[vlc-devel] Christian Santa Hat removal?

[Pierre Ynard]

Dear Sir,

> Is there a way to remove or disable the Christian holiday Easter egg?
> Many users (myself included) are not Christian and feel that this icon
> is probably not a good idea. We do not see similar Easter eggs for
> high holidays of other faiths (Ramadan, Kwanzaa, Hanukah, Buddhist
> and Hindu holidays etc.) and wonder if VLC is positioning itself as
> 'anti' other faiths since its development team is mostly European and
> American.

My personal opinion is that the majority of our user base is positively
receptive to the christmas spirit, and that the majority of those who
aren't positively receptive, aren't receptive at all, i.e. just don't
care.

There are many features, formats or even translations that VLC doesn't
support well either, but the lack of support doesn't mean that VLC
positions itself against these features, formats or languages. However,
your request to remove the santa hat makes me wonder if you position
yourself as anti-christmas and anti-christian.

> It is a shame to make users who have supported the project feel as
> though they are less valued than other users.

Supporting a software project is usually about improving it and adding
extra features that will benefit some other users, but not about
removing features that will bring joy and happiness to many users by
helping to spread the kindness of the christmas spirit.

Also, VLC doesn't include a translation to the Molvanian language.
By your logic, in order to be in keeping with good global policy,
all translations should be stripped, because Molvanian people might
feel offended and less valued because VLC was translated to other
languages but not theirs. Well I disagree, and I find this attitude
displeasing. This is perfectly normal to have translations available for
some languages only, and there are even good reasons why we wouldn't
want to feature every language around (e.g. size constraints). So goes
it for the christmas spirit.

Kind regards,

-- 
Pierre Ynard
"Une âme dans un corps, c'est comme un dessin sur une feuille de papier."