[ASLO] [REQUEST] Tank Operation-1

[Walter Bender]

On Mon, Mar 10, 2014 at 10:48 AM, Lionel Laské <lionel at olpc-france.org> wrote:
>
> Hmmm. So it look like more to a non-written rule, there is nothing very
> clear regarding "violence" on your links. Let's say that my activity is
> probably a good opportunity to think about this policy.
> However to be honest it's difficult for me to consider that my activity is
> "violent".

I agree that "Inappropriate (violent, sexual, subversive) content" is
not very clear. Alas, it is difficult to define these terms. The old
saw, "I know it when I see it" [4] applies to violence as well. Maybe
you can help us with a definition.

> Plus it's very frustrating to me to imagine that the activity is not
> compliant to the Sugar Store policy - and believe me I'm familiar with
> frustration coming from store policies on other platforms (iOS, Microsoft,
> Google).

iOS, Microsoft, and Google cater to a different, less vulerable
audience than we do.

>
> Could you be explicit about  what it means now:
> - The activity should be removed from the Sugar Store,
> - The activity could stay in the Sugar but should stay in Sandbox,
> - The activity could stay on the Sugar Store with a sort of "Parental
> Advisory",

The activity is not "public" until it is released, so leaving it in
the Sandbox until it is modified seems OK. But if the author declares
that he/she will not make the required changes, then we should remove
it.

We have no mechanism for enforcing "Parental Advisories" so I think it
is not a workable solution.


> - ...
>
> Regarding Tuxmath, it's the children favorite activity in our deployment in
> France and in Madagascar. More: today Tuxmath is the most recommended/used
> activity by teachers in our deployment in France.

I realize this. But that doesn't make the "shooting of aliens"
appropriate. One can rationalize that aliens are outside of anyone's
experience. Tanks are not. I feel comfortable drawing the line there.

> So "violence" is probably very dependent of context/people and more an
> opinion or a judgement than an universal policy.

Of course context matters. But on the global server, we need to
consider a global audience. There are children in some of our
deployments where tanks have been a reality. Gamifying that is not OK
IMHO.

There is nothing to prevent hosting on local  servers.

>
>                    Lionel.
>
>
>
>
> 2014-03-10 15:23 GMT+01:00 Walter Bender <walter.bender at gmail.com>:
>
>> Our policy is documented here [1]; but from ASLO we have links to [2]
>> and [3], which are not the same and do not mention violence as a
>> criteria.
>>
>> Regarding your comment about Tuxmath, I am not thrilled by it. But it
>> is in high demand by teachers. It has been on my to-do list to replace
>> it.
>>
>> regards.
>>
>> -walter
>>
>> [1] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activity_Library/Editors/Policy
>> [2]
>> http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/developers/docs/policies/submission
>> [3] http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/developers/docs/policies/reviews
>>
>> On Mon, Mar 10, 2014 at 7:21 AM, Lionel Laské <lionel at olpc-france.org>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> > Oooch, what a bad news! I wrote Sugar activities from years and didn't
>> > suspect there was some restrictions. Is there a place where these
>> > conditions
>> > are described?
>> >
>> > BTW let me play advocate for this game:
>> > - The game is a web port of the Tuxmath activity that is already in the
>> > Sugar Store [1]. The difference is that Tuxmath use space invaders theme
>> > instead of military. Killing Alien is better ?
>> > - The naive design of units is inspired by the Gameboy game Advance War
>> > [1]
>> > that is really a game for children
>> > - I'm not a designer, I choose this theme because I've found some nice
>> > free
>> > arts on this here [3]. I've not at all knowledge or budget to redesign
>> > the
>> > content.
>> >
>> > Best regards from France.
>> >
>> >                 Lionel.
>> >
>> > [1] http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en/sugar/addon/4271
>> > [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_Wars
>> > [3] http://www.vickiwenderlich.com/2012/03/free-game-art-tank-wars/
>> >
>> > 2014-03-09 23:28 GMT+01:00 Sugar Labs Activities
>> > <activities at sugarlabs.org>:
>> >
>> >> A Sugar Labs Activities Editor requested further information from you
>> >> regarding version 1 of your activity Tank Operation.
>> >>
>> >> Walter Bender wrote:
>> >>
>> >> "We don't accept activities with militaristic themes regardless of
>> >> their
>> >> relevance to mathematics. Could you refactor the game to use a metaphor
>> >> other than tanks? Thx"
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Please reply to this e-mail or join #sugar on chat.freenode.net.
>> >>
>> >> Sugar Labs Activities
>> >> http://activities.sugarlabs.org
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > ASLO mailing list
>> > ASLO at lists.sugarlabs.org
>> > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/aslo
>> >
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Walter Bender
>> Sugar Labs
>> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>
>

-walter


[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_know_it_when_I_see_it
-- 
Walter Bender
Sugar Labs
http://www.sugarlabs.org