- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
Was surprised no one bothered to post this give how big of a reaction this story got.
Wanted to post the update and correction cause that deserves to be seen just as much. This seems like a reasonable, thoughtful handling of the issue.
I still don’t really wanna use Ubuntu though 😅
Why the fuck does an operating system have ANY rules relating to queerness?
Edit: why are y’all downvoting them for being out of the loop?? Lemmy get your shit together
They don’t- a moderator to an online ubuntu forum community (that recently became official) misapplied a rule about keeping things apolitical as meaning someone shouldn’t describe themselves as queer.
Ubuntu has made a statement correcting the interpretation made by the moderator
thanks. I had the same question as the person you replied to here. People should be able to describe themselves however they want.
Isn’t everything political these days. So you’d be able to talk about nothing.
That’s the whole point of that rule. It’s taboo to discuss things in polite conversation that those in power don’t want you to discuss.
I think it’s unfair to say that’s the point of the rule on a foss project’s discussion forum
Political discourse online gets really fucking toxic really quickly 😅 often driven by entirely legitimate anger and hurt over the state of the world, but we can’t just pretend it’s all an evil conspiracy by big Ubuntu to silence us.
Folks on the internet consistently demonstrate through behaviour why “no politics” is almost always a rule anywhere where folks might perceive it to be off topic, whether one thinks it’s the correct ruling or not (it’s entirely valid to feel it should be allowed even though it brings out the worst in people, though I’m sure that would put incredible strain on moderators given the internet baseline of interpersonal compassion)
And the places online where folks do discuss it? Can quickly get extremely unpleasant, or develop an inescapable undercurrent of hostility that starts to permeate all other interactions on the platform.
Personally I think actually productive political conversation is almost always emotionally laborious, and it’s important to be able to step away from the political aspects of things and catch your breath, even though everything is political. But everything being political doesn’t mean it’s healthy for every conversation to be political, that’s a recipe for burnout and people acting like their worst selves, which is counter productive to pretty much any meaningful political goal.
I have been to several interviews for in office positions. I have no issue with in office positions but I get the feeling they don’t like my “political” position of wearing a mask.
Ubuntu has a diversity policy to explicitly welcome and encourage participation, mentioning that they explicitly honor diversity in sexual orientation among other things. It does not explicitly mention queerness.
A moderator made a bad a call. It sounds like there may have been some confusion about the word queer used as a slur vs a self-identification.
I think that things would be far better if these type of informations should not be disclosed by anyone in context like this, where they are irrelevant.
Normalizing diversity is critically important.
And what better way to normalize diversity in this context than ignore everything but the code you submit ? We are talking about code, not personal issues.
I mean, I don’t care that the bus driver who take me to the office this morning is gay/trans/whatever, why I should care about this for the person that send me a code contribution ? Being queer make the code inherently better ? Or bad code should be accepted because a queer person send it ?
As I see it, you send good code it is merged, you send bad code it is refused and, most importantly, it was explained why the code is not good enough to be accepted. Nowhere in this flow knowing that you are a queer has any importance.
That’s hiding it, not normalizing it.
No, that’s treating you as a normal person irregardless of the private aspects of your life. You are free to disclose them and I am free to ignore them since in this context I don’t care, and I don’t see why I should care, about them.
Else explain to me how being a queer/gay/trans/whatever impact on the submitted code or contribution.
The impact on submitting code is entirely besides the point.
It’s not normalizing it if nobody knows. That’s just a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
Why in this context I need to know that ? And why in this context I would like to ask about this ? How it is pertinent ?
My point is simply that there are situations where these kind of information are not needed nor usefull. I am not saying that this is valid everywhere and every time but that there are places where knowing that the person you are talking to is a queer is important, situation where it is not important and situation where merely asking for that information is dangerous.
In my view, on the Ubuntu’s discourse this is an information that is not relevant nor usefull to know.
Do you want to consider it as a “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy ? Fine, I just try to treat people like they deserve in any case and to do this I don’t need to know these informations, a queer is a normal person to me when it comes to interact with him/her/whatever.
Sure, maybe you don’t need to put your sexual identity in a post asking for help configuring nginx, but in an introductory post where you’re explicitly describing yourself… Yeah, I think you should be allowed to mention your sexuality.