I saw the apology statement and the original tweet but I'm genuinely confused about what people are mad about?
Especially mad enough to make a fork of the Godot engine?
I did watch This video from Games From Scratch but he barely gives any actual information about what people are mad about. The most information I got is that a joke tweet was made and a non-affiliated moderator went a little overboard.
What am I missing here? What's got everyone so upset?
It’s more than some unofficial mod in discord. The Xitter Community Manager apparently had no chill with any type of criticism about their politically-motivated posted about being “woke” (in ref to someone xitting about studios being woke for using prebuilt game engines). Unhappy members of the Godot community spoke out (politely mind you) that they’d rather see Godot focus on fixing bugs, rather than wasting resources being political. The CM’s response was to lay the ban hammer (both on Xitter and on GitHub) and block dissenting views. That’s round about when the unofficial mod decided to step in and white knight for the CM using their unofficial discord server.
In the end, it looks like the Godot Foundation is all in protecting their CM, and released a statement only apologizing for banning people who were not a part of the conversation; offering a Google form as a means to get unbanned.
Why is it a big deal? Depends on which side you believe is right or wrong:
On the CM’s side, it’s probably (and this is solely my opinion) about feeling empowered by their position to promote their sociopolitical agenda. For the Godot foundation, it seems they agree with their CM; or maybe they are too proud to admit fault.
For the devs, they just want to have a platform to build their games, and are frustrated by what they perceive is a lack of support (and documentation) from the engine devs. They don’t want to be involved in any sociopolitical argument, and feel that Godot shouldn’t either.
Personally, I feel the CM acted wholly unprofessional and should be fired. Not because they wanted to promote inclusivity with their remarks about being “woke”, but instead by their blanket bans for any hint of criticism. It shows a severe lack of emotional maturity and inability to function in a society. They are no better than those they fight against (ie bigots).
The Godot Foundation should be ashamed of their lack of response, and not calling out the CM for their banpage. They are shitting all over the very people that want to help them grow and become successful. In this case, I haven’t seen many (if any) devs being assholes, and yet Godot is allowing them to be mistreated.
Again, all of the above is my understanding and opinion of the matter. I am in no way affiliated with Godot, the CM, or any of the devs.
I never understood the criticism people make of "maybe focus on the engine instead of making bad tweets" as in the social media manager is ALSO the lead coder or something?
At no point does putting out a tweet change how fast someone unrelated takes to code something.
Very good summary. The only thing missing is a mention that in the aftermath a Godot fork called Redot was created and it's twitter account gained 17k followers in 2 days.
Godot community manager responds "lmao we're woke" to a tweet that says "using game engines is woke"
Some people decide to cancel godot because woke = bad, as a response a mod of unofficial Godot discord server says fuck that. Godot foundation disapproves of that language.
Godot's code is open for any developer to use however they want so anyone could make a fork of it; but just making a fork of a game engine and innovating on it are two different things.
Godot banned developers/financial backers on twitter and GitHub.
Creator of Godot engine, Head of development and Godot Foundation Board Member, Juan Linietsky is on record as saying,
"I deeply believe that any political discussion that puts labels to a group of people is one that not have started. As most of the people in this planet, no matter their political compass, seems to strongly disagree with me, I just prefer to stay entirely out of politics."
The Godot Foundation responded to the bans with this statement,
"On Friday, we made a tweet that unexpectedly led to a wave of harassment directed at our staff and community. We unequivocally condemn this abuse. The volume of negative engagement overwhelmed our moderation efforts. While attempting to protect the Godot community we mistakenly blocked individuals who were not participating in the harassment. The Godot Foundation Board takes full responsibility for these moderation actions.
If you believe you were blocked in error and have not violated our Code of Conduct, please contact us with the form linked below. We are committed swiftly rectifying any mistakes.
We firmly stand by our mission to keep our community spaces free from hate, discrimination, and other toxic behaviors."
-The Godot Foundation Board
After this statement from Godot was released Juan Linietsky posted this on Mastodon,
"Will chill from Twitter/X until after the US elections. Almost all the hate Godot got over the weekend was pretty much people who had not a clue what a game engine is, what Godot is, or what a FOSS / Community made project is. Most of the ones who did were the usual haters.
Checking profile of haters, majority pro-trump people with weird religious symbology, or people with avatars/obsession for anime little girls.
Sometimes I feel I am too innocent for this world."
“I deeply believe that any political discussion that puts labels to a group of people is one that not have started. As most of the people in this planet, no matter their political compass, seems to strongly disagree with me, I just prefer to stay entirely out of politics.”
I mean, that's cool for him and all and I generally feel people are people first, but silence aids oppressors, not the oppressed.
Since a quick google shows development is in latin america, I understand his "wtf let us stay out of US politics" tho.
Woke nonsense shit from both sides. Political issues are always hot button right before a US election. The facts are that Godot engine is still getting updates everyday and the forks are not. This trend will continue and this noise will fade into the background.