On Fri, May 22, 2015 at 6:24 PM, Ehsan Akhgari <[email protected]>
wrote:

> On 2015-05-22 9:14 PM, Eric Rescorla wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, May 22, 2015 at 5:52 PM, Ehsan Akhgari <[email protected]
>> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>>
>>     On 2015-05-22 7:38 PM, Adam Roach wrote:
>>
>>         On 5/22/15 17:59, Mike Connor wrote:
>>
>>             Can you name an example that would actually be widely
>>             controversial?
>>
>>
>>         Perhaps the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic -- I'd have to
>>         brush up on
>>         Moroccan politics to be sure.
>>
>>
>>     OK, so let's say that someone living in that region wants to be
>>     identified as living in SADR.  Why is that not OK?  And why is it up
>>     to us to decide that?  And why would Mozilla care if the said
>>     individual wants to be identified as living in the SADR or in Morocco?
>>
>>             If not, I don't think this is a material concern.
>>
>>
>>         Can you predict the entire worldwide political landscape for the
>>         rest of
>>         the lifetime of the project?
>>
>>
>>     Nobody can, but what is the point of this question?
>>
>>         There are some very plausible, very near-term futures where an
>>         alternate
>>         government that currently controls parts of what are widely
>>         recognized
>>         as Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Nigeria begins to establish diplomatic
>>         relations with other countries. It isn't hard to believe that,
>>         much like
>>         the gradual diplomatic acceptance of the PRC in the '50's and
>> '60's,
>>         such an entity might gain recognition by a non-trivial
>>         percentage of UN
>>         member states.
>>
>>         And that? That would be controversial.
>>
>>
>>     It seems like you're optimizing for a different goal than some
>>     others in this thread: avoiding making controversial decisions, and
>>     your solution is to hand that off to another organization (the ISO.)
>>
>>     Let me just talk about one of the most controversial cases for a
>>     second: ISIL, since you've mentioned it up-thread.  Let's say that
>>     there are people who self-identify as ISIL citizens, and they would
>>     like to be part of the Mozilla community.  What is the harm in
>>     allowing that individual to self-identify as such for the purposes
>>     of their Mozilla contributions?
>>
>>     I think this debate simply boils down to what goal we're trying to
>>     achieve here.  If our goal is avoiding controversy at all costs,
>>     then your suggestion makes sense.  But I would like to suggest that
>>     our goal should be building a strong community that is open and
>>     welcoming to all, no matter which part of the world they were born
>>     in, and live in, and how they identify where in the world they
>>     live.  With that goal in mind, off-loading this decision to ISO
>>     makes no sense, since that is effectively Mozilla taking a stance on
>>     what is and is not a country, and taking away the ability of our
>>     contributors to make this call.
>>
>>
>> Well, it's worth noting that this thread started (going on two weeks ago
>> now) when someone complained about someone else using "Prishtina -
>> Kosovo - Albania" as their location.
>>
>
> Of course.  We need to make it clear that it is the user who has decided
> how to fill that form, and what to put there, through the language around
> the UI where this information is displayed.  And we will obviously keep
> receiving complaints from people who don't recognize the states found on
> Mozilla Reps or other Mozilla venues, and we need to keep explaining that
> to them.
>
> You may argue that it's futile to keep trying to stop these complaints,
> but I'd say that is OK, since the more important thing is for us to be
> welcoming to individuals no matter how hey identify their location.
>
> > I suspect that the person
>
>> complaining didn't feel like we were fostering a welcoming environment.
>>
>
> Well, I have to say, with the current state of things, I don't believe we
> are as welcoming as we could be in this respect too
>

Could you elaborate a bit on what you are arguing for? A freeform field or
a method of extending the canonical list?

I'm quite comfortable with having a freeform field that people can put
anything they want in (including ISIL or Venus or whatever). I'm much less
comfortable with us having a canonical list that is curated according to
some idiosyncratic Mozilla standard. While I don't speak for Adam, I
suspect this is his view as well. Is this something you disagree with?

-Ekr
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