Asking for a ban

[C de-Avillez]

Hi Enrico,

On Fri, 2010-05-28 at 14:42 +0000, usul80 at gmail.com wrote:
> It has the huge potential of offending 2 billion Christians, 1.5
> Billion Muslims and millions of Jewish people. The debate is not
> theological. I strongly believe project called Ubuntu (humanity towards
> others) should not allow anything that may cause offenses of any kind
> (Gods, populations, countries, races etc.). This project should be
> about finding a common ground and BY that create a GREAT product which
> speaks by itself to every human on Earth, inspiring progress and
> respect. I would not appreciate even a nickname with insults to Apple
> or Microsoft. In those companies real people and humans are working. We
> should convince them that ubuntu is better BECAUSE it's better and we
> want them to agree with us, not because we can insult them. Respect
> first of all. Always. My last 2 cents. I am going back to my cave.

This is described in the Code of Conduct, both current one and proposed
[1,2]. In essence, this is not really about (potentially) insulting
billions of believers [3], but of *respecting* other people. The basic
rule is the one called, sometimes, the golden rule: 

do not do onto others what you would not like to be done onto you.

And this *is* the essence of Ubuntu, perhaps the major philosophical
difference between Ubuntu and other projects. This is why we try so hard
to be nice to others.

There is another point here, one easily lost on people that are not
fluent in both the language and culture of a country: translations are
difficult. Here, the (Italian) context of the expression leaves no doubt
about the intention: it *is* offensive. This is a common issue, usually
called "lost in translation". So patience when explaining these types of
issues is a must[4], since the context will be lost on translation.

I hope I was able to explain the issue and -- to those that did not see
the nick as disrespectful -- why we should curb it.

Cheers,

[1] http://www.ubuntu.com/community/conduct
[2] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CodeOfConductGuidelines
[3] and, not being Christian myself, I would not feel insulted... but I
still would not like it being used -- because of *respect*.
[4] for example, the word 'porco' is the same in Italian and Portuguese
(and, I *think*, Spanish); in both languages the English literal
translation is indeed 'pig'. But only in Italian (and in the Italian
culture) it can be used as a heavy, demeaning, personal, insult.

-- 
C de-Avillez
IRC: hggdh
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