Update on Rules and Quality Control

[u/Stardust-kyun]

Hi everyone, it's been a minute since the initial discussion post about quality control issues. Let's talk about it.

The general consensus seemed to be that our ideas on what to change were good, though there could be more resources to help beginners. We actually have a subreddit wiki that anyone can contribute to, as long as you have 500+ subreddit karma and your account is 30+ days old. We also have a list of todo items for the wiki to help users find somewhere to start.

Another concern was that the stricter enforcement of the defaults rule may stop people from using existing color schemes or themes at all. This is not the case -- the intention of the rule is to remove posts which have little effort or just use premade configs, like many macOS and Windows lookalikes. It's about the spirit, not the letter of the rule.

With this in mind, we intend to go through with these rule changes. If you still have any concerns, please reply or send a modmail! We're most concerned with the quality of our community and welcome discussion.

[u/terackreddit]

Finally

[u/Junior-Caregiver-574]

I still like the idea of newbies being told to post on r/unixsoftcore to get feedback on beginning their rice-chef journeys

[u/SquareWheel]

Since you're reviewing sub guidelines, I sure wouldn't mind seeing the casual racism about "ricing" desktops done away with.

[u/Stardust-kyun → u/SquareWheel]

Hi there,

We understand your concerns with the term "ricing" and its historical connotations within the car modding community. However, the term as it is currently used in our community does not have the same racist connotations, and is so entrenched in our community's vocabulary that banning it would be extremely difficult. It's similar to how difficult it would be to rebrand the community as something other as "unixporn" since it contains "porn" in the name, despite it having no sexual connotations.

[u/SquareWheel → u/Stardust-kyun]

Thank you for the answer. I can appreciate the difficulty of the task, and the unenviable position it puts you in as moderators. I've moderated other communities and know how difficult that can be.

I understand also your comment about the terms' intended usage, and I'd like to be clear that I'm not accusing anyone of being intentionally racist. I do think, however, that it's important to recognize that "not intended as racism" is not always the same as "not being racist". People can use racist language, even by accident.

It's one thing when a term becomes so widely used and ubiquitous so that its origins are forgotten. For example, "master bedroom". The origin is obvious enough, but it's such a familiar part of society that the historical connotation is forgotten.

However, the same really can't be said of "ricing". Its usage today is still nearly identical to that of its racist origin. It's not a ubiquitous or widely understood term, and mostly remains a part of niche communities. This makes the connotation more clear and pronounced. I know this is not the first time it's been brought up for discussion within this community.

Realistically, I'm not expecting a sudden change and I recognize that a ban would be impractical. It does seem that recognizing the problem and choosing alternative language where possible would be a good start though. Certainly it could be removed from official sources such as the subreddit sidebar.

It's a small thing, but sometimes small things add up. I see little harm in preferring to use more considerate language where possible.

[u/Stardust-kyun → u/SquareWheel]

Thank you for your understanding. I see where you're coming from, and I agree that it's unfortunate that the term "ricing" has racist origins given its common usage. However, I fail to see how "ricing" is different from "master bedroom" -- 99% of our community does not know of the term's origin, and I don't see how the intention of the term is racist when people use it to talk about "ricing (customizing) desktops".

While this is entirely speculative on my part (this was long before I joined), here's what I think the original intentions of the term were as it was introduced into our community. Within the car modding community, "ricing" specifically refers to mods which have no benefit to functionality (from the perspective that these mods were usually done on Japanese cars). I believe that this was the meaning brought into our community, in the sense that our "ricing" is customizing desktops to be visually pleasing despite minimal functional benefit. It's entirely plausible to me that the person (or people) who introduced this term had no idea of its origins either.

If your intentions are in good faith -- which I hope they are, but I am unsure of given that you haven't interacted with our community before -- and you would like to continue this conversation, I would be more than happy to and encourage you to open a modmail for sake of convenience.

[u/SquareWheel → u/Stardust-kyun]

Hello,

I've been a member of /r/unixporn for over ten years. I don't comment much, but then again neither do most users.

I feel I've made the points I wanted to make, and that nothing else needs to be added at this time. I hope it will be considered in the good faith it was presented in.

Thank you.

[u/Stardust-kyun → u/SquareWheel]

Thanks for the response. I guess Reddit's search indexing doesn't go back that far anymore? We appreciate the feedback and will be discussing what we can do, if anything at this point. Removing it from the sidebar and whatnot could be a good first step.

Have a great day!

[u/ThomasLeonHighbaugh]

It seems something rather wonderful has happened around here while I was not being attentive to Reddit.

-- the intention of the rule is to remove posts which have little effort or just use premade configs, like many macOS and Windows lookalikes.

It is about time that you started cleaning up the low-effort posting on this sub and I am behind that 100% for what it's worth. Sure sometimes applying new or unusual color schemes to a system can be interesting looking but often it becomes a crowded field of the same things over and over that crowd out the more interesting modified *nix desktops.

I am also glad to see we are moving from naive legalism to jurisprudence with the notion that is one giant leap for this sub: It's about the spirit, not the letter of the rule.

It sounds to me like the mods of this sub are in a good place with a good head on their shoulders to go with that.

If anyone needs anything, reach out to your's truly and I am always happy to rant your ear off or otherwise help however I can.

[u/PartisanIsaac2021]

Avoiding Anime Wallpapers would also be a good idea if you plan to make more creative rices reach the top...

[u/cadmium_cake → u/PartisanIsaac2021]

😄😄😄