Re: Code of Conduct and Foundation membership

[Richard Stallman <rms gnu org>]

    That's where the cash for things like my FSF-E
    Fellowship, EFF membership, Creative Commons membership, etc., come from,
    see?

These are worthy causes, but I would not encourage anyone to use
non-free software even to get money to give to a worthy cause.

However, the issue here isn't about what you use or what I use, it's
about what GNOME should say to the world about proprietary software.

    The Planet is not "GNOME" and it is not an "advocacy" organ; it doesn't
    "advocate" anything,

Maybe it wasn't set up specificy for the purpose of advocacy, but it
is a major part of GNOME's face to the world.  What it says has have a
substantial effect on what people think GNOME is all about.  This
includes its implicit messages as well as explicit statements.

The communication of a statement is not limited to what it formally
states; the fact that it was made, and made in a certain place and
time, implies other meanings.  For instance, if you talk about
something and make no criticisms, people take that to mean you have no
strong disapproval of it.

I don't know how often proprietary software is mentioned favorably
there.  If the problem happens at intervals of years, maybe very
little response is needed.  Maybe the GNOME Board should respond by
posting a response when non-free software gets favorably mentioned.