4 ms·

"Genocide"? Well there's a new low in English word usage.

mort96 9y ago
> The systematic and planned extermination of an entire group. Sure, technically it only applies to an ethnic/political/racial/etc group of humans, but it's not _that_ far-fetched to apply it to the systematic and planned extermination of an entire group of software (in this case Firefox add-ons).
- pidg 9y ago
  First they came for Greasemonkey, but I did not speak out, because I was a Scriptish user...
- Seirdy 9y ago
  It has some negative connotations worth disagreeing with, though. I for one am pro-Webextensions (WE) because the legacy APIs gave all addons unlimited privileges and kept Firefox internals from improving. WE apis have come miles; even Tree Style Tabs has a WE alternative. I am hopeful for Qutebrowser, though; the dev is working on an interesting approach to extending the browser without WE support by allowing "userscripts" (not the Greasemonkey-esque ones). They can be written in tons of different languages. [Relevant documentation](https://qutebrowser.org/doc/userscripts.html https://qutebrowser.org/doc/userscripts.html).
- arthur_pryor 9y ago
  i think maybe we should keep "genocide" reserved for people, or at least wait on applying it to software till we think that software might be sentient. linguistic inflation sort of sucks [0]. [0] http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/is-linguistic-inflation-insanely-awesome http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/is-linguistic-inflati... ("linguistic inflation" is a term that i've been using in my own head for years without using it in conversation, so i'm glad to see others have the same complaint)
  - KGIII 9y ago
    Right! Linguistic inflation has literally decimated the English language! /s I think I sometimes confuse it with hyperbole.
vortico 9y ago
Exaggeration is very common to provide color to otherwise boring language. In this case, it personifies Firefox plugins to describe exactly what is happening to them, to avoid saying something like "makes them incompatible with future releases" which doeosn't do enough grace to represent the amount of work plugin developers have put into the these plugins to have them no longer supported.
- theSpaceOctopus 9y ago
  I think the intent is clear, it’s the word choice which some may find tasteless. For example, a person who survived an actual genocide may find your analogy to be shallow because where you’ve lost some extensions due to a browser upgrade, they’ve lost everyone they love due to them having been hacked to death with machetes, or gassed, or worked to death in forced labor camps. I don’t know, maybe they just need to get over it?
  - vortico 9y ago
    If you or someone else took offense to my word choice because of having personal connections with genocides, and that the horrible concept is brought to their mind after reading my post, I would have happily changed it during the editable time to prevent others from having similar negative thoughts. However, I do not give a bit of concern to people who get offended for others and have no actual personal connection with the word and thus have no real negative thoughts. They are as privileged as I am for being able to say the word and not be bothered by the connotations.
    - theSpaceOctopus 9y ago
      > people who get offended for others and have no actual personal connection with the word and thus have no real negative thoughts. That could better be described as a capacity for empathy, particularly in the context of genocide. "No real negative thoughts" is your assumption.
      - Dylan16807 9y ago

> The systematic and planned extermination of an entire group. Sure, technically it only applies to an ethnic/political/racial/etc group of humans, but it's not _that_ far-fetched to apply it to the systematic and planned extermination of an entire group of software (in this case Firefox add-ons).

pidg 9y ago
First they came for Greasemonkey, but I did not speak out, because I was a Scriptish user...
Seirdy 9y ago
It has some negative connotations worth disagreeing with, though. I for one am pro-Webextensions (WE) because the legacy APIs gave all addons unlimited privileges and kept Firefox internals from improving. WE apis have come miles; even Tree Style Tabs has a WE alternative. I am hopeful for Qutebrowser, though; the dev is working on an interesting approach to extending the browser without WE support by allowing "userscripts" (not the Greasemonkey-esque ones). They can be written in tons of different languages. [Relevant documentation](https://qutebrowser.org/doc/userscripts.html https://qutebrowser.org/doc/userscripts.html).
arthur_pryor 9y ago
i think maybe we should keep "genocide" reserved for people, or at least wait on applying it to software till we think that software might be sentient. linguistic inflation sort of sucks [0]. [0] http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/is-linguistic-inflation-insanely-awesome http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/is-linguistic-inflati... ("linguistic inflation" is a term that i've been using in my own head for years without using it in conversation, so i'm glad to see others have the same complaint)
- KGIII 9y ago
  Right! Linguistic inflation has literally decimated the English language! /s I think I sometimes confuse it with hyperbole.

vortico 9y ago

Exaggeration is very common to provide color to otherwise boring language. In this case, it personifies Firefox plugins to describe exactly what is happening to them, to avoid saying something like "makes them incompatible with future releases" which doeosn't do enough grace to represent the amount of work plugin developers have put into the these plugins to have them no longer supported.

theSpaceOctopus 9y ago
I think the intent is clear, it’s the word choice which some may find tasteless. For example, a person who survived an actual genocide may find your analogy to be shallow because where you’ve lost some extensions due to a browser upgrade, they’ve lost everyone they love due to them having been hacked to death with machetes, or gassed, or worked to death in forced labor camps. I don’t know, maybe they just need to get over it?
- vortico 9y ago
  If you or someone else took offense to my word choice because of having personal connections with genocides, and that the horrible concept is brought to their mind after reading my post, I would have happily changed it during the editable time to prevent others from having similar negative thoughts. However, I do not give a bit of concern to people who get offended for others and have no actual personal connection with the word and thus have no real negative thoughts. They are as privileged as I am for being able to say the word and not be bothered by the connotations.
  - theSpaceOctopus 9y ago
    > people who get offended for others and have no actual personal connection with the word and thus have no real negative thoughts. That could better be described as a capacity for empathy, particularly in the context of genocide. "No real negative thoughts" is your assumption.
    - Dylan16807 9y ago