Re: Helping new contributors

[Jean Louis]

Thank you Lori. I like to comment on your thoughts here:

* Lori Nagel via libreplanet-discuss <libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org> 
[2021-04-13 18:29]:
> 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.

That is right. We have to raise awareness. Promoting information on
GNU.org and FSF.org is good to raise awareness. Information may be
copied freely, often modified and replicated on social networks, it
may be given to people, published on own websites.

When people ask me to join Whatsapp, Facebook, etc. I clearly give
them reasons why and reference to pages where they can understand
it. I am not to dictate to them not to use it, but I will not use it
and they get the option to talk to me by using Mumble, Jitsi, XMPP,
Tox, Jami, Retroshare or some other decentralized communicaton
network. 

> 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.

There are few other impportant unmentioned factors, that is that
people withing Facebook can only talk to people on the same
network. Some time ago, before they got the crucial number of users
Facebook did allow Facebook useds to receive email from outside, from
anybody, including the fact that any Facebook used could comunicate
with any XMPP or Jabber user. That was all closed, so that people are
locked into one single network. Facebook emotionally threatens useds
to lose their friends if they leave Facebook. It is probably same with
other centralized social networks.

Such situation is akin to free software though not the same, however
it is so much akin that even FSF promotes decentralization.

That is why no FSF endorsed distribution shall contain any software
that solely connects to centralized social networks.

By the way, I do not consider them social, they are private membership
networks. In general every circle of people is "social". But social
activity is not what Facebook represents. It is private
activity. Social network may be such created by multiple various
people such as Retroshare, such as XMPP network, such as Fediverse;
and where those people in their own groups have their own set of rules
or lack of rules. There is no centralization in true social
networks. And I can download whatever information I want without any
threats. Copyrighted, not copyrighted, worse or best information is
there.

>    (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)

People started to use private centralized networks for the fundamental
reason of advertising them enough that it gains kind of mouth to mouth
advertising so that people "hear about it" from their friends, as soon
as it appears that friends are hooked on, that is how it grows.

People do not browse social networks to find the best features
there. They are marketed to, and their friends start talking to the
next used, and that one gets hooked on. Networks can be featureless as
long as they do good advertising.

When Twitter arrived with short messages, it looked WTF! Who would use
that shitty forum. But with advertising look where Twitter is
now. They shorten messages and people don't complain, I am very
surprised how easy it is to form people's opinions.

>    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.

You have not analysed it well. Discourse is full free software that
everybody may run on their own: https://github.com/discourse/discourse

If everybody is free, than if you do not run the software, of course
you may stumble upon servers run by somebody else. That does not
diminish your freedom to run your own copy of software. That it runs
on someone else's server is thus not a factor here, you may run it on
your own server if you wish. That is uses Javascript is irrelevant, it
is free software.

IMHO people choose such free software exactly for the reason to build
their own communities in freedom. When there are multiple software,
and there are, administrators will look into features to choose what
seem best for them.

I do not find anything special in discourse and would not make it
so. Before years I was making my own forum software with success. It
is very simple to design a database, provide some kind of
authentication, and replies to answer to other replies. Nothing new
under the sun.

My recommendation is that those who wish to build their own online
communities learn to program and create their own software.

Jean

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