Disableing "holiday hat" icon

[K.1]

Yes, I've searched the forum and read some topics. And I can clearly see that forum admin called j-b can be very offensive to people who "dare" to ask for a way to remove it because they find this icon disturbing. We all have brains, j-b, and you should have manners, especially as a forum admin. It doesn't have to be about religion or what anyone believes in, it's pure respect to others feelings. I hate all this commercialized shopping spree, money spending madness, people pretending to be nice, when all they care about is what you give the for Christmas and whether you buy more stuff in their shops. Where is being reliogious, calm and relaxed? It's all gone. The Christmas has turned into a global circus - and that's the reason many people even among Christians don't like this time of year. Attacked from all sides with adverts, holidays songs (aired even a month before the Christmas itself!) and then you come home, shut the doors, have your radio and TV turned off and windows sealed... You want to relax watching a movie and what you find is... a knife stabbed into your back by your media player. It's a f* ridiculous situation, don't you think? It's not Christmas yet, and I already feel like vomiting because of all the talking about it. And I can assure you, I'm not the only one that feels this way. VLC is a free and open-source project that delivers a really good media pleyer to people all around the world and not everyone has to like Christmas holidays (and there are dozens of reasons not to like it).

Therefore, I'm aksing you to permanently remove the VLC player "santa hat" or "holidays hat" or "Christmas hat" icon or whatevere else you call it. Or at least give people choice to have it or not.

Tonight I'm not watching anything with VLC. And I'm seriuosly thinking about starting looking for another player, because I don't like the idea of an open-source media player that can't be neutral and be just a media player and not some kind of reminder of something everything around already reminds about.

Thank you. And I won't wish you a merry Christmas. I wish you to spend next few days in a way you want to spend them. Because I don't know what you like and dislike and why and I don't actually care - I just respect everyone's opinion. Too bad VLC programmers can't do that.

P.S. Once again a few words to j-b: A character named Santa Claus appears with different names around the globe, in Christianity it's Saint Nicolas, and the fact that the icno described above appears right before Christmas indicates a certain period of year - a Christian holiday. No matter how deep into icnonography you go, this hat symbolizes a commercialized, but Christian religious event. I wonder if VLC will remind about Ramadan, Tanabata or Maha Shivratri or Ganesh Chaturthi? Or maybe something not religious, like... American (and only American) independance day?

Thanks for playing me on nerves and waisting my time.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Yes, I've searched the forum and read some topics. And I can clearly see that forum admin called j-b can be very offensive to people who "dare" to ask for a way to remove it because they find this icon disturbing.

Not at all. The problem is people attacking us. And requiring us to do something for them for free.

So far, noone has come and asked nicely to have an option to disable it.
So far, noone has sent a patch to do so.

P.S. Once again a few words to j-b: A character named Santa Claus appears with different names around the globe, in Christianity it's Saint Nicolas, and the fact that the icno described above appears right before Christmas indicates a certain period of year - a Christian holiday. No matter how deep into icnonography you go, this hat symbolizes a commercialized, but Christian religious event. I wonder if VLC will remind about Ramadan, Tanabata or Maha Shivratri or Ganesh Chaturthi? Or maybe something not religious, like... American (and only American) independance day?

First, the character Santa Claus came way before Christianity. Did you notice that Christmas date is very near the winter solstice? Most cultures have had an "event", usually "Solar event" to celebrate/fight Winter. It is very likely the Christmas date was moved to that date in order to eclipse the "pagan" "events".
So yes, Holidays near the Winter solstice matches Christmas. But it matches many cultural religious events from way before Christianity.

Then, why not having something special for other days. We had a change of icon for French independence day in one branch.

Thanks for playing me on nerves and waisting my time.

People trolling are making me waste my time. Bugs won't get fixed if developers cannot work on them...
Doing an option for deactivation of the icon would have taken something like 2 minutes. But noone has asked for it nicely, only attacks, insults, death threats and so on.

[Justin HD]

Wow, I didn't realize how sideways this project is; It reminds me of Gentoo with a dash of Google 'Buzz.

I'm not a religous person, each his own, but that Santa Hat sent a disturbing chill up my spine---you crossed a line; If you can't see that then VLC is a wash.

I can't imagine ANY business/admin, authorizing, VLC to run on their network as is; I don't want it on any of my gear as is. I did not realize that kind of access was going on (my fault for slack-ass checking); I only authorized update checking; naturally I had to uninstall VLC completely.

Merry Christmas

[vlc_fan-01]

Hmm interesting topic I agree with some of the points made by K.1

[against_the_hat]

So far, noone has come and asked nicely to have an option to disable it.

Please, please give us this option. I joined the forums specifically to ask for this.

thank you,
eric

[Paul_Bags]

I hereby request an option to disable the santa hat icon. I would be perfectly happy with a command line switch to disable the checking mechanism*, whatever it maybe. In this way the fix is quick, elegant, and requires no GUI modification.

I'd do it myself if I could but merely compiling VLC is daunting to me, never-mind editing.

Personally I'd just rather see the icon I'm used to in the system tray/'blank' screen/titlebar. (and I can't have the sysicon with a custom skin). I suppose I can see how it might be offensive to some, but the blatant offensive in response to something so benignly intended is.. ironic. (speaking of other threads I glanced, not necessarily K.1's post.)

*(I don't know how the code works, but it would be nice if this disabled any other future holiday icons as well.)

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Wow, I didn't realize how sideways this project is; It reminds me of Gentoo with a dash of Google 'Buzz.

I'm not a religous person, each his own, but that Santa Hat sent a disturbing chill up my spine---you crossed a line; If you can't see that then VLC is a wash.

I can't imagine ANY business/admin, authorizing, VLC to run on their network as is; I don't want it on any of my gear as is. I did not realize that kind of access was going on (my fault for slack-ass checking); I only authorized update checking; naturally I had to uninstall VLC completely.

Merry Christmas

VLC doesn't go on the network for this. It just checks the date locally.
Not to mention that VLC is probably one of the last video players not phoning home...

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

I hereby request an option to disable the santa hat icon. I would be perfectly happy with a command line switch to disable the checking mechanism*, whatever it maybe. In this way the fix is quick, elegant, and requires no GUI modification.

All VLC options are available on the GUI and CLI automatically.

[K.1]

First, the character Santa Claus came way before Christianity. Did you notice that Christmas date is very near the winter solstice? Most cultures have had an "event", usually "Solar event" to celebrate/fight Winter. It is very likely the Christmas date was moved to that date in order to eclipse the "pagan" "events".
So yes, Holidays near the Winter solstice matches Christmas. But it matches many cultural religious events from way before Christianity.

I know the background you described perfectly, but that doesn't change the fact, the "holiday hat" was used for the VLC icon came from western tradition and it associates mostly with Christian holidays. There are thousands of things with stripes and same much with stars and both of them. But some stars and stripes will clearly remind you of an American flag which makes that thing "not neutral" because there are people who like America and such who don't. Also there is the CCCP video pack - it won't fit everyone because of symbolics it uses despite the fact the Soviet Union doesn't exist any more. VLC has always been "flashy" enough with it's road cones, please, don't make it glitter like a myspace theme (fortunately it didn't start blinking like X-mass lamps...) on every occasion (and there are just too many occasions during the year). What you are trying to proove, you keep failing at prooving - it doesn't matter what the holiday came from, it matters what it is now. We don't live in the 2nd century where a "holiday hat" wouldn't carry any meaning. In present times it's meaning is obvious and it's associationas are clear: Christmas. Christmas is a Christian holiday. Christmas is a commercial holiday. You've got both reasons (religious and secular) to dislike Christmas. If it's a wonderful time for you - good for you, but not everyone has a lovely time these days. I like simple things, things that are "what they were supposed to be" and do what they were meant to do. As I said earlier - I don't need an another calendar reminder in my media player, so, please, let some people have a Christmas gift and give them an option to remove the hat icon. That would be a great present that'd make quite a few people very satisfied

K.1 wrote:Yes, I've searched the forum and read some topics. And I can clearly see that forum admin called j-b can be very offensive to people who "dare" to ask for a way to remove it because they find this icon disturbing.


Not at all. The problem is people attacking us. And requiring us to do something for them for free.

So far, noone has come and asked nicely to have an option to disable it.
So far, noone has sent a patch to do so.

Actually I saw you telling someone he needs brain because he doesn't like the hat icon and becasue he thinks it's a symbol of a religious holiday.

Also, if you found my post here offensive, or trolling, or or death thretening, I appologize, but that's nothing more, but an explanation of my point of view and an early respond to "holiday hat is not a symbol of a religious holiday". Actually, even if you speak about old pagan fests, they still were religious events. But it doesn't matter - I don't mind Christian or Muslim or Buddists or Shintoists or Pagan any other holidays as long as they aren't too noisy and lost in commerce. I just would prefer to not have my media player remind me of the outside world when I stay at home and relax in silence.

The whole story only preceded my nice and polite question about removing this icon. But it seems you found it offensive and trolling... I'm sorry to hear that.

I joined the forums specifically to ask for this.

Actually I did the same after I saw some people asking about the hat removal and some replies. And I sign under you nice request

I suppose I can see how it might be offensive to some, but the blatant offensive in response to something so benignly intended is.. ironic. (speaking of other threads I glanced, not necessarily K.1's post.)

I was not offended, itwas rather like "WTF? VLC too?!?" And then I googled and found some topics here with not helping replies to people's questions and decided to write a request in this section with a detailed explanation how and why people may not like Christmas time and thing that symbolize it or associate with it. That's all. And I watched my movie with WMplayer last night. Wasn't that bad.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

First, the character Santa Claus came way before Christianity. Did you notice that Christmas date is very near the winter solstice? Most cultures have had an "event", usually "Solar event" to celebrate/fight Winter. It is very likely the Christmas date was moved to that date in order to eclipse the "pagan" "events".
So yes, Holidays near the Winter solstice matches Christmas. But it matches many cultural religious events from way before Christianity.

I know the background you described perfectly, but that doesn't change the fact, the "holiday hat" was used for the VLC icon came from western tradition and it associates mostly with Christian holidays. There are thousands of things with stripes and same much with stars and both of them. But some stars and stripes will clearly remind you of an American flag which makes that thing "not neutral" because there are people who like America and such who don't. Also there is the CCCP video pack - it won't fit everyone because of symbolics it uses despite the fact the Soviet Union doesn't exist any more. VLC has always been "flashy" enough with it's road cones, please, don't make it glitter like a myspace theme (fortunately it didn't start blinking like X-mass lamps...) on every occasion (and there are just too many occasions during the year). What you are trying to proove, you keep failing at prooving - it doesn't matter what the holiday came from, it matters what it is now. We don't live in the 2nd century where a "holiday hat" wouldn't carry any meaning. In present times it's meaning is obvious and it's associationas are clear: Christmas. Christmas is a Christian holiday. Christmas is a commercial holiday. You've got both reasons (religious and secular) to dislike Christmas. If it's a wonderful time for you - good for you, but not everyone has a lovely time these days. I like simple things, things that are "what they were supposed to be" and do what they were meant to do. As I said earlier - I don't need an another calendar reminder in my media player, so, please, let some people have a Christmas gift and give them an option to remove the hat icon. That would be a great present that'd make quite a few people very satisfied

K.1 wrote:Yes, I've searched the forum and read some topics. And I can clearly see that forum admin called j-b can be very offensive to people who "dare" to ask for a way to remove it because they find this icon disturbing.


Not at all. The problem is people attacking us. And requiring us to do something for them for free.

So far, noone has come and asked nicely to have an option to disable it.
So far, noone has sent a patch to do so.

Actually I saw you telling someone he needs brain because he doesn't like the hat icon and becasue he thinks it's a symbol of a religious holiday.

Also, if you found my post here offensive, or trolling, or or death thretening, I appologize, but that's nothing more, but an explanation of my point of view and an early respond to "holiday hat is not a symbol of a religious holiday". Actually, even if you speak about old pagan fests, they still were religious events. But it doesn't matter - I don't mind Christian or Muslim or Buddists or Shintoists or Pagan any other holidays as long as they aren't too noisy and lost in commerce. I just would prefer to not have my media player remind me of the outside world when I stay at home and relax in silence.

The whole story only preceded my nice and polite question about removing this icon. But it seems you found it offensive and trolling... I'm sorry to hear that.

I joined the forums specifically to ask for this.

Actually I did the same after I saw some people asking about the hat removal and some replies. And I sign under you nice request

I suppose I can see how it might be offensive to some, but the blatant offensive in response to something so benignly intended is.. ironic. (speaking of other threads I glanced, not necessarily K.1's post.)

I was not offended, itwas rather like "WTF? VLC too?!?" And then I googled and found some topics here with not helping replies to people's questions and decided to write a request in this section with a detailed explanation how and why people may not like Christmas time and thing that symbolize it or associate with it. That's all. And I watched my movie with WMplayer last night. Wasn't that bad.

Sure, and I guess you complain too when websites show snow or holiday symbols. And what do you say when people tells you "Merry Christmas" at a store?
So, you don't like the hat. Lots of people do like it and find it funny. The obvious solution is an option to deactivate the behavior.

However, people are very aggressive and threatening (not you), especially people from American IPs.
There has been too much said on this stupid topic and this has wasted enough of my time. I spend most of my free time developing VLC, that helps a lot of people, but I only get insults and attacks. Don't wonder when your bugs won't be fixed...

[Paul_Bags]

Sure, and I guess you complain too when websites show snow or holiday symbols. And what do you say when people tells you "Merry Christmas" at a store?
So, you don't like the hat. Lots of people do like it and find it funny. The obvious solution is an option to deactivate the behavior.

Theres a big difference between what others show on their websites & how others choose to greet you and what software you yourself run on your own hardware. It's not up to me what OTHER people do, but I do get to decide what software I run on my computer and what I want it to do.

The request has been made and the arguments have been clearly and reasonably stated (bitterness has been the response). You'll ether ignore us, continue arguing, or help us (which you've already stated would probably have taken far less time than arguing), and thats up to you. It seems to me that your the one arguing and getting offended by the request of the icons removal. You when come back with poor snarky comments your the only one wasting your time.

[vandamme]

Perhaps you should have the option of a Grinch-green icon. That would also solve the problem of those who find orange offensive. However, this would deeply offend those who are Syracuse University fans AND hate Christmas. Well, there's an easy solution, which I found long ago when I bought my first VCR and couldn't set the clock: put a piece of black electrical tape over the GROSSLY OFFENSIVE icon on the screen. Or, a piece of white tape with "Bah! Humbug!" printed on it.

[K.1]

Sure, and I guess you complain too when websites show snow or holiday symbols. And what do you say when people tells you "Merry Christmas" at a store?
So, you don't like the hat. Lots of people do like it and find it funny. The obvious solution is an option to deactivate the behavior.

However, people are very aggressive and threatening (not you), especially people from American IPs.
There has been too much said on this stupid topic and this has wasted enough of my time. I spend most of my free time developing VLC, that helps a lot of people, but I only get insults and attacks. Don't wonder when your bugs won't be fixed...

The thing is I, as Paul_Bags said, cannot control other people or websites and when I enter any site I often need to stay banner-blind not to go crazy because of massive attack of adverts. However, it's websites and they have adverts - that's how the internet is and I can't do anything about it. You don't choose what posters or billboards people place on your street. But if you use a media player you can expect it to be a media player and not a calendar or holidays reminder. If you buy a notebook, you shoose one you like and that suits you best and you don't expect it to suddenly become red/green/white only before Christmas, don't you? Also I can act here and do something - that is why I registered on this forum and posted a request.

You complain about waistng your time, while you waisted plenty of your own time telling people stories about Christmas and arguing about if it's a religious holiday/symbol or not like there shouldn't be anyone who dislikes Christmas or just the "holiday icon" itself. A t the very same time you've waisted enough of my time, because I had to explain simple things in such a manner, anyone would understand it (because even strongly argumented request wasn't good enough for you). So, let's just stop waisting our time: the request has been made and there are some people who are for the option to remove the holiday hat icon from VLC. If it's possible, please fullfill our request as it will make some people gladly use VLC again. Noone will insult or attack you for that - whose who love it will keep it on, those who hate it will turn it off, everyone will be satisfied. On the other hand, maybe it would be a good idea to make an option to set your own icon changing? You set the dates, browse for the image file and here you are - any holiday or event or anything you like and your image appears on your VLC screen when you want it. If VLC already has such functionality, let's make it more versatile and let people use it freely regardless of their race, nation, religion or interests.

What do you say?

Anyway, I wish everyone to spend next days and greet the new year nicely. And I wish you a successful, interesting and a healthy year
And thanks for the good job upon VLC

[-g-]

I like the hat, I dislike traffic cones!.



Just kidding.

[phred]

The problem is people attacking us. And requiring us to do something for them for free.

So far, noone has come and asked nicely to have an option to disable it.
So far, noone has sent a patch to do so.

Quietly seeking self-help, I was just looking for an option to disable the holiday icon. And wow. I'm saddened and sickened by these responses.

What a horrendous gut wrenching experience reading this thread. I don't think I'll ever feel good about using VLC again. This is just awful.

[edvard]

Aw for cryin' out loud folks, this is a media player, not a gun to your head.
If a santa hat icon twists your panties this much, I hate to see what a real crisis is going to do to your tender psyches.
If you really want to disable the thing, just search for the christmas icons and change them, make up your own or copy the default icon over them.
Done.

[sovereign313]

I'm working on a patch to add an option to disable the holiday hat. I wish you guys would remember... programmers need to have a little fun too, and easter eggs are good way for a programmer to "take a break" from the bulk of the code. Here's the thing... nobody gets mad at Google for the Chuck Norris easter egg, or Microsoft for the pinball-in-word easter egg... or even Spybot for the mini-game during scans. The problem is because people make a (right or wrong) association that Christmas items and all things related must be religious. VLC is a great media player, and it would be a shame for people to stop using it because they are offended, or simply OCD and don't like seeing what they are used to changed without warning. Without rekindling the whole "root" debate, the VLC team has done more than one thing that I'm against.... but they were cool enough to GPL the code so I can fix it when I don't agree, which is more than I can say for Microsoft and the candy cane texture.

In the meantime:
http://www.codefaction.net/fixed/

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Patch is ok.

[sovereign313]

So far, noone has come and asked nicely to have an option to disable it.

Please, please give us this option. I joined the forums specifically to ask for this.

thank you,
eric

So far, noone has sent a patch to do so.

http://mailman.videolan.org/pipermail/v ... 78292.html

Just so that everyone can see and know... I delivered a patch for this. I even modified it based on the criteria specified by j-b, and it was still shot down. Plain and simple guys... we've been told (in no uncertain terms) to shove it by the VideoLan Princeps and Potentates. I'll keep releasing patches as necessary, and develop instructions on how to use them... but as it stands, The Fourth Reich has spoken.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Just so that everyone can see and know... I delivered a patch for this. I even modified it based on the criteria specified by j-b, and it was still shot down. Plain and simple guys... we've been told (in no uncertain terms) to shove it by the VideoLan Princeps and Potentates. I'll keep releasing patches as necessary, and develop instructions on how to use them... but as it stands, The Fourth Reich has spoken.

Oh, seriously, 4th reich? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law

Anyway, the patch is now corrected and applied.

[Lucy Saxon]

If the only thing you have to feel offended about is a Santa hat on an orange cone then I envy you. On the other hand, it's more likely that you look for reasons to be offended and clearly need a bit of perspective somewhere.

I'm not religious but I absolutely love the Santa hat. It's a little festive touch that I appreciate immensely.