An open letter to GitHub from the maintainers of open source projects • Hacker News Board

Re: An open letter to GitHub from the maintainers of open source projects

#81

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Dec 07, 2019, 4:27 AM UTC

ergothus wrote: post #46

013a wrote: post #4

These open source projects certainly love the very high quality, free services Github offers them, until they start learning how the sausage is made. ICE has done, and continues to do some terrible things. Horrible, horrible things; all legal things, but nonetheless horrible. But, frankly, if its legal, I am much less comfortable with Github's users subverting the US legal system by backdooring their moral code into…

> But, frankly, if its legal, I am much less comfortable with Github's users subverting the US legal system by backdooring their moral code into products these legal entities rely on I don't follow this logic. If it's legal, we should not take moral stances in our actions outside of political actions? Doesn't the concept of "voting with your wallet" expressly involve taking moral stances in ALL actions? Sure, the ope…

[deleted]

Re: An open letter to GitHub from the maintainers of open source projects

#82

Post by 013a » Sat, Dec 07, 2019, 4:43 AM UTC

ergothus wrote: post #46

013a wrote: post #4

These open source projects certainly love the very high quality, free services Github offers them, until they start learning how the sausage is made. ICE has done, and continues to do some terrible things. Horrible, horrible things; all legal things, but nonetheless horrible. But, frankly, if its legal, I am much less comfortable with Github's users subverting the US legal system by backdooring their moral code into…

> But, frankly, if its legal, I am much less comfortable with Github's users subverting the US legal system by backdooring their moral code into products these legal entities rely on I don't follow this logic. If it's legal, we should not take moral stances in our actions outside of political actions? Doesn't the concept of "voting with your wallet" expressly involve taking moral stances in ALL actions? Sure, the ope…

They're threatening a boycott. They're not actually boycotting.

I'll start paying attention when they actually start deleting repositories. That's also when Github will start paying attention; they've gotten enough warning.

But no one will actually do that, because everyone who signed this but still has a community and a repository on Github is a coward. They love all the free stuff, and they'd love for Github to just do whatever they tell them to do, but without any of that icky hard work like migrating a community to someone with more aligned morals.

Prove me wrong. Delete your account, NOW. Please. Prove me wrong. No one will. Because all anyone ever does is whine; no one acts. Its so easy to sign your name and complain; its hard to actually Act.

Re: An open letter to GitHub from the maintainers of open source projects

#83

Post by NullPrefix » Sat, Dec 07, 2019, 12:36 PM UTC

DuskStar wrote: post #79

NullPrefix wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but I'm not sure spending significant amounts of time investigating organizations and adjudicating the results and deciding You don't need to do any of that, just wait and let the angry mob tell you who to not do business with.

If I know that the angry mob can cut off my usage of $company at any time, and that I'm in an industry that could plausibly be the target of an angry mob... I'm probably going to avoid using $company in the first place if there are any alternatives.

Is there are reason why an angry mob could be ... angry at some company for ties with you? /s

Re: An open letter to GitHub from the maintainers of open source projects

#84

Post by 013a » Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 1:46 AM UTC

burkaman wrote: post #38

ianai wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would strongly suggest people take their political concerns to the appropriate channels - write your representatives, be active in local town council meetings, stay informed on things that civic duty requires in the US (which is expensive, btw!), and vote. It might seem pointless, but all of those things do actually matter and have measurable impacts. Your representatives do actually listen to you if you vote for o…

Are you saying that if you see somebody doing something wrong, asking them to stop is an "inappropriate channel"?

If you see someone doing something which you believe to be wrong, but the law suggests is right, asking them to stop absolutely is an inappropriate channel.

But Companies are not People. So this is a dumb metaphor.