I don’t know… “pro-choice” carries even more baggage than “viral”,
especially in the good old U.S. of A. (and especially in the southeastern
part, where I’ve just discovered both Lyle and I live 
···
-----Original Message-----
From: Lyle Johnson [mailto:lyle@users.sourceforge.net]
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2003 10:35 AM
To: ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org
Subject: Re: [OT] Humans and dictionaries (was Re: My brief and torrid
affairwith Ruby.)
Sean O’Dell wrote:
You know, I actually recognized that the emotional charge behind the word
“viral” might be why its application to the GPL was being so hard-fought
against, but thought that perhaps the truth behind such a term might shine
through and we could use it to describe what we know about the GPL. I’m
thinking now that maybe we ought to have another word to describe it; one
less predictably antagonistic.
How about we start calling it “socialist licensing” instead?
“Pro-choice licensing” might also be a term that people could really get
united around, especially here in the southeastern United States where
I live.
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And now, a disclaimer for the humor-impaired.
I am being sarcastic. I am fairly sure that Sean was also being sarcastic.
Womick, Don wrote:
I don’t know… “pro-choice” carries even more baggage than “viral”,
especially in the good old U.S. of A. (and especially in the
southeastern part, where I’ve just discovered both Lyle and I live
Don, I was just kidding. I know that “pro-choice” is an inflammatory
term and was suggesting it in sarcasm. I guess I need to start adding
disclaimers to some of these postings to let people know when I’m
kidding and when I’m being serious 
It is an extremely inflammatory term.
···
On Friday, Jul 11, 2003, at 10:35 America/Chicago, Lyle Johnson wrote:
I know that “pro-choice” is an inflammatory term
–
John Platte
Principal Consultant, NIKA Consulting
http://nikaconsulting.com/
John Platte wrote:
It is an extremely inflammatory term.
sigh.
I am clinging to the belief that you have seen my comments out of
context, and that’s what provoked this response.
Yes, of course using the phrase “pro-choice licensing” when referring to
the GNU Public License (the GPL) is inflammatory, and anyone who used
such terminology would have to be just completely oblivious to not be
aware of the “baggage” associated with it. I was playing off of a
previous comment made by Sean O’Dell (see
http://www.ruby-talk.org/75754), who suggested that we refer to the GPL
as “socialist” licensing since that description would be “less
predictably anatagonistic” than some other descriptions used for the GPL.
The apparently very subtle point that you and Don missed is that I was
kidding. Although he hasn’t explicitly confirmed it, I suspect that Sean
was kidding as well when he suggested that the term “socialist” would be
a good neutral description for the GPL.
For further study, I would recommend Jonathan Swift’s classic essay “A
Modest Proposal” (Jonathan Swift - A Modest Proposal), in which Mr.
Swift suggested that the Irish eat their children as a solution to the
problems of poverty and overpopulation. Here’s a clue to get you
started: Swift was also kidding.
Lyle,
No, I saw and understood your comments in context, and find the joke
offensive. I like your sense of humor a great deal, and I get your
intended joke, at least on a couple levels.
I simply find the term extremely inflammatory. I’m not angry at you at
all, just protesting the insertion of that term into the discussion. To
me, it’s akin to joking about the Nazi holocaust. I hope that even
people who vigorously disagree with my views on this topic can
understand at least a request that we not go there.
So I posted a succinct message that indicated the offensiveness of that
term to me without saying anything else. I think it was the best thing
to do. Do you feel I should have done something else instead?
As this is now /all the way/ off-topic, I’ll not post again on this
thread; I’m happy to discuss this off-list if someone wishes.
···
On Friday, Jul 11, 2003, at 12:56 America/Chicago, Lyle Johnson wrote:
John Platte wrote:
It is an extremely inflammatory term.
sigh.
I am clinging to the belief that you have seen my comments out of
context, and that’s what provoked this response.
–
John Platte
Principal Consultant, NIKA Consulting
http://nikaconsulting.com/