On 08.01.2013 22:31, Rovastar wrote: > Nearly every site now has twitter, facebook, google plus, youtube channel, > etc links. We have these social media outlets lets tell people about them. [...] > I cannot see any harm in this it would take up very little screen real > estate and I think look a more professional cohesive community.
In my opinion, the most important reason to avoid implementing this is not the screen space cost, but that it would be off-putting to those in our community who feel that centralized platforms like Facebook are incompatible with the spirit of an open, diverse and neutral web. Of course that is an ideological point of view, and many even in the OSM community no doubt do not share it. However, I would be wary to brush aside ideology completely: We rely on very similar ideals when we compare ourselves to competitors. Look at Google Map Maker - just like Facebook, it relies on users' contributions and offers certain free services in return, but is ultimately limited in its potential to whatever fits the agenda of its owner. I don't mind if people use their favourite social networks to advocate OSM. However, a front page placement is more than that. It would imply an endorsement of that service to an extent (until now, the only companies mentioned on the front page are ones which directly support the OSM community). It would also give special treatment to that small number of commercial services and neglect all the alternatives. Personally, I want to help OSM to overcome Google Map's dominance for pretty much the same reasons why I reject Facebook. So, please, do not advertise Facebook, Google Plus, or any similar networks on the OSM front page. Tobias _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
