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Facebook Joins the Rust Foundation

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Re: Facebook Joins the Rust Foundation

#91
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does bring up something we don't always like to think about, which is that by contributing to the progression of very general technologies we often empower people/organizations who are doing things that may be bad for the world. But I'm not sure what there is to be done about that, and it isn't limited to Rust (or Facebook for that matter), and I don't think this event really makes that state of affairs worse in a…

Roads enable bank robbers to get away from the crime scene but nobody thinks that's a reason not to have roads.

[deleted]

Re: Facebook Joins the Rust Foundation

#94
post #24
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The kinds of things that Facebook most often receives flak for would be difficult to pursue though the layer of indirection that is sponsoring a foundation dedicated to the Rust programming language. Similarly, since Facebook isn't a software vendor, the kinds of things that you might achieve by securing undue influence within the Rust Foundation don't really benefit them.

But what's in it for Facebook then? They're spending real money, there's got to be something for them to benefit from?

faster ads compiled from rust to webassembly. it's heading in that direction.

Re: Facebook Joins the Rust Foundation

#95
I'm sad to announce that I fucking called it on the day of the Rust foundation's formation [0].

Say what you want, but the problem here is that you don't need to give board seats to those who have tons of cash, rather instead have them sponsor it, like how the R foundation has done.

Facebook essentially bought a board seat to drive and prioritise which features they want in the development of Rust.

The wolf eats the same grass as the sheep and gets praise for it.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26124316

Re: Facebook Joins the Rust Foundation

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook contributes a ton to the Linux and Python communities as well, by this logic you shouldn’t use either. Thinking that infrastructure engineers have direct influence over the product is wrong. Instead they work at Facebook because it is a good means to being paid lots of money to contribute to open source. Btw, getting out of us vs. them mentality will form a healthier community and result in more positive cha…

> You can call Facebook on shit without generalizing against the employees who work there. I disagree. It's this behavior and lack of disinfectant (sunlight) that allows companies to get away with the amount of crimes against humanity they do. Saying "Tech" isn't political, or "I'm just an engineer somebody else is in charge" is how horror happens.

I never said "Tech" isn't political, or that "I'm just an engineer somebody else is in charge". Both are true and we best take time to think of the moral implications of our work.

What I am saying, is that you should not generalize people just because they worked or currently work at a big tech company. This is as much a cognitive bias as thinking a company like Facebook only does good.

You have no clue why they work there, what they work on, or who they are.

Re: Facebook Joins the Rust Foundation

#97

I'm sad to announce that I fucking called it on the day of the Rust foundation's formation [0]. Say what you want, but the problem here is that you don't need to give board seats to those who have tons of cash, rather instead have them sponsor it, like how the R foundation has done. Facebook essentially bought a board seat to drive and prioritise which features they want in the development of Rust. The wolf eats the…

> to drive and prioritise which features they want in the development of Rust.

The foundation is not involved in feature development, so this doesn't make a ton of sense.

Re: Facebook Joins the Rust Foundation

#98

I'm sad to announce that I fucking called it on the day of the Rust foundation's formation [0]. Say what you want, but the problem here is that you don't need to give board seats to those who have tons of cash, rather instead have them sponsor it, like how the R foundation has done. Facebook essentially bought a board seat to drive and prioritise which features they want in the development of Rust. The wolf eats the…

> to drive and prioritise which features they want in the development of Rust. The foundation is not involved in feature development, so this doesn't make a ton of sense.

what does a platinum seat get you then?

it doesn't make sense to spend a ton of money on a seat and not do anything. I am sure facebook has other motives than paying engineers to work on rust.

a regular sponsorship would have a been more enough in this case.

Re: Facebook Joins the Rust Foundation

#99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> to drive and prioritise which features they want in the development of Rust. The foundation is not involved in feature development, so this doesn't make a ton of sense.

what does a platinum seat get you then? it doesn't make sense to spend a ton of money on a seat and not do anything. I am sure facebook has other motives than paying engineers to work on rust. a regular sponsorship would have a been more enough in this case.

To be clear, I am not a part of the foundation. You can read about it yourself on https://foundation.rust-lang.org/ (with the bylaws being at https://foundation.rust-lang.org/policies/bylaws/ )

The foundation's stated mission is to steward the intellectual property of the Rust project, and assist it and its maintainers. That often means things like "paying for legal support" and "paying for CI" and such.

The Rust project is the thing that's existed for years, and makes all of the decisions about what happens to Rust technically. The foundation has no position in that hierarchy, and sponsoring the foundation does not get you a seat on the teams that accept RFCs.

> a regular sponsorship would have a been more enough in this case.

I'm not sure what distinction you're drawing here between "regular" and not. Maybe that they would only want a lower tier sponsorship? I don't know, you'd have to ask them.

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