Re: Passive resistance [was: Re: Announcing GNOME's official GitHub mirror]

[Shaun McCance <shaunm gnome org>]

On Fri, 2013-08-16 at 11:36 -0400, Jasper St. Pierre wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 16, 2013 at 11:10 AM, Shaun McCance <shaunm gnome org>
> wrote:
>         On Fri, 2013-08-16 at 10:17 -0400, Jasper St. Pierre wrote:
>         >
>         > There's possibly a discussion to have about whether GNOME
>         should use
>         > proprietary services for outreach, but GitHub isn't really
>         anything
>         > new here. In my opinion, if you feel strongly about the use
>         of
>         > proprietary services for outreach, perhaps GNOME isn't the
>         greatest
>         > fit for you.
>         
>         
>         What a terrible thing to say. If you disagree with some
>         decisions, then
>         you don't belong here? There's no room for diversity of
>         opinion in our
>         community? That doesn't sound like the GNOME I joined ten
>         years ago.
>
>
> I'm not trying to say you can't disagree with GNOME's decisions or
> talk about them, just that the way I see it, I don't see things
> changing.
>
> From what I've seen over the years, I think we're more accepting of
> proprietary services. We introduced GNOME Online Accounts for
> integration with Gmail, Facebook, Windows Live and Twitter. We're
> discussing pulling user avatars from services like Gravatar. We're
> actively marketing through services like Twitter.
>
>
>
> If you're not happy with that, we can certainly bring it up to the
> board and talk about it, but from how I see things, I don't think
> we'll remove GNOME Online Accounts integration or stop our Twitter
> marketing campaigns. So, I'm saying that if you're not happy with
> those directions, I think GNOME may not be the best place for you.

It still sounds dismissive and unwelcoming to me, like telling a US
resident he should move to Canada if he disagrees with some current
US policies.

We are a diverse community. On the whole, the GNOME project values
freedom. But that value manifests in many different ways. People
should feel welcome to contribute, to be members of the community,
and to try to sway others' opinions on issues like this.

As for bringing these issues to the board, to my recollection the
board never discussed whether we ought to use these services or
integrate them into GOA, at least in the last two years. Sometimes
the board discussed legality with respect to terms of service, but
that's a largely separate issue.

--
Shaun