5 ms·

VS Code is getting flak for removing Santa hat emoji

5 points by amingilani 7y ago

amingilani 7y ago
Original complaint which led to removal: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/87268 https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/87268
- mrburton 7y ago
  I hate to say it, but this is cancel culture. The question is what other emojis are coming to get band because someone finds them offensive? Listen, I'm not religious at all. This has lead to many intense conversations with my mother as well. That being said, but I celebrate xmas. Why? for me, it's about family. Honestly, I'm very curious what's the next emoji to be banned? Wine/beer/champagne emojis because they "encourage" drinking? The Crescent moon () because some might feel it's "too islamic" lol Can someone insert Michael Jackson eating popcorn or would that be offensive because of his legal issues lol Okay sorry. I just had to say it... well not really sorry because I said it so saying sorry is bullshit on my behalf lol Hopefully people learn to treat each other with respect and stop trying to censor everything.. it's getting a bit silly.
  - smt88 7y ago
    > I hate to say it, but this is cancel culture. The question is what other emojis are coming to get band because someone finds them offensive? They didn't ban an emoji. The title is misleading. They injected a Christian icon into every installation of VS Code. A non-Christian asked them to remove it. Cancel culture is free markets and free speech at work. It's not censorship. Microsoft did not have to remove the emoji if they didn't want to. It may irritate you, but international corporations always bend over backwards to avoid offending their massive variety of customers.
    - mrburton 7y ago
      > Christian icon The Santa Claus hat isn't a Christian icon. Santa Claus isn't a Christian figure. That being said, cancel culture is bullshit and not free markets. It's bullying. Free market is "Don't like the Santa Hat? Don't use VSCode." > It may irritate you, but international corporations always bend over backwards to avoid offending their massive variety of customers. It doesn't offend me that they added/removed the Santa Claus hat; I don't care. What's offensive is the last part of your statement. > to avoid offending their massive variety of customers. What about the people it offended because someone "didn't like the icon"? Cancel Culture is trying to censor a comedian like David Chappelle because they found his jokes offensive. Now if you can't see the issue with this, that's fine and we won't agree on the subject. That being said - your post is very offensive to people sharing opinions and I think we should take it down. It's offending a variety of readers.. And take down my comment because it offended a variety of readers.. better yet, let's take down hacker news because there's so many offensive things on here lol Free market - just don't use VS Code and use Atom.
      - smt88 7y ago
        > The Santa Claus hat isn't a Christian icon. Santa Claus isn't a Christian figure. This is using a different definition of "Christian" than basically any other human I've ever met. There are literally billions of people who disagree with you on this. Santa Claus is based on Saint Nicholas, a Christian figure, and is exclusively used to celebrate a Christian holiday. There is no secular origin or usage of Santa Claus. He also does not appear in Islam, the other mainstream religion based partly on the New Testament. > What's offensive is the last part of your statement. Stating a fact about how corporations try to please everyone? Why does that offend you? > Cancel Culture is trying to censor a comedian like David Chappelle because they found his jokes offensive What does that have to do with this? And do you think people should stop saying they disapprove of Chappelle and want Netflix to stop distributing his comedy? People can (and did) speak freely on the subject. Netflix chose not to take Chappelle down. End of story -- everyone behaved within their rights. > your post is very offensive to people sharing opinions and I think we should take it down I support your right to this opinion. You can instantly take my comment down by flagging it (as far as I know). The mods of HN can take it down too. That's still not censorship because I can go around posting my ideas anywhere else. I can scream them on the steps of the Capitol in Washington. > Free market - just don't use VS Code and use Atom. Sure, but some of us are stuck on a certain app for our jobs. And it seems likely that this issue was bad enough to get him to speak up about it, but not bad enough to get him to stop using the app at all. End of story. You can (and should) speak freely about cancel culture, just as they can (and should) speak freely about the people they want to be "canceled". It can be incredibly annoying, and it annoys me sometimes, but that's a consequence of unfettered, widely published, unedited speech (like Twitter or reddit). People say annoying things, bully other people, collectively spread lies, etc. There's nothing we can do about it other than take away free speech or shut down the publishers.
smt88 7y ago
Misleading, clickbait title. It sound like they disabled its usage in the app and there is now a backlash. In reality, they had added a Santa hat to the UI in an update (see screenshot[1]). There doesn't seem to be much of a backlash to the removal anywhere except from a few dozen users. It's totally reasonable to expect applications from international corporations exclude religious symbols. I doubt this conversation would have the same tone if it were Muslim symbols that they'd pushed to users instead of Santa. One person's harmless, fun religious symbol is another person's reminder of death or oppression. Regardless, it's not necessary or appropriate to inject into an app that many people must use for work. 1. https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/4748045/71110025-c9bbf100-21c6-11ea-8531-666e20a812a1.jpg https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/4748045/71110025-c...
- ensignavenger 7y ago
  What religion has ever used a Santa hat as a symbol in any meaningful way? Maybe github should stop using stars which actually are used as religious symbols?
- amingilani 7y ago
  I didn't mean for the title to sound like that, but I can see how it can be misconstrued. But you can't call it clickbait when I added a link to the original complaint in the comment.

5 points by amingilani 7y ago

Original complaint which led to removal: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/87268 https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/87268

mrburton 7y ago
I hate to say it, but this is cancel culture. The question is what other emojis are coming to get band because someone finds them offensive? Listen, I'm not religious at all. This has lead to many intense conversations with my mother as well. That being said, but I celebrate xmas. Why? for me, it's about family. Honestly, I'm very curious what's the next emoji to be banned? Wine/beer/champagne emojis because they "encourage" drinking? The Crescent moon () because some might feel it's "too islamic" lol Can someone insert Michael Jackson eating popcorn or would that be offensive because of his legal issues lol Okay sorry. I just had to say it... well not really sorry because I said it so saying sorry is bullshit on my behalf lol Hopefully people learn to treat each other with respect and stop trying to censor everything.. it's getting a bit silly.
- smt88 7y ago
  > I hate to say it, but this is cancel culture. The question is what other emojis are coming to get band because someone finds them offensive? They didn't ban an emoji. The title is misleading. They injected a Christian icon into every installation of VS Code. A non-Christian asked them to remove it. Cancel culture is free markets and free speech at work. It's not censorship. Microsoft did not have to remove the emoji if they didn't want to. It may irritate you, but international corporations always bend over backwards to avoid offending their massive variety of customers.
  - mrburton 7y ago
    > Christian icon The Santa Claus hat isn't a Christian icon. Santa Claus isn't a Christian figure. That being said, cancel culture is bullshit and not free markets. It's bullying. Free market is "Don't like the Santa Hat? Don't use VSCode." > It may irritate you, but international corporations always bend over backwards to avoid offending their massive variety of customers. It doesn't offend me that they added/removed the Santa Claus hat; I don't care. What's offensive is the last part of your statement. > to avoid offending their massive variety of customers. What about the people it offended because someone "didn't like the icon"? Cancel Culture is trying to censor a comedian like David Chappelle because they found his jokes offensive. Now if you can't see the issue with this, that's fine and we won't agree on the subject. That being said - your post is very offensive to people sharing opinions and I think we should take it down. It's offending a variety of readers.. And take down my comment because it offended a variety of readers.. better yet, let's take down hacker news because there's so many offensive things on here lol Free market - just don't use VS Code and use Atom.
    - smt88 7y ago
      > The Santa Claus hat isn't a Christian icon. Santa Claus isn't a Christian figure. This is using a different definition of "Christian" than basically any other human I've ever met. There are literally billions of people who disagree with you on this. Santa Claus is based on Saint Nicholas, a Christian figure, and is exclusively used to celebrate a Christian holiday. There is no secular origin or usage of Santa Claus. He also does not appear in Islam, the other mainstream religion based partly on the New Testament. > What's offensive is the last part of your statement. Stating a fact about how corporations try to please everyone? Why does that offend you? > Cancel Culture is trying to censor a comedian like David Chappelle because they found his jokes offensive What does that have to do with this? And do you think people should stop saying they disapprove of Chappelle and want Netflix to stop distributing his comedy? People can (and did) speak freely on the subject. Netflix chose not to take Chappelle down. End of story -- everyone behaved within their rights. > your post is very offensive to people sharing opinions and I think we should take it down I support your right to this opinion. You can instantly take my comment down by flagging it (as far as I know). The mods of HN can take it down too. That's still not censorship because I can go around posting my ideas anywhere else. I can scream them on the steps of the Capitol in Washington. > Free market - just don't use VS Code and use Atom. Sure, but some of us are stuck on a certain app for our jobs. And it seems likely that this issue was bad enough to get him to speak up about it, but not bad enough to get him to stop using the app at all. End of story. You can (and should) speak freely about cancel culture, just as they can (and should) speak freely about the people they want to be "canceled". It can be incredibly annoying, and it annoys me sometimes, but that's a consequence of unfettered, widely published, unedited speech (like Twitter or reddit). People say annoying things, bully other people, collectively spread lies, etc. There's nothing we can do about it other than take away free speech or shut down the publishers.

smt88 7y ago

Misleading, clickbait title. It sound like they disabled its usage in the app and there is now a backlash. In reality, they had added a Santa hat to the UI in an update (see screenshot[1]). There doesn't seem to be much of a backlash to the removal anywhere except from a few dozen users. It's totally reasonable to expect applications from international corporations exclude religious symbols. I doubt this conversation would have the same tone if it were Muslim symbols that they'd pushed to users instead of Santa. One person's harmless, fun religious symbol is another person's reminder of death or oppression. Regardless, it's not necessary or appropriate to inject into an app that many people must use for work. 1. https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/4748045/71110025-c9bbf100-21c6-11ea-8531-666e20a812a1.jpg https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/4748045/71110025-c...

ensignavenger 7y ago
What religion has ever used a Santa hat as a symbol in any meaningful way? Maybe github should stop using stars which actually are used as religious symbols?
amingilani 7y ago
I didn't mean for the title to sound like that, but I can see how it can be misconstrued. But you can't call it clickbait when I added a link to the original complaint in the comment.