[smt88]

If you want to defend the name, defend it.

Openly creating a straw man for you to dunk on is not interesting or substantive.

Lots of us want to get children and relatives onto apps we enjoy, and a silly name can make that harder.

On the flip side, what does this project get from names like "QHandjoob"? It's a joke that a typical 12 year old might have grown out of, and it's only a joke the first time. After that it's just a stupid name I'm embarrassed for anyone to see over my shoulder.

I'm not offended, and I doubt anyone is (despite your prediction). I just don't see the point.

[froasty]

How is it a straw man, exactly? It's a position that is being "earnestly" defended by you and several others already in this thread.

Your perspective is pointless Calvinist software iconoclasm, literally hiding behind "think of the children" and (not seen yet, but just give it enough time) "think of the alienated contributors" to justify superficial changes that do nothing but incentivize further iconoclasm. My god! Children might discover that Individuals with Breasts and boobs exist and people can have fun while programming without sacrificing to the Protestant work ethic! The horror!

Regardless, free software doesn't owe you anything. Free software isn't obligated to provide anything to you, isn't obligated to fit into banal HOA agreements, isn't obligated to be corporate friendly, or otherwise something you can Feel Good about being seen to be using.

Software has infinitely more relevant and tractable issues than a decade old software project fond of juvenile puns.

EDIT: Took 30 minutes for "think of the contributors" to show up.

[smt88]

> It's a position that is being "earnestly" defended by you and several others already in this thread.

> It's a position that is being "earnestly" defended by you and several others already in this thread.

My "position" is practical, not ideological. I'm not "concerned" about the project's success. I'm only saying that the name is pointless and makes it awkward for me to recommend.

> My god! Children might discover that Individuals with Breasts and boobs exist and people can have fun while programming without sacrificing to the Protestant work ethic!

Yeah, again, I never said any of this. You seem only to be able to attack straw men that you create, rather than addressing a real issue.

If I say to a friend, "Hey, I wanted to recommend [insert boob/handjob/etc. pun here] for [insert user in their family]", it's embarrassing if the name is a stupid pun. I'm less likely to do it.

We may not agree with what constitutes manners or politeness, but we can't stop other people from having their own feelings about it.

For the same reason, I never swear around friends' children, despite knowing that cursing is not at all harmful to a child.

> Regardless, free software doesn't owe you anything.

This seems like a rant that has nothing to do with my comment. I provided some user feedback that I ascribed only to myself, not to others. I openly wondered about the cost/benefit of a stupid jokey name, which you have not addressed at all. My point stands: there is a practical cost (which is that at least one user, me, would feel less comfortable recommended the software) and no benefit.

What do you see as the benefit of the name? Should Firefox have been named Firecox?

I've never demanded any FOSS project change their name, but I see practical reasons to choose a widely appealing name. Do you disagree? Should FOSS projects choose silly or divisive names just to assert their own freedom?

[jgwil2]

Speaking of straw men...

[dvt]

> I'm not offended, and I doubt anyone is (despite your prediction). I just don't see the point.

Well, unfortunately, you'd be wrong: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=907199

I feel that this is going to turn into my daily HN post in defense of free speech. There's nothing that the name adds, it's stupid, it's silly, and it's juvenile. The authors themselves, in fact, seem to be racist shitbags[1]. But Debian essentially deplatforming it is absolutely not the right move here. I think protecting speech is a hill worth dying on, and even a despicable Neo-Nazi should have the same right to speech as me or you.

[1] https://github.com/laurentb/weboob/blob/0ac4885ad8c212746584...

[dleslie]

If I were to fork it and remove offensive names and comments, it seems I would be best to obliterate/ignore the revision history.

It's kind of an interesting new problem: when disagreeable people make useful FOSS, the revision control system becomes a liability even to those with good intentions.

[hydragit]

You seem to be pointing at a specific revision and the file doesn't seem to exist anymore in the current version of the repository. I confess I didn't check more than this though.

[jgwil2]

Does that really make it any better? It's in the commit history and now it's there for all of us to see. Why on earth anybody would write something like that is beyond me, but doing it in public is mind-bogglingly fucked up and stupid.

[s9w]

It's also legal, at least in some countries