Re: Renaming

[bill-auger]

On Sun, 11 Apr 2021 01:17:47 -0400 Richard wrote:
> I proposed a more general convenion:
> to always refer to a site by a domain name
> and always refer to a program with a program name?

agreed 


On Fri, 9 Apr 2021 09:10:12 +0200 Tristan wrote:
> 1) Not every hosted service offers their software for self-hosting, so
> there is no point in trying to make a distinction in these cases.

frankly IMHO, the best conclusion to draw from that, is to not
mention them at all


On Fri, 9 Apr 2021 09:10:12 +0200 Tristan wrote:
> 2) Referring to a service by a name other than the one that is usually
> used will make it harder for people to discover our information about
> it when searching the web.  (That is, depending on the search engine, a
> search for "GitLab" might not rank our page as highly,

this is a single web page though, which includes all hosts - it
is not likely to get _any_ significant search engine ranking for
such a short search term

IMHO, there is more potential for confusion, to refer to website
by a generic name; because the criteria are almost exclusively
related to the service admins, and not the software - the name
of the software is quite irrelevant as a reference to
proprietary network services - one is _always_ referring to the
services offered by that specific host, and can say nothing about
the software running on the server

i think it is far more important for there to be a new list for
the self-hosting software itself, in which case the naming
distinction is not only more appropriate, but essential


On Fri, 9 Apr 2021 09:10:12 +0200 Tristan wrote:
> I think it is better to list the services using the names by which they
> are most commonly known, and to add a conspicuous note (in the
> introduction to the whole list and/or in the individual entries, but
> only where applicable) that our evaluations do not necessarily apply
> to self-hosted versions.

if people commonly refer to specific instances of free software
by a generic name (such as "gitlab"); that is a confusion, which
is harmful to the software freedom movement, dismissive of other
equivalent instances (and the value of self-hosting), and should
not be perpetuated - in the same vein as the list of "words to
avoid", it is as inappropriate and pretentious as referring to
web searches as: "googling"

it is already common for someone to ask "does your project have
a github?" (as if that one website were the only way to publish
source code, or to accept bug reports) - this is a bad habit,
which people should break out of

if there were an analogous list of self-hosting options, i could
agree with the proposal to add a clear note, such as:

  "these criteria are not related to the software which these
   hosts are running"

_and_ i would add to that:

  "note, that you and your users have zero software freedom
   while using _any_ these websites; therefore, GNU can not
   sincerely recommend any of them - you should consider
   self-hosting instead, and consider this list as a last resort
   - see _this_list_ of self-hosting options, for criteria
   related to forge software"