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I'm curious why the resemblance and homage to the Soviet Union in the first place, but I find it sad that people feel the need to rebrand things like this, to a

I'm curious why the resemblance and homage to the Soviet Union in the first place, but I find it sad that people feel the need to rebrand things like this, to avoid the mob. Just because I don't like communism, doesn't mean people can't have things named after one of recent history's most well-known superpowers, with admittedly cool style.

mapcars 2y ago
Agree, and there are other projects with fun names like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalin_(Scheme_implementation) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalin_(Scheme_implementation)
- pelagicAustral 2y ago
  "Coon - new tool for building Erlang packages, dependency management and deploying Erlang services" [0] comes to mind. Highly recommendable thread to read. 0: https://erlang.org/pipermail/erlang-questions/2018-February/thread.html#94769 https://erlang.org/pipermail/erlang-questions/2018-February/...
- wk_end 2y ago
  It's odd how this is deemed acceptable - Wikipedia explains that the joke is in reference to its "brutal" optimization, which I'm sure eastern Europeans find hilarious (they might, they're known for their grim sense of humour) - but no one would seriously consider naming, say, their fork of the GNU assembler "Hitler".
  - seanw444 2y ago
    Stalin never earned the same perception as Hitler, probably because he won and Hitler didn't. History is written by the victors. There's a reason the cliche move in politics is to call your opponent "literally Hitler" and not "literally Stalin". That said, I doubt any tool named "Stalin" would gain any major traction. Adopting such a tool would be a huge liability for a company.
    - saurik 2y ago
      I always figured this would be the correct name for a tool designed to erase unwanted objects out of photos (whether using classic techniques or AI, whatever).
debugnik 2y ago
I'm guessing they came up with the wordplay before the invasion, and then regretted it because the reference suddenly stopped being purely historical. And I get it, I've been phasing out this username, which I picked with bad timing, to avoid unintended connotations, even though I was simply thinking of Robotnik and not anything russian. I've got nothing to do with their language, so it just isn't worth it.
- kgeist 2y ago
  -nik is a suffix which exists in all Slavic languages, including Ukrainian. Nothing specifically Russian about it.
  - andrewflnr 2y ago
    And even if it was, poking gentle fun at a Russian suffix would not be an endorsement of the invasion.
  - debugnik 2y ago
    I, personally, am aware, but I'm not so sure everyone who will read my username knows that, and there's enough war-related shilling around (and suspicion thereof) that the pun simply isn't worth it.
- chuckadams 2y ago
  Yeesh, avoiding obvious Russian-isms is one thing, but a common suffix? I say Nyet! Anyone triggered by that isn’t worth accommodating.
wisemang 2y ago
Well tbf Kremlin (as typically used) isn’t just a USSR reference it’s a specific place in Moscow. Still used as a metonym for Russia’s government. That said I do actually love that Soviet propaganda aesthetic. Can appreciate not wanting to be associated with the existing madman running Russia though.

mapcars 2y ago

Agree, and there are other projects with fun names like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalin_(Scheme_implementation) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalin_(Scheme_implementation)

pelagicAustral 2y ago
"Coon - new tool for building Erlang packages, dependency management and deploying Erlang services" [0] comes to mind. Highly recommendable thread to read. 0: https://erlang.org/pipermail/erlang-questions/2018-February/thread.html#94769 https://erlang.org/pipermail/erlang-questions/2018-February/...
wk_end 2y ago
It's odd how this is deemed acceptable - Wikipedia explains that the joke is in reference to its "brutal" optimization, which I'm sure eastern Europeans find hilarious (they might, they're known for their grim sense of humour) - but no one would seriously consider naming, say, their fork of the GNU assembler "Hitler".
- seanw444 2y ago
  Stalin never earned the same perception as Hitler, probably because he won and Hitler didn't. History is written by the victors. There's a reason the cliche move in politics is to call your opponent "literally Hitler" and not "literally Stalin". That said, I doubt any tool named "Stalin" would gain any major traction. Adopting such a tool would be a huge liability for a company.
  - saurik 2y ago
    I always figured this would be the correct name for a tool designed to erase unwanted objects out of photos (whether using classic techniques or AI, whatever).

debugnik 2y ago

I'm guessing they came up with the wordplay before the invasion, and then regretted it because the reference suddenly stopped being purely historical. And I get it, I've been phasing out this username, which I picked with bad timing, to avoid unintended connotations, even though I was simply thinking of Robotnik and not anything russian. I've got nothing to do with their language, so it just isn't worth it.

kgeist 2y ago
-nik is a suffix which exists in all Slavic languages, including Ukrainian. Nothing specifically Russian about it.
- andrewflnr 2y ago
  And even if it was, poking gentle fun at a Russian suffix would not be an endorsement of the invasion.
- debugnik 2y ago
  I, personally, am aware, but I'm not so sure everyone who will read my username knows that, and there's enough war-related shilling around (and suspicion thereof) that the pun simply isn't worth it.
chuckadams 2y ago
Yeesh, avoiding obvious Russian-isms is one thing, but a common suffix? I say Nyet! Anyone triggered by that isn’t worth accommodating.

wisemang 2y ago

Well tbf Kremlin (as typically used) isn’t just a USSR reference it’s a specific place in Moscow. Still used as a metonym for Russia’s government. That said I do actually love that Soviet propaganda aesthetic. Can appreciate not wanting to be associated with the existing madman running Russia though.