I read their Jira thread, and I was convinced it was a joke, too. The project manager mentioned some poll that no one else had heard of, and then other people kept coming up with reasons as to why it made sense to have had a short poll for such a major issue. I just assumed they were stringing everyone else along. :P
Honestly, if this isn't a joke, I think it doesn't really make SVN look bad (or dead). SVN's remaining proponents keep arguing that it works well in a corporate environment, while they agree that git is better for large, open-source projects. Well, SVN is a large, open-source project.
I don't think it's a joke really. The ticket and a couple of comments would look like one. But multiple project leaders commenting more than once and (acting as if) getting quite annoyed with each other would be a massive waste of time for the whole org on a joke that doesn't need to be this long.
Honestly, if this isn't a joke, I think it doesn't really make SVN look bad (or dead). SVN's remaining proponents keep arguing that it works well in a corporate environment, while they agree that git is better for large, open-source projects. Well, SVN is a large, open-source project.
I'm still betting it's a joke, though.