6 ms·

I find it weird that they use so many euphemisms for death when its the main motivation for the feature here. Is it really that uncomfortable for some?

manojlds 5y ago
> An appointed successor can manage your public repositories after presenting a death certificate then waiting for 7 days or presenting an obituary Looks clear enough
- eloisius 5y ago
  > to manage your user owned repositories if you cannot At first I was thinking this was more general, like say you got trapped in Afghanistan with no internet and nothing but a phone line, you could direct your successor to take over your project. But then the process clearly states you have to submit a death certificate. I agree with gp: why the obscure language. Why not just "in the unfortunate event of your death blah blah blah"?
  - thepete2 5y ago
    Actually the trapped without internet thing makes me think. Why not do some sort of dead-man-switch? I.e. when you haven't committed (or been online) in X months the project is transferred to your successor.
  - watwut 5y ago
    In this situation, would you want to do complete transfer of repository? If you expect to come back, you want to give them just commit rights.
sneak 5y ago
Death, especially in the USA, seems to be fraught with propriety pitfalls when speaking about it with strangers. I'm not so sure why. It could be the general American cultural tendency toward heavy euphemism. Naturally, any GitHub announcement is going to be run past world-class PR staff abiding by Microsoft corporate policies (that is, burn no bridges, offend no one, take no unnecessary risks with the brand). Microsoft is a US company with primarily US decisionmakers. a squared plus b squared equals fearful, bland, and circumloquacious.
- k8sToGo 5y ago
  > I'm not so sure why. Because a lot of "weird" cultural norms in the US are based on its roots of puritanism. > At the same time, the Puritans regarded death as God's punishment for human sinfulness and on their deathbeds many New Englanders trembled with fear that they might suffer eternal damnation in Hell. https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/topic_display.cfm?tcid=72 https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/topic_display.cfm?tcid=72
  - watwut 5y ago
    Imo, the puritanism as root of everything is massively overstated. In this case in particular, puritans talked about death a lot. They have been kinda obsessed with it.
k8sToGo 5y ago
When I interviewed at GitHub, I had to answer some questions to determine how inclusive I really am. Microsoft is very big on this new type of culture.
- nicoburns 5y ago
  Is talking about death not inclusive? I would have thought it was about as inclusive as one could get seeing as it is a life experience that applies to literally everyone.
  - k8sToGo 5y ago
    The whole inclusion also includes providing safe space, which I noticed means to basically act like there is only good things. So if you mention death in a different context it could trigger someone who recently lost someone, for example. Personally, I am not a fan of this, but this is how I understand this.
    - Nextgrid 5y ago
      This is absolutely insane and I'm so glad there are still companies and industries that don't give a fuck about any of this.
    - Aeolun 5y ago
      To be fair, any mention of a death of someone roughly my age and situation sets off my anxiety like nothing else. I’m not saying they’re obliged to prevent that, but I can sort of see where they are coming from.
      - nicoburns 5y ago
        Interesting. The thought of death calms my anxiety because I know* that if I die then all my worries will be taken away, and nothing will really matter anymore. It's the prospect of an unhappy or difficult life that worry me. * well, I have a strong belief
rvieira 5y ago
People have different sensitivities to the subject of mortality and death, I guess. I grew in a European catholic majority country and I can say death is much more of a taboo and a Bad Subject to discuss in general (at least compared to protestant majority countries).
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- glitchcrab 5y ago
  I've been seeing this a lot recently as my father died before Christmas. I think it's also down to people trying to be sensitive too - back when he was in the hospital I had many calls from doctors and nurses and there was a wide range of words and phrases used to talk about how long he had left, the possibility of death etc. It's the same too now that I'm dealing with closing down all of his accounts.
scrollaway 5y ago
Can you list the euphemisms? I found exactly one, if you could the “if you cannot” as one.
- gkop 5y ago
  I think “if you cannot” may be appropriate too. It makes me feel that the author would be sad if I died, so they don’t want to think about it.
watwut 5y ago
There are not many euphemism. There is "not being able to" and "cannot" and that is it. And yes, it is not exceptional to talk and write this way. And it was not exceptional in the past either.

manojlds 5y ago

> An appointed successor can manage your public repositories after presenting a death certificate then waiting for 7 days or presenting an obituary Looks clear enough

eloisius 5y ago
> to manage your user owned repositories if you cannot At first I was thinking this was more general, like say you got trapped in Afghanistan with no internet and nothing but a phone line, you could direct your successor to take over your project. But then the process clearly states you have to submit a death certificate. I agree with gp: why the obscure language. Why not just "in the unfortunate event of your death blah blah blah"?
- thepete2 5y ago
  Actually the trapped without internet thing makes me think. Why not do some sort of dead-man-switch? I.e. when you haven't committed (or been online) in X months the project is transferred to your successor.
- watwut 5y ago
  In this situation, would you want to do complete transfer of repository? If you expect to come back, you want to give them just commit rights.

sneak 5y ago

Death, especially in the USA, seems to be fraught with propriety pitfalls when speaking about it with strangers. I'm not so sure why. It could be the general American cultural tendency toward heavy euphemism. Naturally, any GitHub announcement is going to be run past world-class PR staff abiding by Microsoft corporate policies (that is, burn no bridges, offend no one, take no unnecessary risks with the brand). Microsoft is a US company with primarily US decisionmakers. a squared plus b squared equals fearful, bland, and circumloquacious.

k8sToGo 5y ago
> I'm not so sure why. Because a lot of "weird" cultural norms in the US are based on its roots of puritanism. > At the same time, the Puritans regarded death as God's punishment for human sinfulness and on their deathbeds many New Englanders trembled with fear that they might suffer eternal damnation in Hell. https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/topic_display.cfm?tcid=72 https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/topic_display.cfm?tcid=72
- watwut 5y ago
  Imo, the puritanism as root of everything is massively overstated. In this case in particular, puritans talked about death a lot. They have been kinda obsessed with it.

k8sToGo 5y ago

When I interviewed at GitHub, I had to answer some questions to determine how inclusive I really am. Microsoft is very big on this new type of culture.

nicoburns 5y ago
Is talking about death not inclusive? I would have thought it was about as inclusive as one could get seeing as it is a life experience that applies to literally everyone.
- k8sToGo 5y ago
  The whole inclusion also includes providing safe space, which I noticed means to basically act like there is only good things. So if you mention death in a different context it could trigger someone who recently lost someone, for example. Personally, I am not a fan of this, but this is how I understand this.
  - Nextgrid 5y ago
    This is absolutely insane and I'm so glad there are still companies and industries that don't give a fuck about any of this.
  - Aeolun 5y ago
    To be fair, any mention of a death of someone roughly my age and situation sets off my anxiety like nothing else. I’m not saying they’re obliged to prevent that, but I can sort of see where they are coming from.
    - nicoburns 5y ago
      Interesting. The thought of death calms my anxiety because I know* that if I die then all my worries will be taken away, and nothing will really matter anymore. It's the prospect of an unhappy or difficult life that worry me. * well, I have a strong belief

rvieira 5y ago

People have different sensitivities to the subject of mortality and death, I guess. I grew in a European catholic majority country and I can say death is much more of a taboo and a Bad Subject to discuss in general (at least compared to protestant majority countries).

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
glitchcrab 5y ago
I've been seeing this a lot recently as my father died before Christmas. I think it's also down to people trying to be sensitive too - back when he was in the hospital I had many calls from doctors and nurses and there was a wide range of words and phrases used to talk about how long he had left, the possibility of death etc. It's the same too now that I'm dealing with closing down all of his accounts.

scrollaway 5y ago

Can you list the euphemisms? I found exactly one, if you could the “if you cannot” as one.

gkop 5y ago
I think “if you cannot” may be appropriate too. It makes me feel that the author would be sad if I died, so they don’t want to think about it.

watwut 5y ago

There are not many euphemism. There is "not being able to" and "cannot" and that is it. And yes, it is not exceptional to talk and write this way. And it was not exceptional in the past either.