Re: Support RMS

[Federico Leva (Nemo)]

Dear Deb,
thank you again for participating in the conversation here and for all 
your work promoting free software!

In relation to outreach and promotion efforts, it's worth remembering 
that sometimes well-meaning actions can lead to unexpected results, or 
even the exact opposite of what was intended. See for instance Marit 
Hinnosaar (2015):
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Newsletter/2015/December#cite_ref-1
https://www.carloalberto.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/no.411.pdf

«From the survey, the author concludes that "almost half of the gender 
gap in Wikipedia writing is explained by gender differences in two 
characteristics: frequency of Wikipedia use and belief about one’s 
competence [...]

Respondents were asked to look at Wikipedia articles and find some 
relevant information from the web that is missing from a Wikipedia 
article. ... In the end, they were also asked how likely they are to 
edit Wikipedia in the future."

The first version, highlighting the criticism of Wikipedia's gender gap, 
is "associated with a 35 percent decrease in the likelihood of editing 
Wikipedia in the future", i.e. discouraged rather than encouraged 
respondents from contributing, which the author calls "somewhat 
unexpected". [...] As summarized by the author:

"The result provides an example where encouraging gender equality can 
partially backfire."»

Personally, I changed my methods of outreach after that study. I now 
focus on positive communication and examples to help reinforce that 
"belief about one's competence" and hopefully compensate stereotypes and 
other negative communication which instil irrational self-doubt.

Il 15/04/21 19:13, Deb Nicholson ha scritto:
>     You mentioned that a public letter is a hostile act. I understand that
>     it feels that way to you. [...]  It's completely false to draw a
>     parallel between that action and acting rudely to complete strangers at
>     an event where the primary goal should be bringing in new free software
>     supporters.

It's surely different. For instance, the anti-rms letter has been 
accused of being libel, while other kinds of criminal standards have 
been invoked in other cases.

For what it's worth, I hope that some day we can achieve the high 
standards of behaviour recommended by the GNU communication guidelines, 
hence I don't subscribe to any document which engages in personal 
attacks, whatever side it takes.
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/kind-communication.html

Best regards,
        Federico