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I am getting concerned about this juvenile concept of peoples emotions being fragile eggs that could be destroyed at any given moment. Why is it the HOSTING se

I am getting concerned about this juvenile concept of peoples emotions being fragile eggs that could be destroyed at any given moment. Why is it the HOSTING services job to decided community guidelines?

anderber 10y ago
I agree. It seems that a hosting company should just worry about what is legal/etc. This idea of being a moral police isn't good for the users or them.
- eli 10y ago
  Do you think they should allow spam?
  - flukus 10y ago
    Spam is illegal. It's also a lot less subjective.
    - eli 10y ago
      Spamming github issues is illegal? Under what law? Certainly it's subjective what constitutes spam.
      - flukus 10y ago
        They allow spamming github issues. The biggest spamming case I've ever seen was from the person that likely wrote these community guidelines.
matt4077 10y ago
Well they're hosting it, for free, so they get to decide the same way as someone hosting a party. But it's quite obvious they see the responsibility with the project owners first, and will only step in if it escalates. A written policy can make the owner's jobs a bit easier because they can just point at it and deflect criticism to GH.
detaro 10y ago
I don't think Github views their public parts purely as a hosting service for projects (with their individual communities). They want it to be seen as one platform-wide community, since a lot of the value and popularity of GitHub comes from easily being able to take part in many projects. Pure repository hosting is available in many other places as well, for network effects you need a (social) network.
eli 10y ago
A hostile commenting environment (e.g. racist or sexually explicit messages) negatively impacts the UX of the site, particularly for new users. It's bad for business.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- Turing_Machine 10y ago
  "It's bad for business." So is thought-policing your customers.
  - eli 10y ago
    Perhaps they disagree. I'm still keeping my paid corporate account.
    - Turing_Machine 10y ago
      That is their right. Personally, I nuked my Github account months ago. Dueling anecdotes!
serge2k 10y ago
> Why is it the HOSTING services job to decided community guidelines? because GitHub has been trying to save their reputation after some pretty lousy things went on, leading to them deciding to bend to PC pressure. I'm all for respecting others, and absolutely against any sort of threats of violence, harassment, etc... It's a massive problem online. That's a ways from having people flood your project with requests to change things like master/slave terminology or the name of the project because "bro" is horrible.
- flukus 10y ago
  > I'm all for respecting others, and absolutely against any sort of threats of violence, harassment, etc... It's a massive problem online. Citation Needed. I suspect the number of real threats are approximately the same as the number of people that have really fucked my mum.
  - serge2k 10y ago
    Doxxing, Harassment, Swatting, etc... Plus it's hardly right that you can threaten someone just because "lol it's the internet brah"
    - flukus 10y ago
      > Plus it's hardly right that you can threaten someone just because "lol it's the internet brah" Unless we lock down the internet and give up anonymity then it's something we have to accept.
      - 8fGTBjZxBcHq 10y ago
        No, it's not. That's the whole point. People are stepping up and saying "No, we do not have to accept this" and other people are shitting bricks.
        flukus 10y ago
        The people doing this are the harassers. "This person has political views I don't like, they should be removed from the project, even though I've never heard of the project before now".
echaozh 10y ago
Well, people's emotions may be fragile, the point is, should we tolerate or even encourage it? Shouldn't we try to evolve into a species with a stronger heart?

anderber 10y ago

I agree. It seems that a hosting company should just worry about what is legal/etc. This idea of being a moral police isn't good for the users or them.

eli 10y ago
Do you think they should allow spam?
- flukus 10y ago
  Spam is illegal. It's also a lot less subjective.
  - eli 10y ago
    Spamming github issues is illegal? Under what law? Certainly it's subjective what constitutes spam.
    - flukus 10y ago
      They allow spamming github issues. The biggest spamming case I've ever seen was from the person that likely wrote these community guidelines.

matt4077 10y ago

Well they're hosting it, for free, so they get to decide the same way as someone hosting a party. But it's quite obvious they see the responsibility with the project owners first, and will only step in if it escalates. A written policy can make the owner's jobs a bit easier because they can just point at it and deflect criticism to GH.

detaro 10y ago

I don't think Github views their public parts purely as a hosting service for projects (with their individual communities). They want it to be seen as one platform-wide community, since a lot of the value and popularity of GitHub comes from easily being able to take part in many projects. Pure repository hosting is available in many other places as well, for network effects you need a (social) network.

eli 10y ago

A hostile commenting environment (e.g. racist or sexually explicit messages) negatively impacts the UX of the site, particularly for new users. It's bad for business.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
Turing_Machine 10y ago
"It's bad for business." So is thought-policing your customers.
- eli 10y ago
  Perhaps they disagree. I'm still keeping my paid corporate account.
  - Turing_Machine 10y ago
    That is their right. Personally, I nuked my Github account months ago. Dueling anecdotes!

serge2k 10y ago

> Why is it the HOSTING services job to decided community guidelines? because GitHub has been trying to save their reputation after some pretty lousy things went on, leading to them deciding to bend to PC pressure. I'm all for respecting others, and absolutely against any sort of threats of violence, harassment, etc... It's a massive problem online. That's a ways from having people flood your project with requests to change things like master/slave terminology or the name of the project because "bro" is horrible.

flukus 10y ago
> I'm all for respecting others, and absolutely against any sort of threats of violence, harassment, etc... It's a massive problem online. Citation Needed. I suspect the number of real threats are approximately the same as the number of people that have really fucked my mum.
- serge2k 10y ago
  Doxxing, Harassment, Swatting, etc... Plus it's hardly right that you can threaten someone just because "lol it's the internet brah"
  - flukus 10y ago
    > Plus it's hardly right that you can threaten someone just because "lol it's the internet brah" Unless we lock down the internet and give up anonymity then it's something we have to accept.
    - 8fGTBjZxBcHq 10y ago
      No, it's not. That's the whole point. People are stepping up and saying "No, we do not have to accept this" and other people are shitting bricks.
      - flukus 10y ago
        The people doing this are the harassers. "This person has political views I don't like, they should be removed from the project, even though I've never heard of the project before now".

echaozh 10y ago

Well, people's emotions may be fragile, the point is, should we tolerate or even encourage it? Shouldn't we try to evolve into a species with a stronger heart?