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by suddenlybananas 1y ago

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petesergeant 1y ago
They’re using it to classify Māori literature, rather than books on physics. Seems reasonable?
- lupusreal 1y ago
  The whole library should stick to one system, splitting the collection in two and using two separate organizational schemes is going to make a mess. What even qualifies as "Māori literature" anyway? That wouldn't be an important question if not for the split system, but now books have to be discretely classified as one or the other. Is the classification based on the ancestry of the author, and if so, how are mixed ancestries handled? If it's based on subject, then how do you classify a book which is about the history of New Zealand generally with some percentage of it covering Māori history? What percentage is the cutoff? If all the books are organized under one scheme then these shades of gray aren't a real problem, but now they have to pick which system to put a book under, and people looking for those books have to guess how they were classified. At least the whole system is probably digitized so there is that at least. But insofar as that solves the lookup problem, so also should it make the entire exercise of splitting the collection in two a useless waste of time anyway.
- jgalt212 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - helpfulContrib 1y ago
    So .. you're willing to learn Maori in order to gain equality, or not? I personally see nothing wrong with this classification system, and if it serves its intended purpose of making Maori literature more accessible, then what the heck, hackers? Language usage like this is great. Think of all the things you can learn now. Seriously.
tomhow 1y ago
Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes. Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive. Please don't fulminate. Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents. Omit internet tropes. Please don't post shallow dismissals... Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. It tramples curiosity. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- suddenlybananas 1y ago
  I'm not being snarky, I just think this kind of thing fetishises indigenous groups as having some kind of deep wisdom on the basis of their ethnicity.
  - tomhow 1y ago
    Sure, but we need you, like everyone here, to observe the guidelines, and take care to express your thoughts with kindness and sensitivity. We know sometimes it's hard to know how your words end up coming across to others, but in this case the comment crossed into the kind of territory we're trying to avoid on HN.

[flagged]

petesergeant 1y ago

They’re using it to classify Māori literature, rather than books on physics. Seems reasonable?

lupusreal 1y ago
The whole library should stick to one system, splitting the collection in two and using two separate organizational schemes is going to make a mess. What even qualifies as "Māori literature" anyway? That wouldn't be an important question if not for the split system, but now books have to be discretely classified as one or the other. Is the classification based on the ancestry of the author, and if so, how are mixed ancestries handled? If it's based on subject, then how do you classify a book which is about the history of New Zealand generally with some percentage of it covering Māori history? What percentage is the cutoff? If all the books are organized under one scheme then these shades of gray aren't a real problem, but now they have to pick which system to put a book under, and people looking for those books have to guess how they were classified. At least the whole system is probably digitized so there is that at least. But insofar as that solves the lookup problem, so also should it make the entire exercise of splitting the collection in two a useless waste of time anyway.
jgalt212 1y ago
[flagged]
- helpfulContrib 1y ago
  So .. you're willing to learn Maori in order to gain equality, or not? I personally see nothing wrong with this classification system, and if it serves its intended purpose of making Maori literature more accessible, then what the heck, hackers? Language usage like this is great. Think of all the things you can learn now. Seriously.

tomhow 1y ago

Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes. Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive. Please don't fulminate. Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents. Omit internet tropes. Please don't post shallow dismissals... Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. It tramples curiosity. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

suddenlybananas 1y ago
I'm not being snarky, I just think this kind of thing fetishises indigenous groups as having some kind of deep wisdom on the basis of their ethnicity.
- tomhow 1y ago
  Sure, but we need you, like everyone here, to observe the guidelines, and take care to express your thoughts with kindness and sensitivity. We know sometimes it's hard to know how your words end up coming across to others, but in this case the comment crossed into the kind of territory we're trying to avoid on HN.