Re: Bug#138541: ITP: debian-sanitize (was Re: inappropriate racist and other offensive material)
On Sun, Mar 17, 2002 at 12:22:44AM -0600, Manoj Srivastava wrote:
> >>"Nick" == Nick Phillips <nwp@nz.lemon-computing.com> writes:
>
> Nick> On Sat, Mar 16, 2002 at 04:52:19PM -0500, Jeff Licquia wrote:
> >> > I object to using any subjective method (such as popular vote)
> >> > for determining which packages should be conflicted with in such
> >> > a package.
>
> Nick> OK, so how about we define constituencies such as "religious
> Nick> fundamentalist" of one kind or another, "Moral Majority",
> Nick> "vi-weenie", "GUI luser" etc., and people who number themselves
> Nick> in each group get to vote for a configuration which would suit
> Nick> that particular group.
>
>
> This has actually more merit than appears at first glance. At
> least this acknowledges that there are differing views, and caters to
> different constituencies. It also offers users greater choice, and
> finer granularity of biases.
>
Except that it's not granular enough: I can already pick out an easy example
of Common Lisp programmers who hate emacs, love vim. And functional
programmers in Haskell and SML who are the same way. Trying to make
generalizations like "all vi-weenies hate x" isn't going to cut it.
What one needs is a system that can be agreed upon objectively; similar
to a ratings system but without the arbitrary decisions. Saying that
a certain package is for ages 18+ is a subjective decision. Saying that
a certain package contains the word "fuck", or contains nudity, or something
similar is much easier to determine than vague moral reasoning.
Then a "vrms"-like package could be configured to report on which installed
packages contain the word "crap", or the number of packages which feature
bloody limbs being torn apart, etc etc.
That would allow people to selectively choose what they want to see,
without bothering other people, and would not require the services of
a Moral Tyrant or Moral Majority; all the categories would be easily
verifiable with tools like grep, eeyes, etc.
Note: I don't necessarily approve of self-imposed ignorance, but I'm not
about to stop people from screwing themselves over so long as it doesn't
wind up affecting others who do not think the same way.
--
; Matthew Danish <mdanish@andrew.cmu.edu>
; OpenPGP public key: C24B6010 on keyring.debian.org
; Signed or encrypted mail welcome.
; "There is no dark side of the moon really; matter of fact, it's all dark."
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