Vscode: A non hostile response

[Miosame]

I've went ahead and removed the issue template, as this is currently the only way to respond and address from "your community" point of view and for others to possibly add to a more healthier discussion. Also it is simply uncalled for and unnecessary to add some snark by leaving the issue template and add some funny notes in it.

First of all I want to thank you for clearing up some things in: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/87440 and considering to add a setting, as implied in https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/87289#issuecomment-567245819.

I do admit I did jump on the same joke-train as others (even before anybody else attempted to), even if it was more subtle and I did later consider to add another one regarding the snowflake update, but after you addressing the issues and being more transparent / mature about the process, I decided to make a more calm and less hostile/abstract response.

_mid-creation-edit:_ I did test the setting in question now after all while writing this and it does address the UX issue, still useful to consider for future updates that might bring other similar visual celebration changes.

I'm sure many could (incl. me) make up a response as to why snowflake is a problem, just to spark the fire in response and protest to what has happened, but it's much more simple than that: changing the icon entirely, breaks the usability for new users that might download insiders during december, as it has no resemblance of an options icon left at all.

The santa hat was only putting a small subtle "merry christmas" flavor to vscode, without breaking UX for new users that might discover it only during christmas time.

I yet to review this setting further, as to if extensions have access to it in some way? to have the community and sub-communities decide easier as to what they want to see as a doodle on their options icon (make anybody happy by allowing them to publish their own small holiday spirit), by simply pulling an extension from the marketplace, this would also allow for much diversity that microsoft seems to have set its goal to.

As to the snowflake icon, it does at least keep some holiday spirit, but for the UX as its victim.

This whole issue went out of hand, because you have set a dangerous future here, especially in your response:

(even a single person being offended is one too many)

Why should all the others that e.g. enjoy during their final christmas work hours or at home suffer, just because of one single person (what actually seems like a dishonest troll attempt?). Matters like this should never fire an immediate response and instead be taken to some form of user voice, where we others could at the very least voice our opinion, even if just via up/downvotes or at least expose a setting in options and expose to extension API (have a central extension API for customization like this?) like the "final" correction did it.

You clearly set a method and ways for censorship and dangerous abuse, which has not been addressed in any way, besides this one quote above, which directly implies, that any user, be it with a reason or not, can just take down any useful or "nice to have" feature, just because they made up some reason - without asking any of the "others", which you've seen clearly disagreed with such a move.

Note that other parts of microsoft celebrate christmas wide open (ask your bing team for input?). I understand that microsoft is a major scale company and wants to push as little against anybody as possible, but not allowing for any input and healthy discussion, to spark some suggestions (which I am sure would have suggested extension/option quite early on as an alternative) before removing what helped many to feel just that little bit better during work or at home, felt like a direct attack against "us", "developers", that hold no politics or history with what is a simple small gesture to feel better during christmas time and also felt safe in what is a tool not used by the usual trigger happy crowd that has made similar issues in other parts of media.

Again I thank you and welcome the "final" change that has happened, as it did give us back the option, but I still think it is healthy and in your best interest to prevent further trolling to address this issue of censorship, abuse tools and for possibly handling future celebration roll outs via extensions on this issue, even if to just please everybody.

[coldacid]

This is probably the best response to the situation. Honestly had it not been for the knee-jerk sudden removal because of a single complaint, this wouldn't have ended up being blown so out of proportion. Microsoft should certainly take a more measured and thought out response to complaints in the future, especially as things like this become more and more common with today's hyper-politicized society.

[Fuewburvpoa]

(even a single person being offended is one too many)

This is the biggest problem, basically you just made a RULE, and anybody can now be offended about anything, and you will have to comply.
What happened yesterday is a good example, but instead of one person, many got offended by your move, and what was your reaction? nothing, and how are you going to make sure no one is offended? you can't.
It is not possible to 100% please all users, so stop drinking soy milk and grow some hair to say NO, to idiots who get "offended" by a text editor.

[RZR666]

Ironic how you changed it to a snowflake.

[Enerccio]

also funny enough, I am offended by your blatant pandering, so what are you going to do about "(even a single person being offended is one too many)"

[dylib]

I’m offended that Microsoft does not adhere to the foundations of open source software. The response they’ve provided doesn’t even allow someone to reply; they might as well just admit that they dictate the rules and not the community that they purchased. It’s unfortunate when a corporation asserts it’s power in such a spineless underhanded manner. They at the very least should have allowed discussion of the said “issue” before making themselves an apparent oppressive regime.

[RandomErrorMessage]

(even a single person being offended is one too many)

I can't believe a Microsoft employee said this, it's basically implying that someone being offended is the equivalent to someone dying (the common origin of the phrase).

Frankly, I'm offended.

[carpediembr]

I'm offended that Microsoft does not celebrate Yule Wicca. Are they going to do something about it?

[uriesk]

I agree with @dylib and want to add that not allowing discussion of this issue is a clear violation against Microsofts own Code of Conduct. But at least this issue here seems to be allowed.

Being an Open Source project also means to involve the community into the decision-making process. Microsoft dictating the project is not in the spirit of Open Source. It feels like a corporate product where Microsoft just published the Source Code in order to get people to work for them for free. If this is the stance of Microsoft, then i have to say that everybody who commits code here for free without receiving money from Microsoft is just a fool.

And to your actions during the SantaGate itself:
You clearly offended lots of people with your political pandering to one "woke" person. Which is again against your own Code of Conduct. Your reaction of it, by shutting it down and censorship, was then again, against your own Code of Conduct. I don't know if there were issues that were made by bots, (looking at the closed issues, i doubt that, all of them seem legit hand written), but jumping to that assumption or connecting the people who have legit issues with those, is again against your own Code of Conduct, you do not assume good faith.

[divadsn]

Just throwing in, VLC Media Player has a Santa hat since ages showing on the cone, yet they decided not to remove upon someone being upset about that appearance on their forums:

https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?t=96539

In my opinion Microsoft shouldn't really care about such troll issue, instead they should point that there is a way to disable that either in the settings or by entering an addition start parameter which would disable any kind of seasonal UX change.

[coldacid]

@divadsn to be fair, that setting didn't appear until after this brouhaha started. Still, it would have been a lot better to just add that setting in and say "oh if you don't like santa hats, you can use this to change it" than what they originally did. There certainly wouldn't have been this huge backlash if they had handled it that way.

[kieferrm]

@Miosame

We wanted to try to address the concerns you raised by providing more information on what happened last week. This turned out to address questions raised across other issues, so we put the response in https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/87440#issue-540437717.

Please take a look there, we hope this answers your concerns. If it does, please close this issue.

[Miosame]

@kieferrm thank you for further addressing the issue and not closing this down yourself.

I first had some concerns initially about the new response - mainly about mentioned twitter responses that I could not personally verify or find, but now thinking back - it is a very awkward situation as is and has been dragged out more than need be.

I'll focus my energy more on how to possibly avoid this and spark a better response from microsoft devs - than what we have currently.

Here is some points I tried to put together, for a healthier future for all involved:

1. Take in more user voice / suggestions and verify these are not made by trolls, but genuine people, not trying to harm the project or the users of the project.
2. Respond with as much option / customization in settings as possible and where possible, which allows for users to decide themselves if they want behavior A, B or their own (in reasonable amount), but don't take away existing function. (with rare exceptions, which I'm sure "common sense" and user voice can apply)
3. Never force users to a single choice made by a fraction of the community, be that a suggestion from a small amount of users outraged, the microsoft developer team or dedicated troll accounts that _will_ happen in the future given this drama recently.
4. If you do add options, make sure that 2 and 3 are satisfied, so a minority that is outraged, does not inflict pain or punish the majority, which can and will be abused.
5. Communicate more clearly and explain, especially with things you have to already "monitor" negative responses to - why are you responding so quickly to what seems like a single mention from the community point of view? give us examples, preferably archived with something trusted like webarchive, transparency is key and user voice is even more so important.

I understand that maturity is a critical issue with a lot of github/vscode filed issues, especially recently, but not taking into account the users and contributors of your project or missing out on transparency, does go against what microsoft supposedly set as its guidelines and also had the consequence that the single user that caused all this and you wanted to protect, got harassed into deleting his account and fearing for e.g. his server/website/email health instead. You failed the community and the minority you wanted to protect and help.

I would want to keep this issue "alive" / opened for now, until further points could be addressed either in https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/87440 or here, hope you can understand.

[echofly]

Ironic how you changed it to a snowflake.

Haha, snowflake fly fly, and north wind blow blow.
------《One cut plum flower》