On Mon, May 25, 2015 at 8:12 AM, Ehsan Akhgari <[email protected]>
wrote:

> On 2015-05-25 10:49 AM, Eric Rescorla wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, May 25, 2015 at 7:44 AM, Ehsan Akhgari <[email protected]
>> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>>
>>     On 2015-05-22 10:16 PM, Eric Rescorla wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>         On Fri, May 22, 2015 at 6:24 PM, Ehsan Akhgari
>>         <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
>>         <mailto:[email protected]
>>         <mailto:[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]> <mailto:[email protected]
>>         <mailto:[email protected]>>
>>                  <mailto:[email protected]
>>         <mailto:[email protected]>
>>
>>                  <mailto:[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?
>>
>>
>>     A freeform field is unfortunately not suitable because of the
>>     reasons mentioned before (such as making it harder to perform
>>     searches because misspellings, etc.), so at the lack of that, I
>>     think we should be open to expending the canonical list using
>>     user-assigned code where ISO-3166-1 fails to list a country in
>>     situations similar to the one for Kosovo.
>>
>>
>> Thanks for clarifying. Do you believe Mozilla should curate this list or
>> merely record whatever people want to put there?
>>
>
> I believe it should not be curated by Mozilla, or a third-party
> organization that we hand this off to (as we currently do).  The net effect
> of any sort of vetting on the list by Mozilla, ISO, or another organization
> is that in the cases where they get it wrong, we're making it impossible
> for individuals to self-identify the territory they consider themselves to
> be from.


OK, then you and I disagree here. I'd prefer to accommodate such people by
giving them a freeform field.


> If curated, what should
>
>> be the conditions? If not curated, what if I want to put in "Sealand",
>> "Mars", or "People's Republic of Fuck You"?
>>
>
> I believe it's fine to ignore such cases when coming up with general
> rules, and treat them as spam and deal with them as such.
>
> Note that the users can already enter such unhelpful information in other
> free-form (or pseduo-free-form) fields, such as the name field, and we
> don't need to worry about such cases more than worrying about any other
> spamming scenario.
>

Well, that's why I put in Sealand, since at least at one point there were
in fact people claiming it was a sovereign jurisdiction. The line between
"legitimate disagreement" and "spam" seems pretty fuzzy.


-Ekr
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