discrimination (including threats of violence and death wishes) that many cisgendered women here in bizarro world feel is necessary. If somebody were to attempt to hold me personally accountable for the lack of cisgendered women in tech on GitHub, especially if they were making threats, I would hope such a code of conduct would have my back.
I feel I'm not the only person who's been on the receiving end of revenge discrimination. It's important for the social justice movement to recognize that it does happen if it wants these codes of conduct to stand apart from extremist feminist policies.
Would you care to post a link?
"Coraline Ada Ehmke
â@CoralineAda
I'm thrilled to announce that I will be joining the team at @github next month to work on community management and anti-harassment tools.
"
So that's a no then.
A strong code of conduct also really helps, and the community is pretty good at self policing it with good tools to block trolls.
You mean like how that "strong code of conduct" was immediately brought out to try and silence and remove actual project maintainers? Yeah, good plan. We'll just kick people out because they don't conform to our political ideology...you know. Like this where we can watch the power grab in real time. And that's why CoC's are dangerous. And why developers are speaking out against them. Or saying, you need actual expert advice. Not some whiner who wants to use it as a "diversity checkmark."
Merit is the only CoC programming needs, you think otherwise then you're likely right there beside the people who believe that 0 programming skills and skin colour makes a person a programmer.
Om, nomnomnom...
I would hope such a code of conduct would have my back.
It doesn't. There's no such thing as "reverse-isms" in their world, and since their definition of racism is "power+privlidge" you're fucked.
Om, nomnomnom...
*sigh*
reverse racism == racism
reverse sexism == sexism
How does it feel to be just as bigoted as the people you so despise?
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
I am aware of this position, thank you. I have been on its receiving end before, although not in a racist sense. I have no quarrel with different ethnic groups, and they have no quarrel with me. We support each other, because we're a community, and that's what community members do.
You forget: I'm a certified cis+het all-men shitlord! (Doubly so for liking learning sewing and baking in home ec much to the chagrin of cisgendered women!) I am merely trying to negotiate some other position because I have found evidence that AmiMoJo and BarbaraHudson are not full of shit.
I would not leave a career where I have 20+ years of experience for flipping burgers lightly.
I am aware of this position, thank you. I have been on its receiving end before, although not in a racist sense. I have no quarrel with different ethnic groups, and they have no quarrel with me. We support each other, because we're a community, and that's what community members do.
Oh, you're not missing much in the racist sense. I personally like the grifters out there that say "you're privileged" in one sentence, then say you're an oppressed minority in the next.
You forget: I'm a certified cis+het all-men shitlord!
Being white/asian(or japanese)-het I get the unique chance to see the triple standards first hand at times. And all the whining that gets thrown my way too.
I would not leave a career where I have 20+ years of experience for flipping burgers lightly.
Neither would I, but I'd move my repositories to something besides github(which I and the company I work for has long since done). Especially since they no longer believe in merit, and are hiring professional victims for their social outreach section. What I expect is github will survive as long as they don't stick their fingers into peoples repositories too much. Though their new CoC is doing so, and angering peoples. What the pushover even will be, I can't say, but if it's anything like what's happening at twitter...when it happens, it'll be spectacular.
Om, nomnomnom...
Beware that there are a lot of people claiming to be feminists, but who are really just trolls. There are a lot of them on Github lately. I've noticed some ACs have been pretending to be me by posting here as if I had forgotten to log in too.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Removing barriers to diversity doesn't mean you get diversity, it just demonstrates that the lack of diversity isn't due to the removed barriers.
This shouldn't be too difficult to understand...
Your appraisal says more about you than the projects you are discussing. They're telling women and minorities "you can feel free to contribute without damaged people slinging abuse at you", something they shouldn't have to do, but are forced to by toxic idiots thinking they can act whatever way they deem fit in whatever setting they want, because they feel they have an inherent right to be complete muppets wherever they want.
Except what that turns into is creep socially awkward white guys falsely praising and licking boots of women and minorities that join their projects while abusing other white guys (and white women apparently). It might sound like fun and games on paper, but obviously a lot of women and minorities see though that and aren't contributing to those projects. They want to be commended on their contributions, not based on what's between their legs or the colour of their skin, which no one knows or cares about unless you the type of person to make a big deal out of it.
Feel free to dump on my analysts all you like, I'm perfectly willing to accept I could be wrong, but the facts don't lie. Projects that are making a big deal out of race and gender are some of the most uniformly white male projects there are.
I guess another options is the people on these projects are much more abusive to women and minorities, which drove them all away in the first place, so they feel there's a need to give special treatment because they are, in fact, assholes.
And yet, you'll see people parroting the "well it doesn't matter, we should be hiring them regardless of their skill now." Which of course is terrible. In my book if you have two people, one is xyz race and the other is xyz race, I don't care. I want the person who's best for the job. Of course, with the race baiters and so on, they start screaming the "that's racist" garbage.
If people need to see how bad this can get in action, just look at Canada and our current government. Best people for the positions? Nope. We're having half of them as women...because...they're women. Fucking genius.
Om, nomnomnom...
So why exactly don't they move to something else which they can actually fix, like GitLab or Allura?