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This is just post-hoc justification, coupled with “PC culture is censorship” type of bullshit.
although the word “gimp” can be used offensively in some cultures, that is not our intent
Intent is irrelevant. In this case, if you didn’t mean to offend, then you apologize and then change the fucking name. You don’t get to say “sorry you were offended, but I don’t care” and still expect people to take you seriously. Change “gimp” in that sentence to any other slur and try to make that same kind of justification.
I does not matter if the name was
- based on a Pulp Fiction character because the devs thought it was funny
- was a genuine reference to kink culture
- an abelist slur
Who tf thinks a piece of software should be named after any of that? It’s 1) offensive 2) wildly unprofessional and 3) a massive barrier to adoption.
The devs have the mentality of “edgy” 14 yo teen boys, have refused to ever grow the fuck up, and just throw tantrums whenever anyone tries to have a rational conversation with them about it
All the people here saying “well of course because they weren’t trained on AAVE”:
THAT’S THE WHOLE POINT
It’s the same reason facial recognition and voice recognition software have a difficult time with anyone who isn’t white or a speaker of perfect, uninflected standard english. The bias is created by the developers, conscious or not, because they only train it on what’s in their own bubble. If you don’t have diverse teams behind the development and training, you will create this bias, whether you want to or not. This is well known.