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> Your username is Kaiser. That could be a bannable offense. Why? Kaiser is a royal title and widely used family name from the German sphere of culture. Who co

> Your username is Kaiser. That could be a bannable offense. Why? Kaiser is a royal title and widely used family name from the German sphere of culture. Who could be legitimated offended by this alone?

valdiorn 5y ago
Tell that to the people who are accusing everyone of being racist for having a "master" branch in their git repo. No, I'm not being funny.
blueflow 5y ago
"Kaiser" is a reference to the German Reich, and references to Nazism are not welcome in this community. -- Someone in power, making up a reason to get him banned
- mrunkel 5y ago
  "Blueflow is a reference to toilets flushing on airplanes, and it is not welcome in this community." I mean, if we're going to make up reasons out of whole cloth, any name is fair game.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - sandstrom 5y ago
    I'm guessing that's his point.
  - fho 5y ago
    I mean the example is a bit contrived ... but his point that "I have nothing to hide" is a fallacy stands. Another, better example: Normally, where you work is not a secret. It is something that most people would tell strangers if asked about. Now, say you are testing your "market value" by sending out job applications. Now suddenly you may not want to disclose where you work. This is actually not a contrived example, a friend of mine was let go because the HR guys handling one of his applications knew somebody from his current company, word got around and his current management deemed the risk of him "stealing work secrets" too high. So they put him on paid leave and he never entered that facility again.
  - dmitriid 5y ago
    A few years back a Russian guy created an Erlang library, and called it `coon`, as short for `raccoon`. Enraged white Americans had a fit over this because in some (not all!) parts of America this is (or used to be) a racial slur. Many other Americans on the mailing list never even heard it used as a racial slur. The guy was forced to rename the library. Do you want to bet that whatever you say, or whatever you call yourself won't be a reason to get you banned? Do you want to tie an email address to the likelihood of this happening?
- slightwinder 5y ago
  Which would be complete BS as nazis were very vocal about being against the royality and abolished them. Yes, of course can you always make up some lies to justify a random act of power. But then the user can prove them wrong, go viral on social media or sue them. And bigger companies are usually not that broken that they just randomly act on such lies.
  - blueflow 5y ago
    Such details have never stopped dissidents from being sanctioned. This is how power plays work.
    - slightwinder 5y ago
      We are talking about online-services, not state terrorism. Companies are limited in their power play.
  - TheSpiceIsLife 5y ago
    Hacker News has a fair constant stream of comments about various companies locking people out for no discernible reason with no recourse. How would this scenario be any different.
junon 5y ago
I live in Germany and "Kaiser" is everywhere. And I mean everywhere. That being said, coming from the US, I can easily see it being associated with the Nazi party by some strong-armed patriotic American moderator type.
- k8sToGo 5y ago
  Like Kaiserschmarn!
- Levitz 5y ago
  I'm Spanish and I'm fairly certain I can't use the Spanish word for "black" in most US sites.
  - junon 5y ago
    Yeah, same thing :/
ben_w 5y ago
I remember ages ago “CmdrTaco” complaining about being banned from using that name, “because it’s a title”: https://slashdot.org/story/61868 https://slashdot.org/story/61868
sacado2 5y ago
In some online communities, there are people who can't write which country they are from because the name of their country is offensive from a USA-centric point of view. I don't even know if those names raise flags here on HN, so, I'll just give their capital cities: Podgorica, Niamey, Abuja. Your name / title / country name could be safe in your own country but seem offensive to someone with an international bias.
- sandstrom 5y ago
  Good point! Similarly, there are also countries that are "offensive" from a Chinese point of view. This journalist cannot even mention the name "Taiwan" and "country" in the same sentence without this WHO guy (from Canada!) treating her like pariah. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlCYFh8U2xM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlCYFh8U2xM
  - ljm 5y ago
    Let's be fair here, the issue with Taiwan is a geopolitical one. The same as it is with Israel and Palestine. And with many countries, territories, and borders, that are contested. This isn't the same as the sheer ignorance it takes to assume that countries Nigeria, Montenegro, and Niger are connected to the US's issues with race and are therefore offensive. A US diplomat isn't going to sanction you for recognising Nigeria as a country. I'm also unaware of what such a person would call these countries instead.
    - sandstrom 5y ago
      Its the same type of cancel culture, but this time it's a country being "offended", not a person. https://qz.com/1911573/virtual-youtubers-suspended-after-calling-taiwan-a-country/ https://qz.com/1911573/virtual-youtubers-suspended-after-cal... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/26/john-cena-very-sorry-for-saying-taiwan-is-a-country https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/26/john-cena-very... https://www.forbes.com/sites/ralphjennings/2018/01/17/corporations-will-quickly-comply-as-china-pressures-them-to-stop-calling-taiwan-a-country/?sh=200bc9809bf4 https://www.forbes.com/sites/ralphjennings/2018/01/17/corpor... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-31/nasa-is-the-latest-to-offend-china-by-calling-taiwan-a-country https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-31/nasa-is-t... https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4018580 https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4018580

valdiorn 5y ago

Tell that to the people who are accusing everyone of being racist for having a "master" branch in their git repo. No, I'm not being funny.

blueflow 5y ago

"Kaiser" is a reference to the German Reich, and references to Nazism are not welcome in this community. -- Someone in power, making up a reason to get him banned

mrunkel 5y ago
"Blueflow is a reference to toilets flushing on airplanes, and it is not welcome in this community." I mean, if we're going to make up reasons out of whole cloth, any name is fair game.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- sandstrom 5y ago
  I'm guessing that's his point.
- fho 5y ago
  I mean the example is a bit contrived ... but his point that "I have nothing to hide" is a fallacy stands. Another, better example: Normally, where you work is not a secret. It is something that most people would tell strangers if asked about. Now, say you are testing your "market value" by sending out job applications. Now suddenly you may not want to disclose where you work. This is actually not a contrived example, a friend of mine was let go because the HR guys handling one of his applications knew somebody from his current company, word got around and his current management deemed the risk of him "stealing work secrets" too high. So they put him on paid leave and he never entered that facility again.
- dmitriid 5y ago
  A few years back a Russian guy created an Erlang library, and called it `coon`, as short for `raccoon`. Enraged white Americans had a fit over this because in some (not all!) parts of America this is (or used to be) a racial slur. Many other Americans on the mailing list never even heard it used as a racial slur. The guy was forced to rename the library. Do you want to bet that whatever you say, or whatever you call yourself won't be a reason to get you banned? Do you want to tie an email address to the likelihood of this happening?
slightwinder 5y ago
Which would be complete BS as nazis were very vocal about being against the royality and abolished them. Yes, of course can you always make up some lies to justify a random act of power. But then the user can prove them wrong, go viral on social media or sue them. And bigger companies are usually not that broken that they just randomly act on such lies.
- blueflow 5y ago
  Such details have never stopped dissidents from being sanctioned. This is how power plays work.
  - slightwinder 5y ago
    We are talking about online-services, not state terrorism. Companies are limited in their power play.
- TheSpiceIsLife 5y ago
  Hacker News has a fair constant stream of comments about various companies locking people out for no discernible reason with no recourse. How would this scenario be any different.

junon 5y ago

I live in Germany and "Kaiser" is everywhere. And I mean everywhere. That being said, coming from the US, I can easily see it being associated with the Nazi party by some strong-armed patriotic American moderator type.

k8sToGo 5y ago
Like Kaiserschmarn!
Levitz 5y ago
I'm Spanish and I'm fairly certain I can't use the Spanish word for "black" in most US sites.
- junon 5y ago
  Yeah, same thing :/

ben_w 5y ago

I remember ages ago “CmdrTaco” complaining about being banned from using that name, “because it’s a title”: https://slashdot.org/story/61868 https://slashdot.org/story/61868

sacado2 5y ago

In some online communities, there are people who can't write which country they are from because the name of their country is offensive from a USA-centric point of view. I don't even know if those names raise flags here on HN, so, I'll just give their capital cities: Podgorica, Niamey, Abuja. Your name / title / country name could be safe in your own country but seem offensive to someone with an international bias.

sandstrom 5y ago
Good point! Similarly, there are also countries that are "offensive" from a Chinese point of view. This journalist cannot even mention the name "Taiwan" and "country" in the same sentence without this WHO guy (from Canada!) treating her like pariah. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlCYFh8U2xM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlCYFh8U2xM
- ljm 5y ago
  Let's be fair here, the issue with Taiwan is a geopolitical one. The same as it is with Israel and Palestine. And with many countries, territories, and borders, that are contested. This isn't the same as the sheer ignorance it takes to assume that countries Nigeria, Montenegro, and Niger are connected to the US's issues with race and are therefore offensive. A US diplomat isn't going to sanction you for recognising Nigeria as a country. I'm also unaware of what such a person would call these countries instead.
  - sandstrom 5y ago
    Its the same type of cancel culture, but this time it's a country being "offended", not a person. https://qz.com/1911573/virtual-youtubers-suspended-after-calling-taiwan-a-country/ https://qz.com/1911573/virtual-youtubers-suspended-after-cal... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/26/john-cena-very-sorry-for-saying-taiwan-is-a-country https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/26/john-cena-very... https://www.forbes.com/sites/ralphjennings/2018/01/17/corporations-will-quickly-comply-as-china-pressures-them-to-stop-calling-taiwan-a-country/?sh=200bc9809bf4 https://www.forbes.com/sites/ralphjennings/2018/01/17/corpor... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-31/nasa-is-the-latest-to-offend-china-by-calling-taiwan-a-country https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-31/nasa-is-t... https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4018580 https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4018580