5 ms·

How can I take the article seriously when it says that "GitHub has been embroiled in a series of diversity controversies, such as programmers adding racial and

How can I take the article seriously when it says that "GitHub has been embroiled in a series of diversity controversies, such as programmers adding racial and sexist slurs into their code", which links to an article where someone took GitHub search and found random people putting bad words into their public repos? This author can't seem to distinguish between the code employees at GitHub write, and code users put onto GitHub.

tomasien 13y ago
That bit needs to go. This about workplace abuse, a tremendously more serious matter as it relates to Github than what non-Github employees put in the code Github hosts
- lobotryas 13y ago
  >This [is] about workplace abuse Alleged workplace abuse. Let's wait for a statement from GitHub before we grab our pitchforks.
  - tomasien 13y ago
    I'm not waiting for a statement from Github, I'm waiting for a statement from ANYONE. Julie has written some tweets, but we don't even have her side of the story yet. I'm not grabbing my pitchfork, I'm saying people putting the word "bitch" in open source code hosted on Github has NOTHING to do with this story and is going to distract from a serious issue - as it clearly already has. re.code is usually better than this
rdtsc 13y ago
Interesting point. Let's say I am an open source developer and I put some crazy stuff on Github. Some journalist does a profile on me. Am I a "Github Software Developer" to them? * Google Name -- "aha, link to Github" * Find crazy stuff checked into Github repos. * Google Github -- "aha, technology company something something distributed ... eyes glaze over technical mumbo jumbo". * Claim I am a "Github Engineer" It is obvious to us how it works, but say someone who has no idea about repos or open source will not quite understand the separation between user content and platform.
- gus_massa 13y ago
  Everyone understands that not all the content in Youtube is written by Google employees. Same case in Google+, Facebook, Yahoo! Answers, ... It's the same idea applied to the Github repos.
  - rdtsc 13y ago
    Yes that is youtube used by many non technical people this is Github. It is a bit different. Chances are those that don't do any coding have no idea what Github is or what it is for.
- patrickaljord 13y ago
  That's like saying you find a racist post on facebook and conclude it's written by a "Facebook Poster". Also, I would expect better from a site called _recode.net_
  - mst 13y ago
    The stupid article is on gizmodo and was merely linked as github-and-gender-related drama. Which it was. Crappily written drama, but drama nonetheless.
- ehutch79 13y ago
  If you're unable to figure this kind of stuff out, then you should NOT be calling yourself a journalist. It's your job to figure out what the truth is. Making mistakes like this, especially when it's fairly common model right now, is inexcusable.
- GeneralMayhem 13y ago
  When you're presenting yourself as an authoritative source of information, ignorance of the absolute basics of what you're talking about ceases to be an excuse.
codelap 13y ago
Zero percent of this conversation should be about the article, and should entirely be on the validity of the claim against the unhealthy work environment.
- oneeyedpigeon 13y ago
  Sorry, but the article is doing Julie Ann Horvath a disservice by mixing up her - let's assume valid - complaints about the work environment with irrelevant rubbish. Blame re/code for not treating the subject seriously, either purposefully, or through sheer incompetence.
  - devnonymous 13y ago
    Well, it's the internets !! I wouldn't blame re/code. Julie has done herself a disservice by mixing up her - let's assume valid - complaints about the work environment with venting out on Twitter. I find it amazing that the kind of people who presumably, ought to know and understand the effect of something going viral sometimes are so unconcerned about what they post.
- droopyEyelids 13y ago
  Unfortunately, we can't judge the claim at all, because for now it's innuendo, not a claim. I'm curious why she'd post this on Twitter instead of taking it to a lawyer. And I don't mean for that to be innuendo- there are many reasons for this to go any which way.
  - erikpukinskis 13y ago
    If I had told people publicly my workplace was safe for women, and then I found out it wasn't, It would be important to me to let people know that fairly quickly. There might be other women applying for jobs there and making big life choices based on that information who deserve to know that the information has changed.
    - corresation 13y ago
bowlofpetunias 13y ago
I came here completely expecting this diversion to be the top comment. Congrats.
scotty79 13y ago
I found it quite funny. Especially given as example of a slur instance of someone having in his code class paths that idicates that his username on his own computer actually is "Faggot". The whole piece reads more like a revenge of someone with twitter audience, who lost at the game of office thrones.
- scintill76 13y ago
  That username one was pretty ridiculous. For all we know it was an auto-assigned username to someone named something like Faggo T., and no slur was meant. These same bristling SJW's would be flaming anyone who pointed out a non-Anglo-Saxon name for having an unfortunate abbreviation. (Of course this is a hypothetical of a hypothetical.) One of the comments[1] even seems to indicate an earlier version of the article included occurrences of "fag" that were benign words in another language. If you literally search for offense on the Internet, you'll find it, but without context you might be getting offended over nothing. [1] http://gizmodo.com/hey-norwegian-here-mine-fag-and-finn-fag-by-haakon-473336872 http://gizmodo.com/hey-norwegian-here-mine-fag-and-finn-fag-...

tomasien 13y ago

That bit needs to go. This about workplace abuse, a tremendously more serious matter as it relates to Github than what non-Github employees put in the code Github hosts

lobotryas 13y ago
>This [is] about workplace abuse Alleged workplace abuse. Let's wait for a statement from GitHub before we grab our pitchforks.
- tomasien 13y ago
  I'm not waiting for a statement from Github, I'm waiting for a statement from ANYONE. Julie has written some tweets, but we don't even have her side of the story yet. I'm not grabbing my pitchfork, I'm saying people putting the word "bitch" in open source code hosted on Github has NOTHING to do with this story and is going to distract from a serious issue - as it clearly already has. re.code is usually better than this

rdtsc 13y ago

Interesting point. Let's say I am an open source developer and I put some crazy stuff on Github. Some journalist does a profile on me. Am I a "Github Software Developer" to them? * Google Name -- "aha, link to Github" * Find crazy stuff checked into Github repos. * Google Github -- "aha, technology company something something distributed ... eyes glaze over technical mumbo jumbo". * Claim I am a "Github Engineer" It is obvious to us how it works, but say someone who has no idea about repos or open source will not quite understand the separation between user content and platform.

gus_massa 13y ago
Everyone understands that not all the content in Youtube is written by Google employees. Same case in Google+, Facebook, Yahoo! Answers, ... It's the same idea applied to the Github repos.
- rdtsc 13y ago
  Yes that is youtube used by many non technical people this is Github. It is a bit different. Chances are those that don't do any coding have no idea what Github is or what it is for.
patrickaljord 13y ago
That's like saying you find a racist post on facebook and conclude it's written by a "Facebook Poster". Also, I would expect better from a site called _recode.net_
- mst 13y ago
  The stupid article is on gizmodo and was merely linked as github-and-gender-related drama. Which it was. Crappily written drama, but drama nonetheless.
ehutch79 13y ago
If you're unable to figure this kind of stuff out, then you should NOT be calling yourself a journalist. It's your job to figure out what the truth is. Making mistakes like this, especially when it's fairly common model right now, is inexcusable.
GeneralMayhem 13y ago
When you're presenting yourself as an authoritative source of information, ignorance of the absolute basics of what you're talking about ceases to be an excuse.

codelap 13y ago

Zero percent of this conversation should be about the article, and should entirely be on the validity of the claim against the unhealthy work environment.

oneeyedpigeon 13y ago
Sorry, but the article is doing Julie Ann Horvath a disservice by mixing up her - let's assume valid - complaints about the work environment with irrelevant rubbish. Blame re/code for not treating the subject seriously, either purposefully, or through sheer incompetence.
- devnonymous 13y ago
  Well, it's the internets !! I wouldn't blame re/code. Julie has done herself a disservice by mixing up her - let's assume valid - complaints about the work environment with venting out on Twitter. I find it amazing that the kind of people who presumably, ought to know and understand the effect of something going viral sometimes are so unconcerned about what they post.
droopyEyelids 13y ago
Unfortunately, we can't judge the claim at all, because for now it's innuendo, not a claim. I'm curious why she'd post this on Twitter instead of taking it to a lawyer. And I don't mean for that to be innuendo- there are many reasons for this to go any which way.
- erikpukinskis 13y ago
  If I had told people publicly my workplace was safe for women, and then I found out it wasn't, It would be important to me to let people know that fairly quickly. There might be other women applying for jobs there and making big life choices based on that information who deserve to know that the information has changed.
  - corresation 13y ago

bowlofpetunias 13y ago

I came here completely expecting this diversion to be the top comment. Congrats.

scotty79 13y ago

I found it quite funny. Especially given as example of a slur instance of someone having in his code class paths that idicates that his username on his own computer actually is "Faggot". The whole piece reads more like a revenge of someone with twitter audience, who lost at the game of office thrones.

scintill76 13y ago
That username one was pretty ridiculous. For all we know it was an auto-assigned username to someone named something like Faggo T., and no slur was meant. These same bristling SJW's would be flaming anyone who pointed out a non-Anglo-Saxon name for having an unfortunate abbreviation. (Of course this is a hypothetical of a hypothetical.) One of the comments[1] even seems to indicate an earlier version of the article included occurrences of "fag" that were benign words in another language. If you literally search for offense on the Internet, you'll find it, but without context you might be getting offended over nothing. [1] http://gizmodo.com/hey-norwegian-here-mine-fag-and-finn-fag-by-haakon-473336872 http://gizmodo.com/hey-norwegian-here-mine-fag-and-finn-fag-...