Re: Helping new contributors

[Lori Nagel]

   I want to clarify some things that make it hard for software users to
   advocate for freedom respecting software.
   If we do not know what all these programs are and why people use them,
   it makes it much harder to do anything about them.
   Facebook = cloud service running non-free software
   why people use it = friends are on it and no good replacement for the
   "groups" feature in federated social media.
   (else I could definitely move some groups to it, especially in a
   "crisis" moment.)
   Discord = cloud service running non-free software
   why people use it = people like the persistent chat feature, that they
   don't have to leave their computer at home idling
   and wasting electricity 24/7 just to keep the chat logs going on a
   room. built in voice chat is a bonus, but in my experience doesn't
   necessarily get used a lot. (as people in different time zones aren't
   necessarily all on at the same time)
   Discourse = freedom respecting software under a free software license.
   It runs on someone else's server.  (as it is for communities)  It uses
   javascript in your browser.
   why people use it = People like Discourse communities because the
   software has made it easy to find new posts, get rid of spam before it
   starts, and keep the spirit of the community going.

   On Monday, April 12, 2021, 11:18:41 AM EDT, Tobias Platen
   <tplaten@posteo.de> wrote:
   On Fri, 2021-04-09 at 09:04 -0400, Suushi via libreplanet-discuss
   wrote:
   I have never used Discord, but you can use Jami as a replacement.
   > > > > By doing this ourselves, as advocates of free software, we can
   > > > > include links to why free software methologies are better, even
   > > > > if
   > > > > we have to be a little flexible in what we use for support and
   > > > > communication, Discourse my not be ideal, but would we rather
   > > > > people
   > > > > used facebook or discord?
   > > >
   > > > Of course not Facebook. It is very easy to establish XMPP chat,
   > > > it can
   > > > be on the website or by using various applications, it will work
   > > > from
   > > > any device. There are other free software communication packag
   > > >
   > > > > My support group is about respecting privacy /user freedom as
   > > > > much
   > > > > as possible.
   > > >