Comments on: Gran Canaria wrap-up 1

By: makomk

makomk — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:46:55 +0000

Yeah, the “not afraid to write code” meme is about Mono. Like most of the pro-Mono slogans and campaigns I seem to be seeing at the moment, it’s designed to dismiss people’s concerns about Mono without having to address them. I have no idea why this is happening.

When I saw a blog FAQ from a Debian developer – which looks like it’ll end up as the de facto official position – saying that the only reason people are against Mono is because they’re trying to destroy the free software movement, I gave up hope.

(Especially after someone wrote a reasonably well-reasoned comment about why it might be a patent risk, and he accused the commenter of spreading movie-plot threats and deliberately disrupting the movement with nonsense.)

By: Safe as Milk » Blog Archive » Gran Canaria wrap-up 3: Day 1

Safe as Milk » Blog Archive » Gran Canaria wrap-up 3: Day 1 — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:03:57 +0000

[...] and a warning about the dangers of Mono, before his Saint Ignucius segment which has garnered so much attention, and the auctioning of a gnu (benefits to the Free Software Foundation) for €150 if memory [...]

By: Mark Doffman

Mark Doffman — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:16:12 +0000

Hi Dave,

The meme was never anything to do with sexism, thats an important issue to be sure, but we never intended to touch on it.

The meme was also purposefully ambiguous. It came from a conversation about the abuse that members of the Mono community get on a regular basis. We wanted to publicly show our support for those guys, who we know and like, but without getting involved in the sort of flame-fest that none of us have time for.

This might seem cowardly, but I’d rather take the ‘Coward’ label than bother with the sort of internet bike-shedding and bile that shames us all.

Overall the ambiguity has worked perfectly, the mono-guys seem to appreciate what we did, and our blogs are mostly clear of hate and pointless discussion.

Thanks

Mark

By: pvanhoof

pvanhoof — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:51:18 +0000

> I have been bothered by the creation of a “meme” which has, apparently,
> been perpetuated by people who weren’t even at the conference.”

Everybody involved in creating that “meme” was at the conference. All of them but one guy also saw RMS’s speech.

> The meme seems to be speaking more to Richard’s Mono comments
> (my opinion here) rather than the Emacs virgins segment, but
> it’s sufficiently ambiguous that I can’t tell.

The meme has nothing to do with sexism. There’s no ambiguity related to sexism in that meme other than the ones you might have made up in your mind.

By: iain

iain — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:37:48 +0000

Equally though dave you are conflating the religious aspect and the sexism aspect. I don’t think anyone cared about the religious parody, but there is no doctrine in the catholic church that says a female virgin should be helped to have her virginity taken by the men in the church so the arguement that this is a continuation of a religious parody are false.

By: zanko

zanko — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:17:24 +0000

“Aside: anyone know how to embed a youtube video on GNOME Blogs?”

Why not use the new html5 video tag instead of this flash crap ? Dailymotion for example now offer support for it and that’s way better.

By: Brett

Brett — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 22:50:36 +0000

Can you not just use the embed code to the right of the video to embed the YouTube video in your post?

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:00:34 +0000

Hi Dave,

Okay, thanks, I think we understand each other. My problem is that the supportive behavior you agree is desirable also comes under “going beyond people who were there and offended taking issue with what was said”, so I think we need a more specific way to describe the behavior you’re objecting to. (Such as “don’t pile on criticism against someone without reading all of the primary sources carefully first”, or something.)

Thanks,

- Chris.

By: Chani

Chani — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 20:59:29 +0000

I don’t think it’s on the same scale as the ruby thing (which I didn’t attend). it was a fairly small joke in the grand scheme of things. but it was still unsettling. I really don’t like the notion that women need guys to help them out by “relieving” them of any kind of virginity. it doesn’t matter if it’s meant as a joke, it’s still a joke based on a scary way of thinking about women.

these things add up, and the way to accomplish change isn’t to let things slide.

the backlash that came from saying that it made me feel uncomfortable has been far more troubling. and a lot more so than usual… it’s the same flawed arguments all over again, but it seems like there are less people pointing out the flaws this time.

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 20:38:47 +0000

Some people are just easily offended (especially religious people) .. there is nothing you can do. They will just cry about as long as all the sensable people shut up.

If we as species want to get along we have to get over all this crap and be totally logical and reflective about stuff and demand reason everywhere.