Re: [gentoo-dev] Is anyone a prude?

["D. Wokan" <wokan@cox.net>]

Lina Pezzella wrote:

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> This thread brings up a very good point. There are little children 
> using our distribution, and they should not be exposed to dirty words 
> such as the one being disputed in this thread. There are other 
> packages that are also questionable too. "BitchX" comes to mind, and 
> "Evolution" is on the top of my die-package-die list. We certainly 
> wouldn't want little children asking about that, now would we?
>
> In light of the above, I suggest that in the interest of being sure 
> not to offend anyone, we remove the three aforementioned packages and 
> any others that might be offensive. It's not censorship, it's decency.
>
> Lina Pezzella
> Ebuild/Porting Co-Lead
> Gentoo for Mac OS X
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> -- 
> gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list

What you are suggesting is considered a slippery slope.  If you remove 
any packages based on the beliefs of a few, you'll eventually have to 
remove a few more as others with different beliefs show up and announce 
their offense.  This will go on until our genetically modified crops 
start using the Internet and announce that they're offended by the word 
kernel on behalf of their corn brethren and there goes your entire OS.

The only way I could see around this would be to have the mirroring 
system be given a list of potentially offensive names and have the sync 
only grab them if the admins set the system to allow such packages.  (Of 
course, some parents will still bitchx because their brainfucked kids 
edited the setting and we'll end up having to install credit card # 
generators so we can put in a sequence of digits that supposedly prove 
we're adults to authorize the downloads instead.  The more ambitious 
will just write one themselves, as the LUN formula isn't that hard a 
concept to follow.)

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