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Open source ‘protestware’ harms Open Source

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Re: Open source ‘protestware’ harms Open Source

#341

Post by gruez »

542458 wrote: post #239
slig wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about countries buying oil and gas from them?

Yes, that is bad too. However, in some cases it is necessary to prevent people from freezing, so there is a balancing act. Note that fossil fuel dependency just became a much more common political discussion item in Europe.

While it's unreasonable to expect europeans to freeze to death to protect ukranians, I think there's a middle ground between "business as usual" and "protect ukraine at all costs" that's not being considered here. Specifically, turning the temperature down to 5-10°C and wearing a coat. I doubt you'll be freezing to death in those circumstances. Is there widespread effort by europeans to do this? If not, then the parent's is still mostly correct: europeans are not willing to endure slight discomfort to prevent "giving money to the Russian government which will be used to kill Ukrainians".

Re: Open source ‘protestware’ harms Open Source

#342

Post by gadders »

mrtranscendence wrote: post #316
gadders wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Is a single person going to be persuaded to support either cause by seeing this banner on a relatively niche JS library that reduces readability of its documentation? The purpose of the banner is not to convert anyone, the purpose is to demonstrate that the author of the package subscribes to the correct opinions.

This is a bad take. The purpose is, at least partially, that the author of the package subscribes to these opinions rather than others, sure. But this doesn't necessarily have anything to do with them being "right" or not. I don't get a lot of capital at Hacker News by saying that I support Black Lives Matter, but if I do so (and I'm doing so) does that mean I only want to display that I subscribe to the "correct" op…

I think the person concerned is taking zero personal risk by displaying a view that is backed up by 99% all of media (even if no 99% of all people).

If they had a banner saying "Trump 2024" or "The AZOV Battalion are Nazis" I might not agree with them, but at least they are taking some personal risk of cancellation.

Re: Open source ‘protestware’ harms Open Source

#343

Post by rauli_ »

seanw444 wrote: post #4

I just don't understand what the node-ipc dev was expecting when he did that. "Hm, maybe if I put malware into a community-trusted module that destroys files of people in a certain geopolitical region, the countless innocent citizens that are affected will realize what they did wrong! Wait, who am I actually targeting again?"

And he used third party service to do the geolocation, so that whoever maintains that could have caused significant damage by changing it to return fake responses.

Re: Open source ‘protestware’ harms Open Source

#344

Post by pbourke »

HideousKojima wrote: post #184
duxup wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Javascript developers have a whole different culture than the developer circles I like to frequent. Most Javascript developers I know are just writing code and that's what they're concerned with. Vocal voices on twitter or etc != most Javascript developers. I'd argue most vocal folks on forums or etc don't represent most developers of any given language.

Sure, just like most men aren't violent criminals but men are still statistically more likely to be violent criminals. The point is that JS devs seem (perhaps a proper statistical study will show otherwise) more likely per capita to shit up their ecosystem. There are several reasons contributing to this (the limited JS standard lib being a big one) but a major part of it really seems to be that JS devs are a differen…

> I've never seen controversies like this in the .NET/Nuget ecosystem

Some .NET ecosystem projects have put political messages on their documentation over the past couple of years.

Re: Open source ‘protestware’ harms Open Source

#345

Post by gadders »

KevinEldon wrote: post #237
ryanmarsh wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m ok with it as long as the maintainer is consistent and does it for “the current thing” every time. That means Sudan, Darfur, Iraq war, ISIS, Assad’s regime, etc… Heck why not even Florida after the “say gay” thing?

Sounds like an opportunity to create a Protest Current Thing as a Service.

NPC as a service.

Re: Open source ‘protestware’ harms Open Source

#346

Post by gruez »

lobocinza wrote: post #276
HideousKojima wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I meant exactly what I said, more men are violent criminals per capita than women. What you said is also true, but it's not what I meant.

They're equivalent, in this case.

They're both talking about the same phenomena and are technically correct, but the framing is different. Specifically, the latter wording tries to defuse blame on males.

Re: Open source ‘protestware’ harms Open Source

#347

Post by ltbarcly3 »

I think almost anything that makes corporations realize they are exposed to the whims of people contributing most of the labor to build their businesses is a good thing. They should be careful about what open source code they use, and more open to paying for support contracts or other contracts that provide some warranty of functionality. Right now they are freeloading, and THAT actually does hurt open source.

Re: Open source ‘protestware’ harms Open Source

#348

Post by Latty »

FredPret wrote: post #193
Latty wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vandalism can be a form of protest. Again, every protest ever has had people saying that the disruption to them is over the line. It draws attention and coverage to the issue. It forces people to listen. Protest has to be disruptive to the norm to achieve that, and there will always be people who don't like that. That's the point. As I say, I don't think this one is effective or proportional given the lack of control…

“Crime X can be a form of protest” “Every protest ever has had people saying that the disruption to them is over the line” So which crimes would not be acceptable in a protest? And if people will always complain about the line being crossed, does this mean there can be no line at all?

I don't think there is a clear-cut line, no. Context matters, and people will disagree about what is proportional or justified.

Clearly that doesn't mean all protest methods are always justified, and I even said I think that this is over the line given this particular set of circumstances, but I reject the premise that it would always be over the line.

Re: Open source ‘protestware’ harms Open Source

#349

Post by cameronfraser »

baryphonic wrote: post #262

To be honest, I'm annoyed by the benign protestware messages when they start to get in the way of using the software, particularly on mobile. I was looking at the isomorphic git documentation the other day, and noticed that their "#BlackLivesMatter #DefundThePolice" banner scrolls under the rest of the content, leaving this annoying gap that takes up screen real estate, especially in landscape mode on a phone.[0] Wha…

they're virtue signaling, not trying to create change

Re: Open source ‘protestware’ harms Open Source

#350

Post by cuteboy19 »

ekianjo wrote: post #47

> Instead of malware, a better approach to free expression would be to use messages in commit logs to send anti-propaganda messages and to issue trackers to share accurate news inside Russia of what is really happening in Ukraine at the hands of the Russian military, to cite two obvious possibilities How about not taking sides instead of acting like a kid believing one side is black and the other white with absolutel…

There are no "two sides" to imperialism.
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