Re: Code of Conduct and Foundation membership

["Lefty (石鏡 )" <lefty shugendo org>]

On 12/11/09 10:13 AM, "Les Harris" <lharris gnome org> wrote:
>
> His position as I understand
it is that it is bad publicity for the FOSS
> movement if such a public
facing venue like Planet GNOME is used to promote
> proprietary
software.

I have not noted "promotion" of proprietary software on Planet GNOME. Can
anyone point me to some instances of what's causing this great concern? For
that matter, has there actually been any call on Planet GNOME for the sort
of "rules" for which Mr. Stallman seems to See A Great Need? Dave Neary's
message seems to suggest that there simply aren't any, either way.

For my part, I'd be as unhappy with a lot of postings "promoting" _any_
company's products, whether they were "proprietary" or "free". Commercial
sales pitches are inappropriate on Planet, in my view, whether the software
being peddled is "free software" or not. I strongly doubt, however, that we
need "rules" to deal with it, since it appears to be a complete
non-situation.

The Planet isn't for marketing, it's for getting a window into the lives of
other folks in the community, just as it says, and many of those lives
involve working with both free and proprietary software. That's a simple
fact, and to attempt to muzzle people on this basis is divisive to the
community and destructive to the Planet.

It's not for marketing a political agenda, either, in my view. The concern
seems to be utterly unfounded, and the need for "rules" is non-existent.

I would certainly appreciate any efforts Mr. Stallman might care to make to
communicate in a way that does away with the apparent need for third-party
hermeneutics of his utterances.