Magic (8ball) application RACIST

[iFoneHome]

Just an FYI -- Careful installing Magic 8 Ball (from iAppADay).

Some people have added some really racist lines (at least I found one).

I was demonstrating it to a friend, and up pops - "N***ers are crazy" (not blanked out)! WTF! And NO, no one edited it as that was the first time loading the app!

Careful, people say it's using a remote database (means you have no control of what others put into it!).

[rustymetal]

OR, this program lets u submit ANY message you want and displays it on others phones.

[Destructo]

Sean made the program, not the replies. Anytime someone inputs data, it saves it to the database.

[aaa]

lol @ you telling people not to get it because of racism. What are you, 12?

[iFoneHome]

lol @ you telling people not to get it because of racism. What are you, 12?

Just a concerned citizen. If you're demo'ing your iphone to a friend/co-worker/boss etc, the last thing you want is some racist remarks showing up on your phone.

[colacao82]

I agree i've got some black mates and I know that if I was demo'ing my phone and that popped up i'd have a pretty hard time explaining myself. Good call man.

[Randy]

Just to be clear, though. The program's author isn't the racist. It's some of the people who add their comments to the 8-Ball database who are racist. The program allows anybody to submit their comments as new 8-Ball answers. In that respect, it's no different from this bulletin board (where participants may write something racist, but that doesn't mean that the site owner is a racist, nor does it mean that the people who wrote the bulletin board software the site uses are racists either). To believe that Sean Heber is a racist would be like suggesting that the father of the internet was a pornographer. (And everyone knows that Al Gore isn't a pornographer. ::sorry:

[iFoneHome]

Just to be clear, though. The program's author isn't the racist. It's some of the people who add their comments to the 8-Ball database who are racist. The program allows anybody to submit their comments as new 8-Ball answers. In that respect, it's no different from this bulletin board (where participants may write something racist, but that doesn't mean that the site owner is a racist, nor does it mean that the people who wrote the bulletin board software the site uses are racists either). To believe that Sean Heber is a racist would be like suggesting that the father of the internet was a pornographer. (And everyone knows that Al Gore isn't a pornographer. ::sorry:

Ok, I concede I did not realize it was using a remote database.

Sorry to Sean Hebber, I will remove my comment.

[Raven2k]

I also think the programer has to take ownership and responsibility for the applications he creates.... and linking to a source that is unmanaged is irresponsible and short sighted. This is what separates professionals and commercial quality software.

The analogy of an open database only works if u pretend publicly accessible communications resources go unmanaged....it's just not so.

Newspapers receive adds from classified ads...they are edited.
Forums have moderators...and so on...

A publicly accessible database should also have one or the other. I does no exist by it's own will, the database has an administrator. What either goes in or is permitted to reside in the database is the responsibility and choice of the administrator.

If that admin happens to be the programer then there lies the ownership.
If the programer chose to utilize a administrator who is socially irresponsible... the programmer should own that choice as well.

[zoidberg md]

I also think the programer has to take ownership and responsibility for the applications he creates.... and linking to a source that is unmanaged is irresponsible and short sighted. This is what separates professionals and commercial quality software.

Is the car maker responsible for the drunk driver?

[N4cer]

Um, guys. I've listened to black people. They say the word nigger. It's okay. They know it exists, and if they don't want us to use it, they need to stop using it too. Now whut, nukka?

[dictionary]

Personally, I'm black, and I could care less. The thing is, most black people are quite to call white people "cracker", or spanish people "wet-backs", etc. etc. .. yet once someone calls them the N word, they go all psycho, and claim emotional duress. Get over it. You can't have it both ways. If you're offended by a word, don't use it. Back in the day, slaves called themselves the N word, as a term of endearment, in order to take a negative term, and try to bring themselves together during the hardship. After the ordeal though, they didn't continue on calling themselves the word. I just think it's ignorant, regardless of who says it, especially when saying it in a demeaning manner. If you're saying it matter-o-factly, I still have an issue, but it's whatever. I can't deny that the word hasn't slipped off of my tongue in conversations with my comrades, though it's just so ingrained in us now, that it's really terribly hard to stop. Vocal inflection has a lot to do with how it is taken too. My "white" friends use the term towards me, but with a definition of "friend", or "buddy", or someone close in general. I just hate it when people are so quite to use the idioms, and then get upset when someone else does as well. *shrug* .. /rant

[Digital Oxygen]

Instead of blaming the developer who is apparently not racist, why don't you guys take control of the application, responsibility for you actions and not install it onto your phones? Maybe then the developer will do something about the database.

I mean, come on guys! You don't like what something says and does? Un-install it, and be done with it! I don't have the app installed on my phone, btw.

And I think Dictionary nailed it down to a Tee. It's all about the PC crap we have to live with every day. Thankfully, I don't play the PC game, else I'd go nuts... ok, more muts than I already am.

[blkrain]

Um, guys. I've listened to black people. They say the word nigger. It's okay. They know it exists, and if they don't want us to use it, they need to stop using it too. Now whut, nukka?

That was the most ignorant comment ever.

Just because the people use the word does not make it ok.

it just means they are ignorant as well.

[redcard]

Jesus. Attack of the politically correct noobs!

Get over it. Stop trying to make a situation where none exists.

We should ban black people from the internet so they don't have to see all this racialism!

[Reako]

Okay, another pointless thread exploiting negligence. The applications was a good creation. The users stuffing the database with unacceptable slogans are the problem. You can't fix it, game over.

Reako

[Webnasty]

It's a cool app. I do wish there was a way to turn on and off the global "answers".

[RC_OZ]

Just uninstalled Magic 8ball. Thanks for the heads up.

[Bdotwells]

Personally, I'm black, and I could care less. The thing is, most black people are quite to call white people "cracker", or spanish people "wet-backs", etc. etc. .. yet once someone calls them the N word, they go all psycho, and claim emotional duress. Get over it. You can't have it both ways. If you're offended by a word, don't use it. Back in the day, slaves called themselves the N word, as a term of endearment, in order to take a negative term, and try to bring themselves together during the hardship. After the ordeal though, they didn't continue on calling themselves the word. I just think it's ignorant, regardless of who says it, especially when saying it in a demeaning manner. If you're saying it matter-o-factly, I still have an issue, but it's whatever. I can't deny that the word hasn't slipped off of my tongue in conversations with my comrades, though it's just so ingrained in us now, that it's really terribly hard to stop. Vocal inflection has a lot to do with how it is taken too. My "white" friends use the term towards me, but with a definition of "friend", or "buddy", or someone close in general. I just hate it when people are so quite to use the idioms, and then get upset when someone else does as well. *shrug* .. /rant

allrigh... well i had to comment on this i figured it was worth registering...

first of all... who made you the spokesperson for all black people? You and WHO came to this consensus that black people are quick to referr to others as crackers and wetbacks? No... calling a caucasian cracker or a mexican a "wet-back" opens no room for validity in the case that someone calls ANY black person a n***er. African Americans use it among themselves and THATS JUST THE WAY IT IS, its been a part of our lives for so long it will often come out without thinking. I dont know where you came from with that slave bullsh*t but im pretty sure thats the stupidest 'explanation' i have ever heard. If i could have my way i would erase the word from everybodies memory but thats not how it goes, and people need to learn to stop using it lightly,, and most definatley stop taking it lightly. As for the guy that wrote the statement in the 8ball.... smh..... it dissapoints me to see that many have become so desensitized to think thats funny.

and as for your white friends that say the word around you all the time... you are a poor excuse for anybody with a spine., would you really let someone talk reckless like that around you? And not say ANYTHING? Where do you live? THese must be your only acquaintances because any white friend of mine that reffered to me *** n-i-*-*-a would either get stomped out or cut out of my circle of trust...

its disheartening to hear it coming from a white person and its even more disheartening to hear of a african american male to just sit back and let it happen.





anyway,, [1st post]!