The future of fortune(6)

[Johannes Jost Meixner]

On 11/22/2017 22:06, Warner Losh wrote:
> 
> 
> On Wed, Nov 22, 2017 at 12:43 PM, Johannes Jost Meixner
> <johannes at perceivon.net <mailto:johannes at perceivon.net>> wrote:
> 
>     > With the removal of the fortune datfiles I think it’s time to have a
>     discussion about fortune(6).
> 
>     Maybe this is a good moment to realize the change was contentious,
>     should have been discussed before, and must be reverted.
> 
> 
> Honestly, what's the alternative? We curate the F out of this file and
> have people dog our every decision because it doesn't fit with the
> Republican, Democratic, Green, Liberal, Conservative, Torre, Whig,
> Socialist, Communist, Yankee, Confederate, Know Nothings, Bull Moose
> Party, Blues, Reds, Pinks, Kill All The Humans, Walrus Supremacists,
> Bongo the Pet Seal Horn Blowers or the actually evil Nazi[*] viewpoint?
> No, we can't be unbiased because there's something in there to offend
> just about everybody. Even the actual Nazi stuff people are whining
> about, and that's about as clear cut an example of evil as exists in our
> times. If we can't agree on even that, there's no hope for the rest. 

People will dogpile every discussion regardless, it's a people thing. If
you give people the means to state their opinion they will, invariably,
do that. The interesting part here is whether you do it beforehand - and
go with the consensus (or, at least, majority vote) or do what may seem
like arbitrary, unilateral actions.

If we can't agree on having a discussion about which action to take
first, then there's no hope for the rest.

> Do > we want to spend project time on curating an impossible tangle
that our
> current dysfunctional political climate (at least in my country) has
> become?

Time has shown that we do that regardless of intentions. One thing I'm
wondering is if - in an international project - humor has become such a
touchy subject, especially in the wider Anglosphere, that it's best not
to try?
 >Or do we want to spend time upping our game on EFI, fixing VM
> issues, making the installer better, etc, etc, etc. We're a technical
> project, primarily, not one that has a political agenda.

I completely agree. Still, some things should to be discussed publicly
(and this may be a better form than on 4chan+slashdot).

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