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I'm going to say something that not everyone will want to hear, but it needs to be said. Please don't use technical sites for political purposes. According to
by rwallace 10y ago
I'm going to say something that not everyone will want to hear, but it needs to be said.
Please don't use technical sites for political purposes.
According to the title, everyone in Turkey who uses Dropbox just had their accounts become collateral damage of this stunt. Obviously, everyone trying to get work done using Github is likely to have the same problem very soon.
But it's a worthy cause? Maybe so. But doing technical work is also a worthy cause. Without it, there would be nothing of value to have political fights over in the first place.
WikiLeaks exists for exactly this kind of thing. By all means go ahead and use it. But please don't turn Github into collateral damage for a political cause, no matter how worthy that cause.
- nowayyeah 10y agoIf github goes down more people will notice (just like when china tried to take down github). Do use github please.
- eknkc 10y agoThis is nonsense. Tech related people generally notice these stuff anyway. I guess anyone using GitHub in Turkey already knows what is happening. Having it banned will not serve shit.
- nowayyeah 10y agoIt will serve to get the people angry with their government, otherwise they'll think "not my problem".
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- k__ 10y agoI'm from Germany. We are angry enough with Erdogan already.
- rexpop 10y agoAngry enough? Really? What was the last action you took to ensure his sanction? You're probably not past such a tipping point. Perhaps entangling "non-political" resources will up your ante.
- eknkc 10y agoOh this is so precious. As if we had a shortage of stuff to get angry.
- rexpop 10y ago"Tech related people generally notice these stuff anyway." a) I doubt it and b) "notice" is insufficient.
- jkot 10y agoCollecting and publishing private information (such as address) without a consent is a crime in most EU countries. To extreme this could ban Github in most of Europe. It is also probably against Github license agreement.
- mtkocak 10y agohuman rights are far more important than their consent. Those mails include bribing, faulty punishment of opponents based on their order, nepotism for official jobs and much more.
- buraksarica 10y agoWhich part of these emails are against human rights? Except hacking and dumping someone's personal email account content all over internet.. So, do your human rights mentality describe two kinds of human? Please just answer my questions, if you will. Do not talk about what Erdogans do, or don't. That's another story. What will happen when someone publish some redhack member's personal mail account dump, which may include a receipt of an inducement taken from a government? Will you try to make people fork it in this way too?
- mtkocak 10y agoif you read panama papers and hillary's mails, I have no word.
- glup 10y agoI disagree with OP's characterization of HN as a 'technical' site. Technical and political domains are recursively embedded; engineers have a moral and ethical obligation to understand the 'political' implications of their 'technical' decisions, and may make better technical decisions if they understand the political context. One of the reasons I value HN is because very knowledgeable people think about this greater context. This is the core of the political. The problem isn't activists using services like github; it's states shutting down these services in response.
- jshevek 10y agoI took the parent's comment to be describing github as a technical site, not HN.
- PavlovsCat 10y ago> The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude. -- George Orwell, "Why I Write" (1946) Having no position means adopting the position of bullies and tyrants; or as the title of the Howard Zinn bio goes, you can't be neutral on a moving train. Also, entertaining "purely technical" (or mathematical or whatever) thoughts is kind of a luxury, and it's downstream from politics. That's not a value statement, but while all work and no play may make Jake a dull boy, all play and no work will make him a gone boy. If you love a thing very much, you absolutely should care about its foundations, and those who would sink them into the memory hole.
- rexpop 10y agoEdit: I should first thank you for stating so clearly an ostensibly controversial opinion. Collateral damage. What an interesting concept. In a sense, using technical sites for political purposes is a lot like blocking highway traffic for political purposes. Or blocking buses. Or blocking cafés. If your basic social contract is being violated — let alone your basic human rights — no channel is superordinate to addressing that violation. All concerns, rituals, laws, roles, rules or other social constructs must be seen as subordinate to the most foundational societal structures. Technology is inherently political, whether it's in swords or plowshares. Trying to separate them will only deprive legitimate socio-political efforts of the network effect.