Philip:
On Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:20:50 -0600 Brian Cameron wrote:
Richard's suggestion that a "mild approach" may be appropriate does
not seem over-the-top to me. Perhaps a "mild approach" could be
something simple like a disclaimer on planet...
I don't think Richard is suggesting that as "mild approach" we should
"just" put such a disclaimer on the planet while still allowing planet
contributors to talk about proprietary software. Let's take a look at
one of Richard's quotes:
Richard is free to suggest what he thinks should be done, as are we all.
The GNOME Foundation is free to resolve this problem in the way that we
think makes the most sense, after discussion.
I think that, in general, most people in the GNOME community think
highly of free software and are interested in promoting it. I think
Richard has correctly highlighted the fact that the GNOME Planet could
better promote free software. Figuring out how to make GNOME Planet
better promote GNOME and free software is probably a better way to focus
on this problem.
On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 22:38:07 -0500 Richard Stallman wrote:
They should not do this, unless VmWare becomes free software. GNOME
should not provide proprietary software developers with a platform to
present non-free software as a good or legitimate thing.
This goes a lot further than the "mild approach" disclaimer that "some
information on planet may advertise non-free software, and we want to
make clear that GNOME does not endorse non-free software and instead
encourages people to consider free alternatives."
What Richard is asking for, is a "rule":
Just because Richard is asking for a rule does not mean that a rule is
the best way to solve the problem. That's why we are discussing. I am
also not in favor of any rules that have a negative impact on our
culture.
People can choose to have a tag on "english", which is what I did
because some people complained about my Dutch posts and this was
proposed by the planet maintainers as resolution.
But for example Lionel Dricot, a French speaking Belgian, told us in
this thread that he enjoys reading Reinhout's Dutch posts (Reinhout is
from the Netherlands) to practice his Dutch knowledge.
This is just to illustrate what going "full monty" on "gnome" tags will
have as impact. It would change the entire philosophy of the planet. The
same philosophy that made it a success would be changed into a cold one.
I'm against the proposal because the planet is doing just fine. Why is
that so hard for some people to accept?
I agree with you that trying to use tags to solve this problem is not
the best way to solve the problem, for the reasons you highlight.
However, since this problem seems to really happen only on rare
occasion, and since it does not seem that any non-free organizations
are really trying to use GNOME Planet to do any real advertising,
then perhaps a disclaimer link to highlight the GNOME community's stance
on the issue, and to provide educational links to people who want to
learn more about the importance of free software, would be a reasonable
improvement.
Brian
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