Dash search unavoidably returns offensive results
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unity |
Fix Released
|
Medium
|
Mikkel Kamstrup Erlandsen | ||
Unity Foundations |
Fix Released
|
Medium
|
Mikkel Kamstrup Erlandsen | ||
unity-lens-applications |
Confirmed
|
Medium
|
Unassigned | ||
unity (Ubuntu) |
Fix Released
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned | ||
unity-place-applications (Ubuntu) |
Fix Released
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned |
Bug Description
unity 3.6.6-0ubuntu1, Ubuntu Natty
unity 3.6.8-0ubuntu3, Ubuntu Natty
unity-2d 5.8.0-0ubuntu1, Ubuntu Pangolin
unity 7.2.2+14.
Example 1:
0. Be a 14-year-old girl, or a schoolteacher preparing to show a film to your class, or a businessperson preparing to give a presentation.
1. Click the Applications button.
2. Type "movie" to launch Movie Player.
What happens: Seven applications appear, one of which is called "PornView".
Example 2:
0. Be a Dell representative or customer.
1. Click the Applications button.
2. Type "Dell" to find the Dell Recovery tool.
What happens: Five applications appear, including "Dopewars", a drug-dealing game.
(More examples in <https:/
This problem cannot reasonably be solved merely by renaming or blacklisting one or two particular applications. These are just two examples, and if the Dash shows any applications that aren't installed, there is no bright line between those that should appear for everyone and those that should appear for no-one.
We can't realistically expect the entire Ubuntu software library to be offense-free: as more independent applications are published, some (especially games) will be targeted at mature audiences and/or be non-worksafe, and that's fine. (We can introduce a maturity rating system inside Ubuntu Software Center for those.) But people should be able to expect that the launcher in Ubuntu's shell, of all things, *will* be offense-free.
Possible solutions:
* Simplest would be to restrict application search results only to those applications that are actually installed. As Mark Shuttleworth said in <https:/
* Introduce a maturity ratings system <https:/
* Ad-hoc and unconfigurable blacklisting (as proposed in duplicate bug 883800). This might result in ongoing disagreements about whether particular applications should be blacklisted.
description: | updated |
Changed in unity: | |
assignee: | nobody → Mikkel Kamstrup Erlandsen (kamstrup) |
importance: | Undecided → Medium |
milestone: | none → 3.6.8 |
status: | New → Triaged |
Changed in unity-place-applications: | |
assignee: | nobody → Mikkel Kamstrup Erlandsen (kamstrup) |
importance: | Undecided → Medium |
milestone: | none → 0.2.42 |
status: | New → Triaged |
Changed in unity-foundations: | |
assignee: | nobody → Mikkel Kamstrup Erlandsen (kamstrup) |
importance: | Undecided → Medium |
milestone: | none → unity-3.6.8 |
status: | New → Triaged |
Changed in unity-foundations: | |
status: | Triaged → Fix Committed |
Changed in unity: | |
status: | Triaged → Fix Committed |
Changed in unity-place-applications: | |
status: | Triaged → Fix Committed |
Changed in unity-foundations: | |
status: | Fix Committed → Fix Released |
Changed in unity-place-applications: | |
status: | Fix Committed → Fix Released |
Changed in unity: | |
status: | Fix Committed → Fix Released |
Changed in unity: | |
status: | New → Confirmed |
Changed in unity: | |
status: | Confirmed → Fix Released |
description: | updated |
tags: | added: precise |
Changed in unity-lens-applications: | |
assignee: | Mikkel Kamstrup Erlandsen (kamstrup) → nobody |
tags: | added: scopes-s |
Changed in unity (Ubuntu): | |
status: | New → Fix Released |
description: | updated |
Hey mpt,
I just took a look at the fix that Mikkel implemented, and I like it: simple and direct. The dash search will now only show installed applications.
Though this does address the use case you offered as an example, I really like your idea of ratings. It shows a sensitivity to different audiences that has been demanded in other areas of the entertainment industry (including software). For the aspects of this bug that the fix didn't (and rightly can't) address, I'd be +1 for a discussion at UDS about ratings, and how we could go about that...