Unfortunately part of my original message was truncated so I will continue it here:
On Sunday, April 12, 2020 1:15:23 PM PDT Russ Allbery wrote: > > Coming from a corrupted-to-the-bone post USSR country I speak from > > personal experience of being on receiving end of that situation. You may > > think that it is for the best, but it is not. > > This is a common argument, but I find it entirely unpersuasive. > Censorship is highly concerning when done by a government because the > government can use force to prevent any other form of discussion except > the one the government controls. The idea that Debian could do this is > absurd. > > If moderation of Debian forums suppressed some problem that a lot of > people really cared about, there would be an explosion of discussion > elsewhere, huge uptake of the discussion in other places over which Debian > has no control (LWN, for instance), and alternative forums being > repurposed or newly created all over the place. > This is a community full of people entirely capable of setting up a new > mailing list or forum on the fly in an afternoon. Debian doesn't have a > monopoly on the press, or any realistic ability to suppress discussions. > We couldn't be more unlike a government. > > It's sadly common for people who want to fight about something on project > forums to claim that they're being censored and unable to get their > message out. It's also quite dubious. People love controversy and free > software developers tend to be a suspicious and anti-establishment lot. > Actual controversies with even a hint of credibility spread like wildfire. > If no one is willing to pick up on a controversy and amplify it, it's > worth considering the possibility that's because everyone who looked at it > seriously has decided it's bullshit. While I agree that there are usability aspects of email driven workflow that are far from being perfect, Discourse, as well as any other web browser focused solution is a step in wrong direction. I much more like what https://sourcehut.org is doing. They are working on improving email workflows without forcing users into web browsers and I think this is something we should do to. Thanks -- Ihor Antonov https://useplaintext.email
