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Trump’s new social media platform found using Mastodon code

blog.joinmastodon.org

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Re: Trump’s new social media platform found using Mastodon code

#331

Post by [deleted] »

porbelm wrote: post #295
serial_dev wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But isn't it exactly what they say? Like "hey, I wish they didn't use Mastodon, but there's a license and they can use our software if they want to and they comply with the license"? Or did I misunderstand this? Their only issue in the article is that they don't comply with the license. I believe the "personal feelings" paragraph was added so that they explain to some people that they don't want to/cannot prevent the…

Yeah I don't get why people don't understand the sentence or the point of it. "[...] people so antithetical to our values" implies that the values of Mastodon are the opposite of the people using the code. I.E. since everyone knows the Trump people are racist, homophobic, and misogynist pieces of shit, the Mastodon company values are to be the opposite of that.

[deleted]

Re: Trump’s new social media platform found using Mastodon code

#332

Post by cabalamat »

jlangenauer wrote: post #152
roenxi wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If all software was licensed that way, 5-15 years would pass then suddenly there'd be a whole bunch of "Wow, Stallman was right again! We should have been using free software licenses!" style articles. Restricting software use to only people approved by the creators is a terrible idea. Society has to operate with some level of trust that even people we disagree with, using methods we don't approve of, have the potent…

Why? The creators created the software, they can put any conditions they please on how others might use it. They're under no moral or legal obligation to allow people to use the fruits of their labors, except as they permit.

> The creators created the software, they can put any conditions they please on how others might use it.

Indeed so, they have that right.

I personally wouldn't consider using code licensed like this, because even if I 100% agreed with the CoC and Steering Committee, both might change over time (the CoC says "We expect the Code of Conduct to be a living document") and I have no idea who'll be on the Steering Committee in 5-10 years time, and whoever it is will be able to pull the rug from under my feet at a whim.

Re: Trump’s new social media platform found using Mastodon code

#333

Post by adventured »

zaik wrote: post #182
kreeben wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that looking upon him as The One Who's Name We Shall Not Speak and effectively killing him on the internet will lead to him becoming a martyr among his supporters. Considering his diverse support from a number of different grass root and/or radical movements, I would say it could backfire on you, hard. We've seen what powers he bestows. These will increase with martyrdom.

Fading into insignificance does not make him a martyr.

Trump isn't fading into insignificance at all. He still overwhelmingly dominantes the right half of US politics. The social media ban has made Trump look much better than he otherwise would have had he remained on social media and been blathering this entire time. Big tech did him a favor with the ban. And meanwhile Biden's mainstream media poll numbers have collapsed (which is to say his real numbers are even worse). He's one of the least popular presidents in the past century thus far. It's setting the stage for Trump to make a legitimate run at the presidency in 2024 if he so chooses. Biden won't be competent to run in 2024 and Harris can't beat Trump. The tactic of hiding Biden, which worked very well in terms of letting Trump punch himself out, is no longer working now that he's president and being held to a different expectation; instead, it's tanking his numbers because he's viewed as a mediocre leader.

Re: Trump’s new social media platform found using Mastodon code

#335

Post by long_time_gone »

jrootabega wrote: post #53
furyg3 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just as Truth Social can use Mastodon's source code to spread lies and hate as long as they comply with the license, so can Mastodon use their own blog to disprove of Truth Social... as long as they enforce the license. Their statement does not detract from their action.

I think it makes people believe they will enforce the license unevenly to satisfy their personal feelings about who is using it, as well as add an unwritten "these kinds of people are are not allowed to use our software" clause to their license.

If that happens you would have a point, until then you are preemptively playing victim.

Re: Trump’s new social media platform found using Mastodon code

#336

Post by ddaalluu2 »

wizzwizz4 wrote: post #125
ddaalluu1 wrote: post #3

I wondered how he could've developed a social network in such a short time frame. I wouldn't be surprised if that was true, given his track record l.

It's not that hard to develop a “social network”; it's basically just a web front-end to a database. The hard part is making it good, but if you have enough humans working behind the scenes, that can come later.

Obviously developing a social network that is production ready and scales isn't done in 3 months. So what's your point?

Re: Trump’s new social media platform found using Mastodon code

#337

Post by jamincan »

cblconfederate wrote: post #187
monooso wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They should have tried to get them license compliant That's precisely what Mastodon is trying to do. In fact, that's _all_ they're trying to do, as the article made clear.

> of course we would prefer if people so antithetical to our values did not use and benefit from our labour it is clear that they are not interested in coopting them

You scrubbed the entire meaning from the sentencing by removing the context. They are saying that despite the conflict of values, principles of free software mean that the network is free to use their code provided they comply with the license. The previous paragraph makes clear the reasons why, and improvements to upstream software is a key one.

> We pride ourselves on providing software that allows anyone to run their own social media platform independent of big tech, but the condition upon which we release our work for free in the first place is the idea that, as we give to the platform operators, so do the platform operators give back to us by providing their improvements for us and everyone to see. But that doesn’t only benefit us as the developers – it benefits the people that use these platforms as it gives them insight into the functionality of the platforms that manage their data and gives them the ability to walk away and start their own.

Re: Trump’s new social media platform found using Mastodon code

#338

Post by rsynnott »

usui wrote: post #46
jrootabega wrote: post #30

> As far as personal feelings are concerned, of course we would prefer if people so antithetical to our values did not use and benefit from our labour And sensible people would prefer that license violations would be published and pursued fairly, and personal feelings kept personal, rather than creating a soft list of people and perspectives whose online/computing freedom is less important than others.

Is there an example of a software with a license with more overt political views being directly stated in the agreement ? I'm NOT saying that it's wrong to have personal views, or to make a statement about what Mastodon feels about Trump's Truth Social, but I am curious if there is software in wide-use with something like "No anti-vaxxers". So far the most ideology-enforcing licenses I know are mainly about the battl…

Notoriously, JSLint, which can only be used for evil if you happen to be IBM: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Crockford#%22Good,_not...

Re: Trump’s new social media platform found using Mastodon code

#339

Post by Jiro »

Robin_Message wrote: post #302
fvdessen wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everyone is free to use the software. [...] The rest of your reply disagrees with your first sentence. It seems that only the people who share ml5.js values are allowed to use the software. There's no problem with that, but they should be clear about it. They should also state clearly that ml5.js is not free or open source software, as its license violates the first principle of Free Software: > The freedom to run…

> The rest of your reply disagrees with your first sentence. It seems that only the people who share ml5.js values are allowed to use the software. Any can use the software only for purposes in line with ml5.js values . So everyone is free to use the software, just not for all the purposes that any particular person might choose. It's something like a bar with a "no racist language" sign: anyone can use the bar, they…

The things that people can do inside a bar are sufficiently limited that they will not normally impinge on their beliefs, so a good comparison is hard. It would be something like "you are not permitted to use this bar for the purpose of buying a drink to relax after a hard day developing nuclear weapons." This would be a pretty terrible thing for a bar to do and I would easily condemn it, even though it is merely "the rules".

Re: Trump’s new social media platform found using Mastodon code

#340

Post by [deleted] »

geewee wrote: post #146
roenxi wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If all software was licensed that way, 5-15 years would pass then suddenly there'd be a whole bunch of "Wow, Stallman was right again! We should have been using free software licenses!" style articles. Restricting software use to only people approved by the creators is a terrible idea. Society has to operate with some level of trust that even people we disagree with, using methods we don't approve of, have the potent…

Why? In what world does using software to marginalize people or mislead the public create a better world?

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