On 25/07/17 14:56, Max Mehl wrote: > # Daniel Pocock [2017-07-25 14:37 +0200]: >> What is the value of 1000 new followers though? >> >> Are people actually switching to free software, or are the followers, >> shares and likes more like monopoly money which is never converted into >> anything tangible? > > It's a huge potential. Imagine you're giving a talk about Free Software > and suddenly 1000 people more come into the (surprisingly spacious) > room. Of course, 800 of them could just ignore what you say and watch > cat videos instead but you also have the chance of convincing everyone. > > Of course it is also worth talking in front of 20 people if they are > highly dedicated to what you talk about and contribute to your > activities (in this analogy, we do that on GNU Social or Diaspora). But > I wouldn't ignore the 1000 people if I can reach out them with > considerably low effort. > > And yes, just because a user is following us on Twitter this doesn't > mean that she'll instantly start using Free Software. But thanks to us, > now she may know that FS exists. It's a first step in educating the > public which we otherwise couldn't make. >
I remain concerned about defining the reason we want or need these followers and then measuring whether that objective is being met. To give another example: Greece's government successfully mobilized enough of their citizens to vote against a bailout in a referendum[1], but then the result of the referendum was simply ignored. Getting 1000 people in a room or 3,558,450 in a ballot box is potentially a lot of wasted effort if nothing actually changes. Regards, Daniel 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_bailout_referendum,_2015 _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list [email protected] https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion
