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Debian's Anti-Harassment Team Is Removing A Package Over Its Name (phoronix.com)

quantic_oscillation7 shares a report: The latest notes from the Debian anti-harassment team on Wednesday caught my attention when reading, "We were requested to advice on the appropriateness of a certain package in the Debian archive. Our decision resulted in the package pending removal from the archive." Curiosity got the best of me... What package was deemed too inappropriate for the Debian archive?

When digging further, the package raised to the Debian Anti-Harassment Team was "Weboob." Weboob is short for "Web Outside of Browsers" as it's an open-source collection of software to script and automate the parsing/scraping/gathering-via-API of web data so that it can be consumed by different modules/applications. Weboob.org describes itself as "Weboob is a collection of applications able to interact with websites, without requiring the user to open them in a browser. It also provides well-defined APIs to talk to websites lacking one."

Weboob is Python-based and offers Qt-based user interfaces for accessing these different modules for reading data from different web-sites outside of any conventional web browser. Those interested can learn more about the software at Weboob.org. But, yes, the name is juvenile and likely inappropriate in most professional/corporate environments.

12 of 521 comments (clear)

  1. Boobs! by zmooc · · Score: 5, Insightful

    (...) likely inappropriate in most professional/corporate environments (...)

    That may well be but it's also completely irrational. The only thing "wrong" with the name is that people probably associate it with boobs, which is all in their heads. Even worse, they apparently fear boobs. Which is also in their heads.

    So Debian has now banned a package because its combination of letters triggers irrational things in peoples heads. They've gone mad.

    Also, on top of that, there's nothing wrong with boobs. On the contrary: they are what feed our babies and they are the most defining body part of our the class of mammals. They are beautiful and shall be honored, for example by naming software after them.

    Boobs.

    --
    0x or or snor perron?!
    1. Re:Boobs! by arth1 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Next up is probably removing man pages for being sexist.
      And engrampa for making fun of the elderly.

  2. Really? by EllisDees · · Score: 5, Funny

    Please remove all forms of humor from your everyday life. Only pre-approved smiles will be permitted.

    --
    -- Give me ambiguity or give me something else!
  3. Dry your tears snowflake. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I mean, it's stupid and silly, but don't you see the latent irony in you crying and breathlessly whining about political correctness like this is a big deal? It's not. Dry your tears snowflake.

  4. Re:Now I need a new Distro by avandesande · · Score: 5, Insightful

    the problem with having a 'team' dedicated to this stuff is they have to find something to do so they make work for themselves

    --
    love is just extroverted narcissism
  5. Yes, it is juvenile. by someara · · Score: 5, Funny

    From http://weboob.org/applications...

    Textual applications, both command-line and REPL.

    Boobank - List your bank accounts balances, their expenses, transfer money, etc.
    Boobcoming - List events, fill your calendar.
    Boobill - List your subscriptions, view and download the bill details.
    Booblyrics - Get lyrics of songs.
    Boobmsg - Read and post public and private messages.
    Boobooks - List your books rented and get your booking history.
    Boobsize - Display various gauges status.
    Boobtracker - View, edit and create issues on bugtrackers.
    Cineoob - Search movies, persons, torrents, subtitles, and get info about them.
    Comparoob - Compare prices of products.
    Cookboob - Search recipes, find one, and cook.
    Flatboob - Search for housings to buy or rent.
    Galleroob - Find and download web image galleries.
    Geolooc - Geolocalize IP addresses.
    Handjoob - Search for a job.
    Havedate - Interact with dating websites, and get popular.
    Parceloob - Parcel tracking.
    Pastoob - Submit and get text (source code, backtraces) to pastebin-like websites.
    Radioob - Search for radios, and get direct stream URLs and current playing songs.
    Shopoob - Obtain details and status of e-commerce orders.
    Suboob - Find and download subtitles.
    Translaboob - Translation functions.
    Traveloob - View public transportation timetables.
    Videoob - Search for videos, get their direct URLs, download them or play them.
    WebContentEdit - Manage and edit content on supported collaborative websites like wikis.
    weboob-config - Show, install, update and configure backends.
    Weboorrents - Search for torrents and download the .torrent files.
    Wetboobs - Display current weather and to see forecasts.

  6. Re:Rename it by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 5, Funny

    From the committee notes:

    it's "not ok to use the boobs theme for a web scraper or other software unrelated to boobs [sic] themselves, where its only function is to make a small group of users giggle while objectifying, offending or boring the rest of the world."

    Understandable...

    Debian's Anti-Harassment Team Is Removing A Package Over Its Name

    But I'm offended that they're calling it a "Package".

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  7. Why only go half way? by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's about time we get Linux politically correct.

    "man" pages are a relic of toxic masculinity and the superiority complex of the patriarchy and are now "person" pages.
    The "yes" command is considered reaffirming the male belief that the only applicable answer a woman could ever give is actually yes and it will now be complemented by a "no" command. Ignoring this results in a crash of the system, this is not a bug but a feature of the system protecting itself from being overpowered by its (usually male) user.
    Likewise, commands are no longer allowed to accept --force parameters.
    "mail" shows gender bias and will for now be symlinked to "femail" until a gender neutral replacement can be established.
    You are no longer allowed to "touch" files without proper permission.
    "more" is no longer available as a relic of the consumer-capitalist ideals of more being always better, the use of "less" is now enforced for all applications.
    The environmentally problematic Latex is replaced by the biodegradable Kleenex.

    shell commands
    "kill" is no longer appropriate and has been replace with the much more acceptable "euthanize". Programs have to agree to being euthanized before their termination.
    "abort()" is now "choice()"
    "history" has been rewritten. It's now "herstory".

    terminology and phrases
    Terminals are no longer considered "dumb" or "smart". All are equally valuable.
    The word "Daemons" is considered pejorative in some religions, we now speak of "spiritual guides".
    X-Window system is now the NC-17 Window System.

    I dare not continue. Some idiot will probably take this serious and do it...

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  8. Re:No. You are juvenile. by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The name is not juvenile. The people reading it and giggling are juvenile. It's like the stupid joke in Austin Powers over the Asian name Fuk.

    People need to learn to respond more professionally to things their own juvenile personality deems offensive.

    Apparently it goes beyond the name and other parts of it include juvenile humor. It's something the developers will regret later. I know I'm kinda embarrassed nowadays about all the tables, columns and functions I've used "Ass" as short hand for words like "Assignment", "Association" etc,etc. I have a "Request Ass" table out there in one database and whereas it made me laugh 7 years ago- now it makes me cringe.

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
  9. Re:Rename it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    It is not like that team has any members, they are all pussies.

  10. Re: No. You are juvenile. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    You must absolutely loathe your second name by now.

  11. Re: Rename it by greenfruitsalad · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Haven't we already gone through this with fortune-off, hot-babe and whatever-else? Just create a separate debian offensive repository and move everything that offends people in there. Eventually, it'll be the only repository with any packages and we can rename it to main or something.