On Tue, Jan 17, 2023 at 5:24 PM <free...@nullvoid.me> wrote: Thank you for your mostly reasonable response :)
On January 17, 2023 11:01:39 PM UTC, Ian Clarke <i...@freenetproject.org> > wrote: > >I greatly appreciate the work you and the other maintainers have put into > >Fred, which is why I took the time to listen to your concerns over the > past > >18 months. > > Is the a public place to review these, or FMS posts I have missed? > They were one-on-one emails between Arne and myself, although I had assumed he would keep interested parties abreast of our conversation, at least at a high level. I didn't ask him to keep anything a secret. > >In my view and that of the board, Locutus is the best hope to achieve > >Freenet's mission, given everything I know in 2023. That's not to say that > >Locutus will replace Fred, it will not - because they serve different > >needs. But Fred is a 23-year-old codebase, and the world is very different > >from the world I saw when I started it, as is technology. > > > >I don't want conflict with you or the core maintainers, but the decision > >has been made. > > Being authoritarian, especially in secret tends to cause conflict. > There was no secrecy, Arne was the person I thought most likely to disagree and I sought his feedback starting 18 months ago. In the end, I was unpersuaded by his argument, but that doesn't make me an authoritarian. My job is to achieve the project's mission, I can't do that if everyone gets a veto, that would be an abdication of my responsibility. What I can do is hear people out, which is what I did with Arne. Perhaps it was an incorrect assumption that Arne would relay our discussions to other interested parties, in which case I apologize. >Fighting it is only going to consume time, resources, emotion, and > >attention that distracts from the goals that I know drive all of us. > > This is where I don't understand, and thus disagree. > Renaming Fred to Freenet Classic will take time and resources, as will > renaming Locutus to Freenet. It seems like a way to gather all the positive branding and support the > existing Freenet community has generated and built. Apologies to mutt users, but Freenet's mainstream brand recognition has been on an uninterrupted downward trajectory since 2004: [image: freenet-trend.png] I don't say this to disrespect Fred, but the value of "Freenet" as a brand is in the fact that it literally describes our mission better than any other name I've been able to come up with, the value is not in its current mainstream brand recognition - which is zero. > Would it not be better to also not confuse future users, they will > probably stumble on outdated references for years to come? This change > seems counterproductive with very limited benefit. I fail to see how > keeping Locutus as Locutus is more risky and less rewarding? > I don't think people are confused by the concept of a sequel, just look at Terminator 2 or Aliens. This is the same thing, just software not movies. The websites will mutually link to each other, so any confusion will be resolved rapidly upon visiting either website. Like I said, there is risk - but in my view, the risk of inaction is greater, and we may not have much more time in which to try. I need to give it my best shot. Ian. -- Ian Clarke Founder, The Freenet Project Email: i...@freenetproject.org
