Re: The name gnus-cloud.el

[Richard Stallman]

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

  > In this case, I cannot for the life of me understand what's all the
  > fuss about.  "Cloud" is just a word, and there's nothing wrong with it
  > per se.

The problem is in the expression "cloud computing".  It is a bogus
generalization whose use spreads confusion.

  >  We are not talking about cloud computing,

It makes no sense to "talk about cloud computing" because "cloud
computing" doesn't have a coherent meaning.  It is a confused
overgeneraligation.  When people think they are "talking about cloud
computing", that means they are under the confusion of the
overgeneraligation.

See https://gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#CloudComputing for
explanation of how that expression does harm.

    we are talking about using the word itself.

In this context, "cloud" means that something "uses cloud computing".

It could be different in another context.  For instance, in a program
for weather forecasting, "cloud" might refer to a meteorological
phenomenon.  That would not spread any confusion about computing
practices.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman
President, Free Software Foundation (https://gnu.org, https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)
Skype: No way! See https://stallman.org/skype.html.