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Stop using app icons for political activism
- imwillofficial 4y ago100% agree with this article. Not only is it “thoughts and prayers” or Facebook filter tier support, Not only is it a usability and accessibility disaster, It also breaks trust between user and developer. My device is not the appropriate place for your activism.
- rbanffy 4y agoHow about no? If it's my app, I'll use my logo. I consider the logo an integral part of the application's identity and I should control its identity. I promise I'll do my best to make it easily and readily recognizable, regardless of it using national colors, a rainbow or shades of white, pink and blue. If you don't like it, it's your problem, not mine.
- rhn_mk1 4y agoThe app might be "yours", but once you gave it to another person to install it on their phone, you should not abuse their hospitality. You don't rerrange furniture in a home you're visiting if you have good manners.
- rbanffy 4y agoThen don't update the app.
- rhn_mk1 4y agoWhen you invite someone for a repeat visit, you presume that they won't rearrange your stuff. When they arrive and you catch them in the act, the damage is already done. (Can applications be downgraded in the typical walled-garden OS environment?)
- canadianwriter 4y agoYup - private companies/app makers can do as they please. You consented to them doing as they wish. The choice is simple, if you don't like it, just stop using the app. There are probably tons of alternatives.
- vogt 4y agoSure, so let’s just not give feedback on apps ever again, because the same big companies we demonize at every turn for being advantageous capitalists can do whatever they want - courtesy of ToC and other such legalese. Pack it in, folks!
- masswerk 4y ago> private companies/app makers can do as they please. You consented to them doing as they wish However, there is a license, and this goes both ways. Or would you consent to the statement, "Yup, users are private individuals and can pirate software as they please. The developer has consented to this by publishing the software."?
- bavell 4y agoWe here at Union Busting Inc. approve this message. Pound sand! ;P
- mwint 4y agoThe part about it not being your problem is fantasy. When the author of this article leaves a bad review, it becomes your problem. You are unlikely to be able to pursue the author and force them to remove their review, so your choices are to not change the icon, or change the icon and accept the bad review. That’s certainly your problem.
- idealmedtech 4y agoAnd here we see that even this discussion is political; a summary rejection of the premise of the article! At the end of the day, we're all people, and a lot of what we are boils down to politics. You can't exist outside of it.
- jansan 4y ago> If you don't like it, it's your problem, not mine. I may be old fashined, but I remember it being considered a problem for the seller if a potential customer does not like offered product.
- culpable_pickle 4y agoSo your saying everyone should be able to demand a custom app icon that fits their design preferences, presumably for free?
- mwint 4y agoNo, they’re saying consumers are able to stop using your app if you inject politics into it, and some percentage will. No right or wrong involved, this means less money for you.
- rbanffy 4y ago> this means less money for you. My morals are not for sale.
- mwint 4y agoGreat! While we can argue over whether not changing an app icon is immoral, it is your prerogative to make that trade off. Let’s just not pretend the tradeoff doesn’t exist.
- culpable_pickle 4y ago> I remember it being considered a problem for the seller if a potential customer does not like offered product. That doesn't sound like making a informed tradeoff, that sounds like the adage of "The customer is always right", which is a very different approach to business. I highly doubt any company making a statement by changing their app icon hasn't considered the impact and I'm sure is actively watching metrics like uninstall metrics. And I'm sure given they're making the change they found it an acceptable trade off. So in short, I don't really understand what you're point was trying to make, unless you disagree with my premise that the companies made an informed decision to modify their app icon?
- yessirwhatever 4y agoWhat’s the activism angle exactly for? Do you think people on the fence about some issue will be swayed one way or the other?
- kube-system 4y agoIt doesn't need to change anyone's mind. A simple acknowledgement is reason enough. Not unlike other holidays.
- DiggyJohnson 4y agoI feel like this comment section is split by (1) people who assume that an app icon on a phone is a reasonable place to make political statements and (2) those who don’t. I’m not against a cause just because I prefer my app icons to not change colors with the political season.
- rbanffy 4y agoAs someone said much better than I ever could, I don't want to impose my values upon others, but I want to show others who have the same values I do they are not alone.
- fumanchux 4y agoSaying that you're changing your logo to "show others who have the same values I do they are not alone" implies that you're expressing some very exceptional values. I struggle to imagine what values are best at connecting to lonely people through their phone homescreen.
- zthrowaway 4y agoWhat this really is, is showing political compliance. Just like what Italians had to do in the late 30s to prevent their businesses from being destroyed. How would you feel if most apps all over the App Store for one whole month used right wing political symbology to signal their compliance? I’m sure you’d get pretty angry about it. Try to put yourself in other’s shoes, and stop participating in this low-effort fascism.
- ThrowawayR2 4y agoIt's political advertising and, like many, I don't want any ads in my apps. Normalizing political ads in apps is a two edged sword because, even if yours are righteous, there are plenty of unsavory political movements I don't want to see ads for and they would be just as "justified" as yours because they too sincerely believe their cause is righteous (even though we would disagree).
- rbanffy 4y agoI'm completely fine with your right to dump those unsavory apps. If enough of us do, they may chose to, at least, hide to wherever they came out from.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- spacemanmatt 4y ago> How about no? Ok, I'll take it. It's your app. I rather not wear the clown shoes when it comes to understanding property and expression rights, but also etiquette in app/business spaces.
- Ajedi32 4y ago> If it's my app Not picking on you specifically, because this attitude is extremely common among software developers these days, but I think this mentality of treating software running on users' machines as "yours" rather than "theirs" is at the core of a lot of problems with the modern software industry. Software should serve the interests of its users, not its developers. The advent of ubiquitous internet connectivity, automatic updates, and business models based around selling ads rather than selling software have changed this dynamic somewhat and I think that's really unfortunate.
- rbanffy 4y ago> Software should serve the interests of its users, not its developers. It is my belief the software is serving the betterment of society if it offends the people who don't approve my activism ;-) More important than serving the individual users is serving society as a whole.
- marginalia_nu 4y ago> It is my belief the software is serving the betterment of society if it offends the people who don't approve my activism ;-) When has ideological grandstanding ever been a successful strategy for convincing anyone of anything? Surely it would just further entrench the convictions of those who disagree with you, harming your own cause and helping theirs gain legitimacy in the eyes of those who are not convinced either way.
- aaomidi 4y agoI disagree with this. Minds don’t changed based on one interaction. It changed based on your observations from the world. Pride logos and icons in companies have made it so you can’t “not think” of LGBT anymore for example. This is HUGE for a lot of people. I’ll give you a specific example, before pride no one in Iran dared speak about LGBT. Now it’s unavoidable when all the apps and services you use have a pride version. This has already lead to more acceptance privately re: lgbt. The next steps are pushing acceptance to welcoming to them “you’re not going to be treated differently”. It’s one tool in your entire arsenal.
- lupire 4y agoIf you do that you a paid customer, you are perpetuating a bait and switch fraud. If you are doing that in a free app, OK, but you are going to get bad reviews from the users you vandalized, and might be violating the advertising/spam rules of the platform your are distributing on.
- Banana699 4y agoGood. I love it when true believers show their true colors. When your fashionable beliefs fall out of fashion, it will be your problem soon enough. Just don't cry about oppression then.
- xisukar 4y ago>When your fashionable beliefs fall out of fashion, it will be your problem soon enough. Just don't cry about oppression then. The righteousness of these individuals make them blind to the fact the pendulum swings back and forth.
- Jcowell 4y agoI mean let’s be clear here, we are taking about a symbol that’s for the backing of the rights of a group of people. There would be large problems for society as a whole if the pendulum swings the other way.
- DiggyJohnson 4y agoThis pendulum refers to virtue signal-ing. Presumably the rights of these groups does not depend on the current fashion or zeitgeist of signaling support via trite visual updates.
- Semiapies 4y ago[flagged]
- Banana699 4y ago
- the_only_law 4y agoYour ability to deduce the identities of anonymous downvoters and read their minds is simply amazing to me. How can I learn this art?
- cato_the_elder 4y ago> How about no? If it's my app, I'll use my logo. Sure, but then I'll make sure that I won't use your apps if I can. And we have the right to complain about these things as much as we want. It's your PR problem, not ours.
- aaomidi 4y ago
- cato_the_elder 4y ago> I would actively not hire you if I saw that in your feeds fwiw I wouldn't hire you as well. Having a functional and meritocratic workplace is much more important to me than virtue signalling. Also, your comment is clearly a personal attack and against HN guidelines.
- aaomidi 4y agoThat was a royal you, not to the OP. the you is the fictional person in that example.
- zx10rse 4y agoI would love to know what your superiors think about your hiring process in your company. Where did you said you work ? G. ?
- aaomidi 4y agoGood thing I don’t make decisions :)
- native_samples 4y agoAs someone else who was an SRE at Google years ago, you should indeed be very glad that we made hiring decisions based on merit and not personal politics. The SRE team I joined shortly after the IPO was dominated by libertarians and arch meritocrats who would have considered your attitude a clear firing offence. It was those sort of people who built the company. But who knows? Maybe we should have done background checks to keep your type out. Certainly, Google has become a shadow of its former self now, filled with employees who seem to be phoning it in and spending all day searching for meaning in hating their own users instead of creating great new products.
- xisukar 4y ago>If it's my app, I'll use my logo. You might own the app's code but if the user paid for the app, they're entitled to not wanting their screen to become some billboard to The Current Thing™. Buy a few billboards and airtime if you feel you should shove your political beliefs and opinions down everyone's throat. With this behavior, you're the representation of everything wrong with corporate political activism and the tech industry at large: You're the app's developer, and for some reason you think you know more than the user.
- masswerk 4y agoYou're free to modify the logo on your corporate office, but the app logo is part of the license deal or purchase. On the home screen, it's not exclusively yours anymore, specifically, when it comes to posting message via this logo that are not covered by that license. (We may think of exceptions where an app is specifically about posting such messages, like an iconographic motd, but this is not what's here addressed.)
- randyrand 4y agoIt is their app actually. You gave it to them, remember?
- throwaway675309 4y agoYou're not thinking things through which is sadly pretty typical of most people. Let's create a scenario where the changing of an icon which is visible on your phone to anyone around you might actually present a danger in a certain country. What if your app changed to have a gay pride flag and one of your users lived in an extremely homophobic country where any signs of support of homosexuality could actually result in fines or even jail time? The poor user (Who may or may not agree with your ideology) who has been using your app for months has no idea that your icon is literally going to change without their knowledge or approval. But you didn't think of this scenario, did you?
- Ekaros 4y agoYeah, it is your logo. But I also reasonably expect you not to change it every update.
- RC_ITR 4y agoPretty funny that this is getting so much traction on the (recognized) Juneteenth holiday during Pride month. Tell us how you really feel…
- imwillofficial 4y agoSo people should hold back their opinions during specific celebrations or they are homophonic? That is… an insane stretch to say the least.
- RC_ITR 4y agoNo, I'm just saying that if it was a rainbow or Juneteenth flag that made you mad, then say that. Don't over-generalize, tell us how you really feel. I'm being earnest.
- imwillofficial 4y agoI’m pretty sure they told you how they feel. Why are you assuming things not stated? How is that helpful? Also, there is a Juneteenth flag? It’s a full time job to keep up these days.
- WalterGR 4y ago
- crtasm 4y agoSince 1997, I discover: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth_flag https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth_flag
- RC_ITR 4y ago>I’m pretty sure they told you how they feel. Why are you assuming things not stated? Again, was just pointing out that this article about 'Political Activism' is getting a ton of traction on the one day of the year when we (in America) recognize the historical oppression of both LGBT and black people. Am I missing a trend of app icons that recognize other 'political' causes? Because if the author is mad about rainbow or Juneteenth coloring of their apps, they should just say that and not self-censor to the point of ambiguity. If a bunch of apps are changing their icons to support random propositions, then I agree with them, but I don't think that is what is happening. >Also, there is a Juneteenth flag? It’s a full time job to keep up these days. Keep up with what exactly (By the way, no one is asking you to take on this job)? Flags? Because I can guarantee that the rate of flag-designing is multiple-orders of magnitude lower than it was even in the early 20th century.
- SllX 4y agoAn app that did this wouldn’t stick around for very long on my phone either, but which apps are actually doing this?
- mrcartmeneses 4y ago
- mwint 4y ago
- SllX 4y agoWell that doesn’t seem appropriate, but Reddit’s app never struck me as one that was particularly respectful to its users or valuable to its own brand. Are there any others?
- xisukar 4y ago
- _-david-_ 4y ago>the default position of said lives not mattering at all to many Americans. Do you have any proof of this?
- mrcartmeneses 4y agoThe list is about a mile long mate
- _-david-_ 4y agoThen it should be easy to provide proof.
- marcodiego 4y agoIn a certain way, Free Software is political activism. Disagree with something? Fork it. Not using FLOSS? Contribute to one by using, coding, donating money or trying to make it more popular. Can't or don't want to do that? How about stop complaining?
- thereddaikon 4y agoThat's not viable when Apple prevents you from installing arbitrary software on their devices. You can just say use Android but that is also fraught with compromises as well.
- marcodiego 4y agoOne more reason to support linux phones. And yes, I know how inconvenient they can be compared to other models, but people should make the effort or else we will always live with these kinds of problems.
- thereddaikon 4y agoI'm a pinephone early adopter so you don't have to sell me on that. But I also know that such things are not viable for mass market. Pinephone works for me because I am technically savvy and value ownership of my device more than ease of use. But time and time again we've seen that the market as a whole will go for whatever has the lowest friction. That's the singular most important factor. Whatever lets people do that thing quickest and easiest will usually win out. So any serious and realistic discussion has to keep that in mind. This is why consumer protection laws are important. Because "people" aren't going to necessarily look out for their own long term best interests. And will choose the option that is easy today but will screw you down the road.
- marcodiego 4y agoYou're right. Thinking "people create problems for themselves" is egoistical, most people are not educated to see beyond ads, the ones who are, most don't care. The deepest problem with such behavior is that this influences industry to simply kill any support to less common options and such group of users (which probably include we two) won't get any support from major vendors. Consumer protection laws are not only important even for those who don't care about them. They are important specially because there are so many people who don't care about them.
- wly_cdgr 4y agoYeah, strong agree
- hourago 4y ago> As part of that bargain, you have to identify your app visually so I can find it. If the problem is that apps change logos then that should be criticized, not activism. If the problem is with political causes that should be the focus, not interface. To mix both seems an excuse to legitimate one criticism using the other.
- imwillofficial 4y agoIt’s a bit of both. Also critiquing activism is completely valid. Passionately held belief is not somehow above reproach at all times
- jp57 4y agoAnyone got examples? What are we talking about here? Rainbow flags? Ukrainian flags? BLM colors? The GNU logo?
- Etheryte 4y agoI'm always confused by statements like these. You can see similar dynamics playing out on artists' social media feeds for example, where people are upset when the artist talks about politics instead of their craft. Artists, developers, and everyone else is at the end of the day still a human being, not a machine that's there only to produce the content you want to consume. Getting a useful app for free (!) and then getting upset over what color its icon is or whatnot seems absurdly entitled.
- proxyon 4y agoIt's not entitled to say we own our own computers and don't want your political advertising on them.
- darklion 4y agoThe reality is that while you own your computer, you generally don't own the proprietary software on it, you _license_ it. That license entitles you to remarkably little beyond using the software as the software vendor permits.
- notriddle 4y agoI don't think FOSS protects you from political activism. Here's what comes up on my (Fedora, obviously) machine when I run VIM with no filename specified: VIM - Vi IMproved version 8.2.5052 by Bram Moolenaar et al. Modified by <bugzilla@redhat.com> Vim is open source and freely distributable Help poor children in Uganda! type :help iccf<Enter> for information type :q<Enter> to exit type :help<Enter> or <F1> for on-line help type :help version8<Enter> for version info According to their git history, VIM has carried uganda.txt since at least 2004. No technical measures exist to stop you from removing this call for donations, but it's more work to patch it out then it is to just ignore it. This makes FOSS software a pretty good vehicle for political activism. Not just the fact that organizing a hostile fork to remove a message like this one is too much trouble and makes you look like a jerk, but also because political activism is a good way to motivate people to write and release software for free in the first place, making up for how difficult it is to really monetize FOSS software.
- rhn_mk1 4y agoJust another symptom of the users not truly having control over "their" devices. If you don't like the logo, swap it the application files. Oh wait, sources are unavailable? If you want your phone to serve you, guess you better jump on the FLOSS bandwagon.
- thereddaikon 4y agoI hate it when apps change long used icons for any reason. Make its hard to find the app. I'm still annoyed about Google changing the icons for all of their android suite a few revisions ago. If you have to virtue signal, there are better ways to do it than changing the icon.
- tonymet 4y agoin general i would prefer to keep the political activism outside of our tools. It’s a distraction and comes off as inauthentic bandwagoning . I use adblock to block any politicking I see on software so i can get work done
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- yessirwhatever 4y ago@dang: this shouldn’t be flagged.
- daenz 4y agoI have been part of a dance/art community in a past life. There's a prevailing belief that "the personal is political"[0], which basically manifests as all things (art/products/etc) being unambiguously imbued with your politics, because politics doesn't end at the public sphere. This idea became mainstream at some point, and the result is that we must now signal what team we're on in everything we create. Abstaining from this signaling just means you're either ignorant of the causes (best assumption) or you're on the other team (worst assumption). 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_personal_is_political https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_personal_is_political
- snowwrestler 4y agoPoliticizing the person is something that happens to some people against their will. For example people don’t choose to be gay, it just happens like being tall or having blue eyes. But in Florida there is a law now saying teachers can’t talk about gay people in school. Totally still fine to talk about tall people, though. This is why “Pride Month” is a big deal but tall people month is not. Gay people didn’t choose to become “political.” But since they are subjected to that scrutiny, they of course want to stand up for themselves, and other people who value equality under the law want to stand up with them.
- xisukar 4y ago>But in Florida there is a law now saying teachers can’t talk about gay people in school. If only you weren't misrepresenting the Parental Rights in Education bill[1] you'd have a point. There's no reason why a teacher needs to discuss sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc. with kindergartens, be that heterosexual or homosexual. That's a private matter that has no place in a classroom, less so in primary grade levels. [1]: https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2022/1834 https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2022/1834
- Jcowell 4y ago> That's a private matter that has no place in a classroom While I agree that kindergartners may be too young to receive sexual education, I disagree that sex, sexual orientation , gender identities have no a place in the classroom. At least starting in Middle School it’s important to educate children on the realities of the world they are going to see that will include all of these things. I can at least point to Health and History as two subjects that these topics will be relevant in.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- dmkirwan 4y agoThe main question I have after reading this is: what 'bargain' is the author referring to? Apps change their logos all of the time, as is their right. The timing of this post is coincident with pride month, and many companies changing altering their logo to use the pride colors. I disagree with the suggestion that changing the color(s) of the logos and icons hinder the user's ability to find the app. A rainbow version of Dropbox's icon isn't going to make it any harder for me to find the Dropbox app and it might just make under-represented groups feel more seen. I think the more general topic of brands taking political stances is worthy of debate, for sure. I tend to think it's fine. If I agree, great. If I don't, then I can choose spend my money at a company whose values align better with mine.
- pickovven 4y agoWhen someone complains about politics infiltrating a space but is unwilling to name the specific politics, suggesting it's a general principle, they very likely have a problem with the specific politics. They see social costs in voicing that opinion, so they generalize it to some principle. Hard to imagine a minor annoyance of logo design would otherwise justify a public post. Living in a pluralistic, multi-cultural society doesn't mean excluding politics from the public sphere. It means tolerating politics in the public sphere, especially if you're ambivalent or even a little annoyed by those politics. In this example, if it's pride symbols or the Ukrainian flag, or something else -- those will stop being political once the rights are so normalized and obvious, they no longer elicit reactions like this.
- randyrand 4y agoI think it’s actually possible to be against virtue signaling in and of itself. Changing your profile picture to “support” some cause has been ridiculed for years. Starving children don’t care what color your profile picture is, and it’s hypocritical to say you're a supporter when changing your profile picture is the most you’re actually willing to do, even if you have the means to give a dollar, or 5 minutes of your time, you choose not to. It’s hypocritical, and pretty selfish imo. Or the idea that we all need to public state our beliefs at all times and ideologically walk around with flags on our forehead of every cause we are for. App Icons are in support of the idea that we all need to public state our beliefs at all times. There’s been growing backlash against that. I think people find it annoying anti social behavior. Anti Virtue signaling as a topic has been growing tremendously over the past 10 years.
- otachack 4y agoYou can consider not using the product? If you can't stomach a temporary icon change, which I'm guessing has to do with either Pride or Juneteenth, then I'm sure the app organization and society wouldn't mind you finding an alternative. The latter has become a federal holiday so it's not exactly activism IMO to show alliance with that.
- borplk 4y agoApart from the points that the author makes I dislike the disproportionate political activisim because it's just plain cringe and arrogant. When it comes from a multi billion dollar giant it's still annoying but more understandable that a giant organisation with thousands of people will have a lot going in it. But when a dude behind a $2.95 "NFT chat bot for your grandma's crypto portfolio" app wants to do it, it's something else. They need to find another avenue to express their political ideas rather than letting it bleed into an unrelated product. There's something to be said about having some tact and knowing your place and where you stand. If you ship a little flashlight app on Android understand that you don't have that kind of room to attach political commentary and activisim next to it. The best thing you can do is to just be the little reliable unchanging app on someone's phone and not try to over reach.
- badwolf 4y ago
- spacemanmatt 4y agoNet/net: -1, poor couching of an old gripe I share. I miss ResEdit and the option of using a quasi-developer utility to swap out icons and other assets from the "resource fork" of any Mac app. As a consumer, I loved how everything was externalized in a common format.
- RicoElectrico 4y agoNow that so many big corps change their logo colors to rainbow in July, I think it's no longer a strong statement. Not that it really was one, if certain locales were excluded from it. I guess ceasing business with countries which don't follow human rights requires too much courage.
- mikkergp 4y agoGiven that the GOP in Texas made the declaration that “homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle choice” part of their platform, It’s probably nice for people to know which companies are at least not echoing that, even if it’s not full throated support. I doubt chik fila is changing their logo for instance
- sumthinprofound 4y agoI've always set custom icons using a consistent theme in my android phone's app launcher for years.
- AlphaWeaver 4y agoSomething I don't see mentioned in this thread- on Android you can load custom icon packs. I standardize my icons (a solid color, outlined, version of the app logo) across all my apps, so I don't experience it when developers change their app icons. Using a free(er) platform like Android (compared to iOS) affords me this opportunity for customization.
- drewbug01 4y agoThe author didn’t bother to state which political statements they were upset about; neither did they bother to say something like “all of them,” which would have been trivial. So we are left to guess which political activism they find annoying. Given the timing, there’s a very good chance that it’s related to Pride month here in the US. It seems even more probable when you consider the context: very few companies change their logos for Juneteenth (the other contender), but many companies slap a rainbow on it for Pride. So: odds are, the author is upset about having LGBTQ “activism” pushed on their devices. I would invite everyone to remember this the next time someone wants a “politics-free” workspace. Specifically, remember that a vague assertion that LGBTQ people exist (a rainbow, on a logo), is what some folks consider “political.”
- _-david-_ 4y agoThere is a few issues. Nobody (at least in the West) are denying LGBT people exist. Companies who put the flag up are just virtue signalling. If the app icon was changed for a single day for Juneteenth would you sympathize with the OP? The OP was not complaining about the actual political issue. He was complaining about changing the app icon to push their politics. The OP just wants to be able to easily find the app: "As part of that bargain, you have to identify your app visually so I can find it" and doesn't want the app author's politics on his home screen: "I might actually agree with your political cause, but you crossed a line. My device screen is not an appropriate place for your political statements. So cut that shit out" Let me ask you a question. Would you still be making the same points if the political activism was putting a Russian flag as the app icon? Maybe they feel like there is a dehumanizing effort against Russians since Russians are being called orcs by Ukrainians. Based on your logic that would not be political since a vauge assertion that Russians exist is not political.
- drewbug01 4y ago
- _-david-_ 4y ago>They’ve moved on from denial, nowadays they say far more hateful things. [1] All I was getting at is not having a rainbow or supporting a company who changes their logo or whatever doesn't mean somebody is denying the existence of LGBT. >No, but it’s not for the kind of reasons you’re trying to get at with this kind of questioning. Fundamentally, I don’t much care about people changing their app icons for causes I support. And for causes I don’t support, I will simply uninstall their app if it bothers me at all. I feel no need to make noise about app icons in this way. I'm not a fan of app icon changes. I don't care if it is for political or just a permanent changing of their logo. I have uninstalled apps which changed icons because it bothered me. I highly sympathize with the OP for those reasons. Changing for political reasons is worse since it is a temporary change and will go back to its original icon later, meaning there will be 2 icon changes in a short time period. I think complaining about something seems reasonable. Look at various posts that make it to the front page on HN. Huge numbers of them are complaints about things many people don't care about. Maybe you don't think it is a big deal, but many of us do. >I disagree with this assertion, but it isn’t possible to know. What the author did was say things like “I _might_ even agree…” (emphasis mine), which leaves plausible deniability either way. Unless the OP states otherwise you don't know either. I don't like to make assumptions when the poster goes out of their way to not bring up the topic. >But one thing that is certain is this: app icons change frequently, for non-political reasons. It would be trivial to even _mention_ that in the article, but the author did not I think he was complaining about all icon changes in general and political changes in specific: "As part of that bargain, you have to identify your app visually so I can find it. To that end, I am happy to have on my device your logo or a picture that hints at what the app does." >So while neither of us can prove it one way or the other, it certainly sounds like the real problem is the political messaging. Context is one of the most important parts of communication. Unless his point was he doesn't like temporary app icon changes in which case complaining about a specific change would lead to proponents of that political view attacking him.
- Georgelemental 4y ago"You know, it would be nice if I could get something from the store that didn't have ' WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE ! ' engraved on it in huge lettering." "Wow, you must think working people don't have a right to exist" "I bet you support serfdom and slavery" "How could you say such a thing on May Day?"
- trentthethief 4y agoI will likely be downvoted but I agree with the author. Not only for app icons but anywhere. For example, if I am searching a programming language documentation site I do not need to see a political banner. There is a time and place for political discussion and expression. It is not on my phone screen or sites meant to get things done.
- Nextgrid 4y agoWhat I hate about this behaviour is that it’s pure virtue-signalling and surprisingly it’s always done by the most disgusting & morally-bankrupt companies ever, the same ones who will screw employees, customers & partners alike at every potential opportunity. It feels similar to these YouTube personalities who film themselves giving money to the homeless and that’s not a coincidence; it “feels” that way because the motive is the same: virtue-signalling. If you want to support a political cause, donate $$$ towards it and don’t even tell me about it. Changing a homescreen logo provides dubious value to the cause (especially to an already well-known one) in comparison.
- yew 4y agoWouldn't've thought of that. Seems like a good way to raise awareness around campaign season.
- rjstreur 4y agoMy heart bleeds. Oh the humanity.