In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, RV <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I wonder if you feel the same about other symbols ... what about > NorthAmerican indians vis a vis red, white and blue? Is anyone saying that the red star should be replaced with red white and blue (or bleu, blanc et rouge for that matter)? I think stars and stripes would be out of place, too, in Mozilla. > Should afroamerican feel the same way about stars and stripes? Consider the red star issue this way: If you wanted to make a generic browser and get contributors from all ethic groups and states in the U.S., would you put the Confederate flag in the icon and about box? Of course you wouldn't. > My father fought in the Korean conflict (it was never a declared war), > and got 3 purple hearts medals because he was shot/injured in 3 > different ocassions. Do I hate Koreans, Chinese, communists because > of that? NO. Good for you. However, it is useless to try to explain away the negative connotations of the red star. As we have seen over and over again, some people consider it offensive even if you think it doesn't need to be. Also, please note that Americans are not the only ones who are eligible to get offended. For example, I can imagine that some people in Poland might consider the red star offensive. Part of the software internationalization process is avoiding offensive icons. (See Apple's advice on the matter for example.) > BTW, if the desktop red star icon bother you so much, CHANGE it. But it is pointless to ship something and tell users to change it. Changing the default icon to an "M" (like the Mozilla icon on Mac OS X) would make more sense. -- Henri Sivonen [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.hut.fi/u/hsivonen/
