Policy

Before committing to the fortune file, please remember the classic Usenet "rule":

"Be conservative in what you expect others to accept and liberal in what you are prepared to accept."

If an entry offends more than a couple of FreeBSD committers and does not contain any objective poignant historical reference, the entry should be in the offensive file.

Examples of offensive entries:

• Those that belittle groups on the basis of their gender, nationality, religion, or lifestyle.
• Profanity, "adult" content.

Examples of entries that should not usually be declared 'offensive':

• Hitler quotes.
• Jokes about emacs/vi or your favorite technology, as long as they stay in good fun and don't cross the line of a being a vicious personal attack on the designer.

If you add new material to the fortunes collection, please be extra-diligent about unforeseen objections, and give plenty of time for it to settle before MFCing.

Additional examples will be added to the offensive and unoffensive lists above, as guidelines, whenever core@ is required to settle a dispute on this issue.