On Sunday, April 12, 2020 11:51:27 AM PDT Russ Allbery wrote: > Ihor Antonov <ihor@antonovs.family> writes: > > And separately, I got interested in Debian because it was using mailing > > lists in the first place. Mail is decentralized by design and this is > > why it is so important for freedom of speech. > > I don't understand this comment. Mailing lists are inherently centralized > by design. > > > Now you suggest a centralized platform for communication, because it is > > easier to moderate (oppress freedom of speech). To me it sounds like: > > "Yes you can talk, but only if you do it on my terms, on my territory". > > Moderation is a slippery slope, using centralized communication platform > > is one step closer to dictatorship. > > The forum to which you sent this message is already moderated and has been > for months. I suspect you didn't even notice.
So how then you need more moderation possibilities with Discourse? > That said, I will argue that "yes, you can talk, but only if you do it on > my terms, on my territory" is a message that the Debian project should > send about its own communication channels. (Obviously people can go > create their own and that's no business of ours.) That's how we create a > community that can get things done together, rather than a 4chan > free-for-all full of abuse and trolling. > We should think carefully about both the terms and the territory and be > both gentle and understanding, but we will not successfully create a free > Linux distribution (the actual point, after all) within the noise of > complete freedom from consequences in communication. > > I don't believe Debian is or should be a welcoming home for people who > care more about the ability to say anything they want whenever they want > in project forums than about making a free software distribution together. > And yes, these two goals do sometimes come into conflict (although we can > try to minimize how often that happens). I do not advocate for free-for-all. It is just the ability to decide on who gets to say what should not be in the hands of a single person / small group, it is way to easy to get corrupted/biased/controlled. Coming from a corrupted-to-the-bone post USSR country I speak from personal experience of being on receiving end of that situation. You may think that it is for the best, but it is not. -- Ihor Antonov https://useplaintext.email
