I kinda thought this conversation would eventually happen. I have mixed feelings on the subject but am generally inclined not to use the term myself as I find it distasteful. But I think there's an important consideration for those who'd like to discontinue the term rice in this community: what language would we like to use instead? Specifically a good noun for referring to a given setup we've made. In therapy they teach you that stopping a behavior is a very hard thing to accomplish, and that instead you should always try to replace a behavior- I believe that idea is very relevant here

I'd be curious to hear people's thoughts on what they'd like to use instead

I don't understand where the problem arises exactly, there is no racist intent in its usage here, it's just a word, it's an empty container and we fill it with meaning. In this context it just means "customization", sure it's not a completely made up term and its origin is lowkey racist, but, as you stated yourself, not many know at all of that connotation, they go on to use it despite never meaning to use bad language on purpose, because it has simply acquired a different meaning, it was just the lingo they happened to find in the community.
There's plenty of words that had historically been bad and then became good, same the other way around. I believe that's the case here as well.

Even so, if an alternative word is proposed and favored, even just plain "customization" (which I feel would be better than replacing it with a lingo word, as it would make it easier for newcomers to understand what is being talked about more easily), I wouldn't be opposed, the main thing is to be able to convey the meaning, that's what that matters most in the end

Yeah, I had absolutely no idea what "ricing" was even supposed to mean, like it doesn't look like it's short for anything, doesn't seem like an acronym for anything, it's not analogous or synonymous with anything, I can't see how "rice" is supposed to be metaphorical at all to cool looking linux desktops, and it's not an entirely new word like "rizz" or "yeet"

So by all accounts it's an absolutely unfitting word for what it's describing

Knowing the racist history of the term now, yeah that makes sense and yeah I vote we move to an objectively better term

Idk what tho, maybe "decore" cuz it actually describes that the focus is the look, that the DE is the Core of the setup, and sounds cooler than "rice"

"Decore" and "Decorizing" is probably the terms I'm personally gonna use atleast

Edit: unless I find a better term, I came up with this one on the stop

For the sake of the American asian diaspora minorities again?

This reminds me of attacking those girls for wearing a kimono or cheongsam to a prom. The Japanese and Chinese living in Japan and China certainly don't have an issue. It's the Japanese/Chinese American minority community who has built their identity around it, and feels threatened by the use of their traditional clothing. Fine, the prom is in America, it's an American problem in an American space, the local diaspora have a say there.

Unixporn on lemmy.ml isn't American(or any one country) though, clearly there are a variety of people from every corner of the globe here. This place is positively cosmopolitan. I don't see a reason why the "rice" term still has to be protected despite being a global platform. Just like it's fine for any tourist to rent a kimono in Japan, it should be fine to use rice as a term here. Unless this platform were to officially become Amerian(or any other country like Fedd.it etc), this problem shouldn't exist. I'm an rice eating asian myself, I'll be glad if people were to associate rice with customization.

The Asian American community should keep in mind that the internet isn't always an American space by default. I don't think they should be gatekeeping everything Asian on a global platform.

Leaning into the "porn" part of unixporn, we could say we"fluffed" our setup. Because like fluffers, we're making things bigger an more attractive to show off.

A lot of you need your blood pressure checked