Fucking awesome
Personally, I think that the discussion around this will evolve as the news spreads, but I agree with Robert on this one. Sure, X/Twitter has become a less welcoming place than before, but shutting out a significant portion of your community without seeking their input first isn’t a sensible move for such a foundational open source project.
Nah, I think I’m cool if Debian doesn’t respect the input of Nazi sympathisers.
Last time they seeked input they ignored it and shoved systemd anyway…
Yeah, that section is bad.
For one, it’s has classic vibe “if you want to keep the nazis out, you’re the one who’s exclusionary”.
But also, how is refusing to engage on a platform “shutting out a significant portion of [the] community”? That sounds backwards to me. Blocking people from engaging with Debian on its own platforms would be shutting them out. The implication in the article is that Debian is obligated to be unconditionally present on every social platform its users might be on.
The other twist is, unlike Xitter, you don’t have to create an account on Mastodon to be able to read their feed. You can access it like any other website. So nobody is getting shut out. They’re just posting elsewhere, where anyone can read it.
You don’t even have to go to the website. Every Mastodon feed can be accessed via RSS. You just have to add “.rss” to the end of the URL.
That’s a super neat trick actually. Why the heck has RSS been losing popularity when it seems to be the only magic protocol you really need to keep up with what you actually care about?
Oh I just answered my own question: It must be harder to hijack RSS with intrusive ads and clickbait…
Yeah what the fuck is with that.
It’s a very twitter centric view of the web. If you’re not on xitter you’re “shutting out a significant portion”.
The thing is, it’s not simply that Musk has an ideology that is disparate from my own, he has an agenda that is egregiously contrary to the stated values of the Debian project.
You’d consult with the community over a new logo or blog layout maybe, but on whether to assist Musk in his far right agenda there’s not really any decision to be made honestly.
Good job Debian.
Good riddance. Stop using Nazi platforms and join the fediverse instead.
When it forces you to log in to view stuff, it’s usefulness as a platform for announcements is substantially lessened.
I’d even say, the usefullness is fully gone.
So Wayland?
Came here to make this joke. Was an hour too late…
Care to explain?
The X Window System (aka X.Org or X11) has been the default window system in many distros. Recently there has been a new window system called Wayland, so the joke would be that Debian is dropping X11 and switching to Wayland.
shutting out a significant portion of your community without seeking their input first isn’t a sensible move for such a foundational open source project.
Ironic when X shuts out anyone who isn’t logged in and shuts out anyone who doesn’t pay for a blue checkmark from having visible replies.
Having an X account isn’t consequence-free - if it becomes where updates occur, people have to sign up for an account and subject themselves to nazis everywhere and all manner of crypto spam just to see updates. And they have to pay Elon tribute to be heard in response. It’s crazy that anyone sees it as being friendly to users.
Agreed. Notably, Bluesky doesn’t require an account to read posts.
Yet
Wild that so many are still hanging out at the Nazi bar
Yes, I’m sadly surprised by many open source projects still posting on that cesspool
The problem is for organizations it’s harder to leave because that is where the people you want to reach are. That’s the only reason any org or company is on social media in the first place. If they leave too soon they risk too many people not seeing the things they send out to the community.
It’s more an individual thing because so many people just have social inertia and haven’t left since everyone they know is already there. The first to leave have to decide if they want to juggle using another platform to keep connections or cut off connections by abandoning the established platform.
That doesn’t explain why they don’t start a transition by posting to both the new platform and the old. And not including links to their new account on their websites.
yeah, it’s so inconvenient to not directly support the nazi platform
My town’s subreddit just started a policy to disallow links to X for similar reasons.
There is a movement to avoid the platform.
shutting out a significant portion of your community without seeking their input first isn’t a sensible move for such a foundational open source project.
It actually is a perfectly sensible move, and it doesn’t “shut out” anyone. If anything, prioritizing twitter is what shuts users out. They linked to two-three alternatives. What’s the argument here, exactly, from the other side?
Good, now if only OpenSource devs switched from Discord to let’s say Matrix/XMPP
We’d be partying
go back to forums. Support in discord is awful. Discord is not as searchable as a forum public on the internet
I keep making the incorrect assumption that everyone has already left X. Just seems common sense we’ve hit all hands abandon ship
I still use it. For that which I engage, or who I engage with, it hasn’t changed for me. Almost 100% for metal bands. Tours, album releases. We have a pretty cool metal community going. People I’ve been speaking with for many years now.
Leaving a platform you don’t like, or the reasons you don’t like it, isn’t “common sense”.
The reasons (summarized using Copilot):
- The platform no longer aligns with Debian’s values, social contract, code of conduct, and diversity statement.
- Concerns over X becoming a place where people they care about don’t feel safe.
- Abuse on the platform happening without consequences.
- Issues with misinformation and lack of moderation.
bad bot
Did it make a mistake?
Doesn’t look like it… It’s ‘AI bad’.
Imagine being so fragile you can’t tolerate opposing viewpoints.
The “safety” thing is a bit hyperbolic. I wish they’d just say “the quality of the interactions is going down” or “poor moderation” or something else a little more honest.
Twitter is a shitty platform in structure, format, and moderation. I’m glad Debian’s not on it. But I am disappointed in them for using hyperbolic rhetoric.
Safe is a very broad term. Its not being used hyperbolically here. It’s not referring to physical safety.
