Please leave software far away from politics
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@Jinghe-Ma - That is excellent news that “All of China IT people are angry about this.” I’m glad to see that a single line English language message buried in obscure Windows program is making an impact on all of China IT people. Hopefully those people are getting the word out to all of China and the world.
Do Chinese people have a saying about shining light in dark places to better understand what is happening? These lights are exactly how and why you are able to keep up on events, good and bad, in the United States of America and other countries that have freedom of press and freedom to write and publish for a broad audience.
Notepad++'s messages have also been educational. Sometimes they are about things I had not heard about but apparently are important to many people.
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The actual political situation is complicated and I don’t agree with all the actions of either side, yet I find the censorship that occurred to be unacceptable. Humanity only progresses through the communication of knowledge and possessing an understanding of our history and world events.
In general, I believe that software developers have the right to express their political views, though their users also have the right to disagree and stop using their software. Free speech for one and for all.
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@Jinghe-Ma By downloading Notepad ++ you agree with the position of the author.
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@carypt how about the human rights, freedom of speech of ordinary people with opposing political views? People are being mugged, had their phones robbed, and set on fire. This movement has the mindset to set Hong Kong on fire (both financially and quite literally) just to get this freedom, at the cost of other people’s freedom of speech. Is this worth it?!
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@Hollow-Brook The author definitely has the rights to express their political views. But to tide their views to their creation(s) which were created with another noble objectives (e.g. to make a powerful Notepad software for the general public for free) is basically changing their software’s objective to it. We as users can stop using them, but we won’t necessary know about the change in the software’s objective, especially when the update was done “automatically” without anything that says about this change. There was NOTHING for us to say, we support this new political view by using this software. The software simply does not provide a way for us to “say no”. This is why the software should be left alone from politics/human rights/any world issue other than the original noble objectives that gave birth to the software.
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@carypt and promoting violent attack on individuals who disagree with you is not a violation of human rights?
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@Jinghe-Ma do you know of any good alternatives?
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Are these angry Chinese IT guys who don’t like a few comments touting free speech the same Chinese IT guys that built the Great Firewall? And help design and maintain the “social credit score” system? And the unbelievably extensive, hi-tech surveillance system to make sure people toe the correct political line? And the sophisticated spyware bundled into apps and hardware like Huawei’s?
They have no problem with politics of repression but are hypersensitive to the politics of liberation and liberality?
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@Lewis-Lee Is that right? People who like freedom and respect human rights are stupid for thinking these things have value?
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@Leo-Jei “The author definitely has the rights to express their political views”…well, yes, unless they are in China where such things are strictly forbidden, and all must be in service and servile to the Party and its State.
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@Kaya-Tilakkhana Yes, the author definitely has the right to express his believes and opinions. I’d much appreciate his views if he’d express it without tying his views on the user agreement of his software, especially when he added his view in newer versions which his software is set to update itself automatically.
I’m probably being too sensitive about this, but it feels like someone is forcing their views on me and I feel particularly oppressed. I’m more than happy to upgrade to newer versions now that his political views are no longer part of the software user agreement. Np++ is just that great.
As for your comments to other people here, our freedom of speech in the west is also limited. For example, most of the companies I worked for in the west cannot publicly denounce my employer. I have gotten into trouble on my fb post just saying I’m tired and wanted to go home with a photo showing my office lounge. There may be some truth that our human rights and freedom of speech isn’t as greatly respected out here as well as you may think.
Also, about the social credit score system, I’m glad we don’t have it out here in the west. I’m also glad we don’t have people who would ignore signs at historical sites or tourist attractions and willfully destroy the place. I’m glad we don’t have people who would walk by people who just fell off the stairs thinking it’s a scam. I’m glad we don’t have people who would run in front of cars for insurance scam. All of which were happening in China and this is their measure to curb this. I recommend you giving some thoughts weighing the pros and cons of this system before concluding that this system is all about political views and freedom of speech.
I think this is enough for now, happy to discuss further. Cheers.
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It’s not that people don’t like politics. They just don’t like political opinions that make them worry their own opinions might be less than perfect.
