On 22/10/2019 23:24, Lori Nagel wrote: > > It is time to move past the controversies and discuss the real issues, > the issue of how to be more effective as free software advocates. > Traditionally, various organizations advocating for social change have > broken various social rules as part of advocating for social change.
This is very true. FSFE's founder, Georg Greve, was quoted[1]: "The Fellowship is an activity of FSFE, and indeed one of the primary ways to get involved in the organisation. It is a place for community action, collaboration, communication, fun, and recruitment that also helps fund the other activities of FSFE, for example, the political work." What is "community action"? For me, after FSFE decided to abolish elections, forking the mailing list was a legitimate and proportionate form of community action. A few people unsubscribed but the vast majority remain interested in hearing the points of view that other communities censor. It is interesting to note that FSFE keeps giving people condescending messages about how being a member of FSFE e.V. is not important for volunteers, the e.V and the bank account are just some little legal constructs in the corner that nobody needs to know about. But when the mailing list was forked, they squeal like stuck pigs and insist that FSFE e.V. owns the list. They can't have it both ways. I'm happy to expose their hypocrisy. > Internet communities have their own social rules about what is allowed > to be discussed, and what is off-topic or banned. If one person joins a > community and starts trolling it, they often in the best case get > ignored, and in the worst case just get banned. If in fact the FSFE annual meeting minutes were produced by one of the trolls then it is very well done, if there are awards for trolling maybe they should be nominated. > People go to various forums and communities to get help when proprietary > software has let them down. Other people use proprietary software and > are talking about about why they think it is good or useful. Free > software activists should go into the enemy territory and post messages > about why xyz piece of proprietary software is bad. They should do so in > groups going into the same community so that it isn’t just one lone > voice who is a troll. Non-technical users do not have to settle for DRM > or take it when a proprietary software company takes their software and > community out from under them. Many people hate these things but take it > with some kind of acceptance, like it is a fact of life like eating or > breathing air. It is not and the proprietary software industry does not > have to exist. > I'd like to promote another approach: people can simply become better at positively promoting free software. One of the things I've done over the last few years is joining a Toastmasters club. The Toastmasters system is very effective and also provides people with good skills for working together. That is much better than the snake oil being promoted by people in various "Community" teams, where they put on uniforms and run around tasering people. Regards, Daniel 1. https://blogs.fsfe.org/fellowship-interviews/?p=27 _______________________________________________ Discussion mailing list [email protected] https://lists.fsfellowship.eu/mailman/listinfo/discussion
