On 09/12/2016 11:43 AM, Serge Hooge wrote: >> On the one hand, I've never experienced the Free software community as >> caring very much about corporate correctness (I say corporate because >> this is a far cry from political correctness), which for some people >> can be very refreshing. Some of us got really fed up with Windows and >> looked for other options, and then found GNU and the philolophy >> around Free software. > > Definitely. > > My main point is that limiting sarcasm in a place of discussion is > nothing short of censorship. And censorship on a mailing list with the > word "libre" in it sound ludicrous to me. North Korea reportedly banned > sarcasm not long ago, last I heard. > > A public mailing list, to me, is a place for discussion and discussion > requires expressing opinions. Anyone should be free to express opinions > regardless of somebody's personal agreement or understanding of such an > opinion. > > If it's the clarity of discussion people are so afraid about, then what > happened to politely asking and getting a polite response back? There > is no shame in doing so. > If it's language or culture, well, you'll end up learning something. > English is far from my first language and I certainly didn't end up > learning it by telling everyone to speak easy English because I *might* > end up not understanding it. > >> On the other hand, I understand that it would perhaps be necessary to >> see companies stop using proprietary software. > > A lot of them already see the benefits from their business standpoint > and contribute. The Linux kernel and Firefox are very good examples of > that. > > In the end, most of the contributors to one company's free software > project will be their employees and bugtrackers, on the other hand, are > places of business and not so much places of discussion. I can > understand pushing for clarity there. > > I haven't seen corporations that liberated their software projects get > heavily involved with the actual community. Any company is driven > mainly by profits and free software must be appealing to them from a > business standpoint first and foremost. > > Perhaps if they see their company names "tarnished" they will wonder > why and try and get their name back. Because as of right now, I > don't think they deserve them. And if they are not willing to actually > stand for free software, then I don't see how they would fit into the > community in the first place. > >> What kind of support? Given that many of us do all this stuff for >> free, I think hackers and helpers should get some "support" ($) in >> return from companies (not individuals). Perhaps this could be part >> of the move toward providing an easy way to donate to developers. (As >> for tech support, anyone can build a regular business around that.) >> >> Thoughts anyone? > > I absolutely agree. After all, this *was* the original topic of > discussion. > > Cheers, >
Serge, I concur. I am not exactly sure why it wandered off track like that, but now we've come full circle :)