> StackOverflow is nothing at all like Facebook. Relating them this way is > absurd.
There are similarities and differences. [StackOverlow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stack_Overflow) (Alexa rank 43) is a part of [Stack Exchange Inc](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stack_Exchange) (a for-profit corporation which operates several other commercial sites). Stack* and Facebook are both very big, and both make money through tracking and ads. The major difference is the target audience and content structure. Stack* is already [heavily criticized](https://www.google.com/search?q=stack%28exchange%7Coverflow%29+sucks) for having a very rigid moderation / censorship system. > StackOverflow isn't evil at all. I was using the colloquial relative term "lesser evil". I am not against for-profit corporations, but it is in the user's self-interest to weigh the benefits and drawbacks compared to self-hosting an open and decentralized alternative. > It's not subservient to any government. Everyone is entangled with and subservient to [government](http://stackexchange.com/legal/terms-of-service/usg) \- it's just a matter of degree... Facebook has been [banned by the gov't of China](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_Facebook) \- the [world's largest](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_\(PPP\)) and [increasingly dominant](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_past_and_projected_GDP_\(PPP\)) economy - something I'm sure its shareholders are pretty unhappy about. StackExchange is [not banned in China *yet*](https://www.quora.com/Is-Stack-Overflow-banned-in-China-If-so-why), but it could be as many technologies (ex. Bitcoin, BitTorrent, BitMessage, IPFS, Tor, etc) pose an inherent danger to government power. It is thus in their business interest to censor anything that could get them banned, to share data with governments, etc. This concern is directly related to Nim. If its community is subject to a [chilling effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilling_effect) when dealing with libraries, projects, and technologies that Powers That Be don't like, then Nim is at a disadvantage. > The centralization of StackOverflow is good for getting answers to > programming questions, which is what it's for. If Stack* offers some special advantages I've failed to consider, then this is the argument you should focus on to keep this discussion constructive. I think that people who are smart enough to use Nim should also be smart enough to go to the appropriate Web-site. Does this forum offer too steep a learning curve? Then perhaps it should be made better rather than partially replaced by a proprietary site. This forum can integrate with lots of third party sites (ex. via OpenID) without becoming dependent on them. The bridge between Gitter and IRC with an [open log bot](http://irclogs.nim-lang.org) is a great example of this. > You really should consider not injecting your cockamamie political ideology > into this forum. Reminder of context: * I was not off-topic. This thread got pivoted to discussion of preferred communication methods by Araq himself before I got here. People were discussing the relative merits of asking and answering questions via IRC, this forum (examples of open platforms), GitHub / Gitter, and StackOverflow (examples of closed platforms). * Ultimately this is Araq's decision - I am just presenting my input that I hope will be glanced at in this consideration for the good of the project. * I am not pushing a bizarre, obscure, or overly zealous ideology here. On this very thread, Michal had mentioned refusing to join GitHub, Twitter, and Facebook before I got here - lots of people would prefer not to become addicted to proprietary platforms just to get a Nim question answered. * I am a pragmatist. Note for example that I've never brought up replacing GitHub with self-hosted [Fossil](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_\(software\)) \- that would be a freer solution, but simply too inconvenient for others. And I've "given Facebook a chance" for the past few years, and was the #1 Nim promoter there, with my typical Nim-related post (with much effort given to writing and graphics) getting thousands of impressions on various programming groups. But it got worse and worse over time... * This is not the first time jibal has pounced on me for offering my opinion in a constructive on-topic discussion. On the ["please, can we stop the spams"](http://forum.nim-lang.org/t/2675/2) thread, I was making a point about tying people's accounts to their record of free code contribution accomplishments, including a quote from [esr](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_S._Raymond) \- by all accounts a significant figure in the history of FLOSS. In that instance, I had decided "not to take the bait" and just ignored what he said. I am not here to debate general political issues, and I have never used this forum to discuss anything that isn't directly related to Nim, Nim advocacy, and the Nim developer community. * Nim is struggling to find a niche in the marketplace filled with [hundreds of more popular programming languages](http://tiobe.com/tiobe-index/), many of which are backed by multi-billion-dollar proprietary ecosystems. The fact that Nim is a grass-roots free software project with a [very permissively-licensed package ecosystem](http://libman.org/img/bak/20160926-lice-Nim-vs-Lua.png) is a perfectly valid advocacy point for Nim, and quite possibly one of its strongest. Avoiding over-reliance on proprietary platforms would further emphasize this strength.
