Can someone explain this vtoon trend to me? It doesn't seem to be driven by anonymity because their real name is easily findable, so I assume it's something else? It seems very common, especially in certain communities.
In case of Marcan/Lina I got the impression that he created Lina just for fun. It started as an April fools joke (Lina 'took over' Marcan's live stream), but Marcan seems to enjoy it a lot, even going so far as contributing to the Inochi2D software (used to render Lina) to improve all sorts of facial features.
I don't have the impression that in Marcan's case it was ever about anonymity, it is more about a creative expression.
Up until Lina's introduction on April 1st, I had never seen a vTuber stream, and I must say it is quite fun to watch. Though personally I wish Lina's voice is tweaked a bit, because it can be hard to understand what she is saying.
What I like about Lina and Alyssa is the increase of visibility of LGBT+ people in the more "hardware" part of software development.
As your get more low level, less visual and more niche, there's less and less diversity of software developers. And everyone should feel welcomed into hacking the kernel.
Everyone being welcomed into contributing to the kernel can result in a natural lack of diversity, as it selects for people interested in technical programming.
It is the ham-fisted attempts to increase diversity for its own sake have ended up being discriminatory. [1]
If there are barriers stopping people contributing, these should be removed. I expect these to be economic barriers, rather than those based on particular characteristics.
Why is it that whenever gender and identity is mentioned in a technical community suddenly people start talking about "ham-fisted" and forced inclusions?
There's nothing forced about people getting into programming and becoming relevant for it, that just by chance it turns out they are not cis+heterosexual.
Nobody in the Asahi crew was "a ham fisted attempt to increase diversity".
The only forced thing here is the "forced inclusion" topic. That, for whatever kind of reason, people stubbornly keep trying to bring to the front.
I think the point is about many engineering orgs adding "minorities" for the sake of PR rather because these "minorities" are great resources.
It is obvious that there's terrific engineers and professionals regardless of sexual orientation and we have countless proofs behind it, last but not least the linked article and many of the other asahi contributors.
But when the likes or Google or Facebook are obviously hiring because you are a minority it's when the solution to gender or sexual discrimination is simply...reversed.
> Why is it that whenever gender and identity is mentioned in a technical community suddenly people start talking about "ham-fisted" and forced inclusions?
You answered your own question; it’s a technical community. Centering political activism is counterproductive to the fundamental telos of being a technical community.
Existing members, unsurprisingly, push back against colonization of their community by those more interested in gender ideology or identity politics than technology.
My point was criticising your underlying assumption that the lack of diversity is due to an unwelcoming environment, presumably as a result of intolerance to certain characteristics.
I might be wrong here, but I have always been under the impression that they are the same person. I didn't even realise that is was supposed to be a secret.
Simple things like Lina en Marcan using the same hostname for the development machine (Raider), using the same IDE (Kate), using the same bash aliases (the one I like most if 'stfu' that appears to suppress terminal output), and a huge overlap of knowledge. Then there is also the same fast-paced speaking style that Marcan has.
I did notice Lina always (rather jokingly) denying being Marcan, especially during the April 1 debut, but I always assumed that that was just part of the joke.
Again, I might be wrong here, maybe they are not the same person after all, but as far as I can tell it's just Hector Martin having fun.
> Isn't it the opposite, though?
You mean Lina being first, and Marcan being an alter-ego? Marcan (Hector Martin) is a real person, he has done quite a few interviews on camera. https://youtu.be/dF2YQ92WKpM?t=496
Some people just prefer their public persona to be in the form of an avatar instead of their real face. They want to have something there to represent themselves instead of just streaming a screen and nothing else, but they would rather that representation be an avatar or character rather than their physical selves.
Personally, I like the idea. IMO, we lost something when it became normal/expected to link our real-life self to our internet selves. We arguable gained some unpleasant things too (thinking of Facebook here).
A persistent avatar/alias as an internet persona seems to match the real-life to internet-life relationship better. IE, for many, they’re different and rather separable aspects of life.
There was a Black Mirror episode that makes plain the downside of a virtual representation: it can be taken from you and manipulated by someone else. The persona becomes a sale-able commodity, and can be separated from your control.
I remember hearing that this exact thing happened a few years ago in either Japan or South Korea.
There was a talent agency that had three-four performers who took shifts streaming games through a shared vtuber persona who had build up some popularity. At some point the agency fired the performers and replaced them with a new performer who didn't have the same performance.
The fans weren't told but it was immediately apparent, so they started demanding the changes to be reverted. The fans were ignored and both the vtuber's popularity and the agency fell back into obscurity.
I guess the lesson here is that personas are personal.
Also Japanese viewers like this better, and you don’t have to look good, and if you’re streaming from inside a soundproof box in summer without AC then you don’t even have to wear clothes.
If you were the Genre of person who got rude / explicit / insulting comments whenever you showed your actual face on camera, the vtoon trend would be quite easy to understand
Hector Martin (assuming they're the same person) looks perfectly fine on camera. They're an average looking person but I fail to find anything anyone would criticize about his looks.
My first response was a bit curt so I've removed it. (Edit: I can't seem to remove it.) Yes I'm aware a lot of women get harassment when they show their face streaming. It's one of the reasons it's so popular in Japan for women to be vtubers rather than show their face while streaming while the popularity for men doing it is significantly less (though there's still plenty who do it without changing their voice).
However Hector Martin is not a woman living in Japan and they look perfectly fine/average.
It’s like getting a specific haircut, choosing what model of glasses to get, or getting a nose job, or a tattoo. Or even just picking what style of clothes you want to represent yourself in. I.e. it’s simply choosing your appearance, using more modern technology.
Number one: you're using an overloaded term, but I suppose that your specific social conditioning has given you a specific concept of the definition of normal self expression that this clearly falls out of those boundaries.
Number two: this person's goal CLEARLY isn't to fool anyone, it's not a deep fake video, and it's frankly none of your business or concern that they enjoy using an animated avatar.
When they were new, most people thought of nose jobs (and other cosmetic surgery) as being weird and creepy. Some people still do. What is “normal” is a function of commonality, and at least VTooning does not cost a fortune and risks neither complications nor needing further surgery for years to come.
Very well articulated comment from someone with highlights such as
"you write for the Gaurdian and relentlessly spout feminist propaganda"
"destruction that activist hooligans created in Portland"
"Neurodiverse isn't a real medical term"
Sounds like you've got a very particular axe to grind from a very particularly narrow world view. I hope one day you learn to enjoy your fellow human beings for who they are
