Hacker News Reader

Comment by fmavituna | Hacker News Reader

So many open source developers code stuff for fun and calling their projects something like "fucking simple fuzzer".

When I write something for fun I want to name it something fun and I don't care what other thinks, whether they can find it in their Google or not, the point was writing the code and if I can't give a lovely name to my own projects what's it good for? If you find it offensive for you taste don't use it. An open source repository that tries to police this kind of stuff is just ridiculous unless there is a legal issue.

Who finds "upskirt" offensive? It's childish, yeah, offensive, I don't think so. If a woman decides to not work on open source projects because she finds that a library named "upskirt", that's her problem.

View on HN

I think it is attitudes like this that stop women and others from participating. I am against censoring but I am for self-policing and being sensitive to others. So it is not about someone coming and bashing you on the head, it is about you hopefull realizing that you are hurting the community and just change the name of the project voluntarily.

If you were a nerd in high-school (I know I was) remember how it felt sometimes if you tried to fit in with the jocks because perhaps you wanted to give some sport a try, but everyone kept making fun of skinny-know-it-all-glasses-wearing-nerd jokes around you? They would think it is fun, and not offensive, but you as a skinny-glasses-wearing-nerd would feel singled out and rejected.

>If you were a nerd in high-school (I know I was) remember how it felt sometimes if you tried to fit in with the jocks because perhaps you wanted to give some sport a try, but everyone kept making fun of skinny-know-it-all-wearing-glasses-wearing-nerd jokes around you? They would think it is fun, and not offensive, but you as a skinny-glasses-wearing-nerd would feel singled out and rejected.

This comparison should be drawn more often, it is extremely germane to this discussion.

> I think it is attitudes like this that stop women and others from participating.

Perhaps as an excuse, but rather not as a real reason.

Upskirt's original author is a woman alright: Natacha Porté, a.k.a. `the lady of markdown'.

If you read the OP, you'd see that there's a strong implication that the original author of libupskirt did not understand the connotations of upskirt when she agreed to the name

"My personal distate for these particular names is heightened because it appears that the original libupskirt author's acceptance on trust of a foreign-language name for her library has caused her considerable discomfort and possibly harassment. She apparently no longer wishes to work on open source."

That makes me more upset than the original story.

I don't think that detracts from the argument. The fact that she is a woman doesn't change the perception of how other women would view that name.

Now the way I understand it, it was probably a cultural difference, or perhaps an honest mistake. Someone who speaks English as a second language might just not realize that the word has a different connotation.

>If a woman decides to not work on open source projects because she finds that a library named "upskirt", that's her problem.

Assuming that woman was competent, then it's my problem, your problem, and the problem of all users of OSS, direct or otherwise, which includes everyone on earth.

I, a man, would very likely avoid any project using this library. So it's more than "her problem". A name like this is especially degrading to a single group. If I named a library a racial slur, I wouldn't expect people to be happy about it. And I wouldn't expect only people of the "offended" group to complain. It's an affront to the dignity of the F/OSS community to put up with this.

> Who finds "upskirt" offensive? It's childish, yeah, offensive, I don't think so. If a woman decides to not work on open source projects because she finds that a library named "upskirt", that's her problem.

You're speaking from a position of privilege in a field overwhelmingly dominated by men. And that type of thinking gets us: http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Sexualized_presentation

Men can wear skirts, too.

But nobody, no man and no woman want to take an upskirt shot of that...

Yup, isn't that the whole idea of open source? - I do something and make it available, if you wanna use it it's your issue, not mine, I have no obligation to you. If I want to name it whatever, that's none of your business, you can use someone else's code if you don't like what it is called.

True. And that's what the PSF said when they refused to censor the name.

But using the offensively-named software or not using are not the only options. Another option is for the author to use a non-offensive name. Then EVERYONE wins. Fortunately, that is what happened in this case.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com