5 ms·

I'm sure it's a great communications tool, however since Rice joined Dropbox's board (http://www.drop-dropbox.com/ http://www.drop-dropbox.com/) I'd have severe

by new299 11y ago

I'm sure it's a great communications tool, however since Rice joined Dropbox's board (http://www.drop-dropbox.com/ http://www.drop-dropbox.com/) I'd have severe concerns using anything released by Dropbox. Even if it's open source. And while I apologize for a tangential comment, people should be aware of the politics promoted by their software vendors. Hopefully if it's a truly valuable tool it will be forked and audited.

dave_sullivan 11y ago
I agree in principal that the politics behind a business matter. But why focus on Dropbox? Rice teaches at Stanford too, why not boycott Stanford and anything coming out of it?
- CydeWeys 11y ago
  There's a big difference in scope and impact between merely teaching somewhere and being on the Board of Directors and running it. It's not equivalent.
  - andreyf 11y ago
    She was Provost there from '93 to '99, which is a little more than teaching [1]. I think that while her willingness to go with the Bush administration's extremist positions (on torture and surveillance, especially) are a dark mark on her career, Dropbox is worth dropping for wholly different reasons (e.g. technical incompetence [2]) than who is on their board. 1. "As the chief academic and chief budgetary officer of the University, the Provost is responsible for administering the academic program, including both instruction and research, and for the coordination of the administrative and support functions of the University with its academic purposes." (https://provost.stanford.edu/ https://provost.stanford.edu/) 2. http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Dropbox-Accidentally-Turned-Off-Passwords-on-File-Storage-Service-655206 http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Dropbox-Accidentally-Turne...
    - CydeWeys 11y ago
      To be fair, though, her provost tenure there was before her tenure in the Bush administration, where her most egregious acts took place. You can't blame them retroactively for not knowing what a monster she would reveal herself to be in the future.
      - plonh 11y ago
        It isn't about punishing monsters , it is about not trusting our personal data to someone who has professionally committed herself to stealing it.
  - dave_sullivan 11y ago
    I disagree. As a professor at Stanford, she's teaching the future rulers of the world how to rule. At Dropbox, she's showing up to board meetings and taking a salary.
    - plonh 11y ago
      Her teaching at Stanford is the same sort of trophy namedropping photo op that being on the board is. You can't actually get a PhD in Hegemony from school.
      - mentat 11y ago
        > PhD in Hegemony Probably will cost me karma, but I find this incredibly amusing, thanks!
eli 11y ago
But your complaints have nothing to do with the codebase. How would a fork help? If I fork it and change nothing but the name does it become palatable to you?
noelsusman 11y ago
Do you boycott every company that has any questionable people on their board? This feels like cherry picking because of how high profile Rice is. Her only crimes are being in the Bush administration and doing her job, and being on the board of an oil company. That's pretty weak.

by new299 11y ago

dave_sullivan 11y ago

I agree in principal that the politics behind a business matter. But why focus on Dropbox? Rice teaches at Stanford too, why not boycott Stanford and anything coming out of it?

CydeWeys 11y ago
There's a big difference in scope and impact between merely teaching somewhere and being on the Board of Directors and running it. It's not equivalent.
- andreyf 11y ago
  She was Provost there from '93 to '99, which is a little more than teaching [1]. I think that while her willingness to go with the Bush administration's extremist positions (on torture and surveillance, especially) are a dark mark on her career, Dropbox is worth dropping for wholly different reasons (e.g. technical incompetence [2]) than who is on their board. 1. "As the chief academic and chief budgetary officer of the University, the Provost is responsible for administering the academic program, including both instruction and research, and for the coordination of the administrative and support functions of the University with its academic purposes." (https://provost.stanford.edu/ https://provost.stanford.edu/) 2. http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Dropbox-Accidentally-Turned-Off-Passwords-on-File-Storage-Service-655206 http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Dropbox-Accidentally-Turne...
  - CydeWeys 11y ago
    To be fair, though, her provost tenure there was before her tenure in the Bush administration, where her most egregious acts took place. You can't blame them retroactively for not knowing what a monster she would reveal herself to be in the future.
    - plonh 11y ago
      It isn't about punishing monsters , it is about not trusting our personal data to someone who has professionally committed herself to stealing it.
- dave_sullivan 11y ago
  I disagree. As a professor at Stanford, she's teaching the future rulers of the world how to rule. At Dropbox, she's showing up to board meetings and taking a salary.
  - plonh 11y ago
    Her teaching at Stanford is the same sort of trophy namedropping photo op that being on the board is. You can't actually get a PhD in Hegemony from school.
    - mentat 11y ago
      > PhD in Hegemony Probably will cost me karma, but I find this incredibly amusing, thanks!

eli 11y ago

But your complaints have nothing to do with the codebase. How would a fork help? If I fork it and change nothing but the name does it become palatable to you?

noelsusman 11y ago

Do you boycott every company that has any questionable people on their board? This feels like cherry picking because of how high profile Rice is. Her only crimes are being in the Bush administration and doing her job, and being on the board of an oil company. That's pretty weak.