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Ubuntu Council corrects forum moderator's interpretation of rules relating to queerness
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this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2025
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Why the fuck does an operating system have ANY rules relating to queerness?
Edit: why are y'all downvoting them for being out of the loop?? Lemmy get your shit together
They don't- a moderator to an online ubuntu forum community (that recently became official) misapplied a rule about keeping things apolitical as meaning someone shouldn't describe themselves as queer.
Ubuntu has made a statement correcting the interpretation made by the moderator
Isn't everything political these days. So you'd be able to talk about nothing.
That’s the whole point of that rule. It’s taboo to discuss things in polite conversation that those in power don’t want you to discuss.
I think it's unfair to say that's the point of the rule on a foss project's discussion forum
Political discourse online gets really fucking toxic really quickly 😅 often driven by entirely legitimate anger and hurt over the state of the world, but we can't just pretend it's all an evil conspiracy by big Ubuntu to silence us.
Folks on the internet consistently demonstrate through behaviour why "no politics" is almost always a rule anywhere where folks might perceive it to be off topic, whether one thinks it's the correct ruling or not (it's entirely valid to feel it should be allowed even though it brings out the worst in people, though I'm sure that would put incredible strain on moderators given the internet baseline of interpersonal compassion)
And the places online where folks do discuss it? Can quickly get extremely unpleasant, or develop an inescapable undercurrent of hostility that starts to permeate all other interactions on the platform.
Personally I think actually productive political conversation is almost always emotionally laborious, and it's important to be able to step away from the political aspects of things and catch your breath, even though everything is political. But everything being political doesn't mean it's healthy for every conversation to be political, that's a recipe for burnout and people acting like their worst selves, which is counter productive to pretty much any meaningful political goal.
I have been to several interviews for in office positions. I have no issue with in office positions but I get the feeling they don't like my "political" position of wearing a mask.
A mask to protect you from illness, surveillance, or both?
illness. covid made me realize the large majority of time I get sick its been from the office (since I have no kids)
thanks. I had the same question as the person you replied to here. People should be able to describe themselves however they want.
Ubuntu has a diversity policy to explicitly welcome and encourage participation, mentioning that they explicitly honor diversity in sexual orientation among other things. It does not explicitly mention queerness.
A moderator made a bad a call. It sounds like there may have been some confusion about the word queer used as a slur vs a self-identification.
I think that things would be far better if these type of informations should not be disclosed by anyone in context like this, where they are irrelevant.
Sure, maybe you don't need to put your sexual identity in a post asking for help configuring nginx, but in an introductory post where you're explicitly describing yourself... Yeah, I think you should be allowed to mention your sexuality.
Normalizing diversity is critically important.
And what better way to normalize diversity in this context than ignore everything but the code you submit ? We are talking about code, not personal issues.
I mean, I don't care that the bus driver who take me to the office this morning is gay/trans/whatever, why I should care about this for the person that send me a code contribution ? Being queer make the code inherently better ? Or bad code should be accepted because a queer person send it ?
As I see it, you send good code it is merged, you send bad code it is refused and, most importantly, it was explained why the code is not good enough to be accepted. Nowhere in this flow knowing that you are a queer has any importance.
That's hiding it, not normalizing it.
No, that's treating you as a normal person irregardless of the private aspects of your life. You are free to disclose them and I am free to ignore them since in this context I don't care, and I don't see why I should care, about them.
Else explain to me how being a queer/gay/trans/whatever impact on the submitted code or contribution.
The impact on submitting code is entirely besides the point.
It's not normalizing it if nobody knows. That's just a "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
Why in this context I need to know that ? And why in this context I would like to ask about this ? How it is pertinent ?
My point is simply that there are situations where these kind of information are not needed nor usefull. I am not saying that this is valid everywhere and every time but that there are places where knowing that the person you are talking to is a queer is important, situation where it is not important and situation where merely asking for that information is dangerous.
In my view, on the Ubuntu's discourse this is an information that is not relevant nor usefull to know.
Do you want to consider it as a "Don't ask, don't tell" policy ? Fine, I just try to treat people like they deserve in any case and to do this I don't need to know these informations, a queer is a normal person to me when it comes to interact with him/her/whatever.
Whether it's pertinent or not is irrelevant. Whether it's useful to know is irrelevant. How they're treated is (kinda) irrelevant.
This is about reminding people that diverse people exist and that they are normal human beings. If they choose to describe themselves that way in public we should let them. Though in this case since they describe themselves as a furry it only really normalizes it within fringe communities like the furry community, and queerness is already well accepted there.
Whatever, I still think that knowing such information in a technical forum is irrelevant and should not be asked or disclosed per se.
I will still treat the person as she deserve, with respect to the person if she is respectfull or as assholes if she is an assholes, irregarless how they choose to identify themself.
If you think it is wrong how I treat people think whatever you want, it is not my problem.
How you treat people is a whole different subject matter. I made no judgements about that.
This discussion is entirely on a queer person calling themselves queer in their Ubuntu-something profile. The impacts that has, and the impact concealing that information has.
It's okay to be indifferent to queerness like you would be indifferent to race. My point is they should be free to express who they are.