It seems a lot of pundits don't like popular chat platforms and don't want free software projects' communication to end up siloed behind one.
Drew DeVault wrote in 2015 to the effect: Please stop using Slack for open-source communities. It's non-free, bloated software, and joining just to read can be a hassle. Use IRC instead and provide a bouncer, pastebin, and file drop to members of your community. 1/4
https://drewdevault.com/2015/11/01/Please-stop-using-slack.html
Dave Cheney went further in 2017: Please stop using chat in general for open-source communities. Even a free protocol like IRC, XMPP, or Matrix disadvantages people with a full-time job and people in less-privileged time zones. Use issue trackers, mailing lists, newsgroups, and other asynchronous forums instead. 2/4
https://dave.cheney.net/2017/04/11/why-slack-is-inappropriate-for-open-source-communications
#chat #timezones #slack #discord #irc #matrix #xmpp #forums #MailingLists #IssueTracker #BugTracker #FreeSoftware #OpenSource #FOSS
Matt Cengia agreed in 2023: Discord has most of the same problems as Slack, the sole permitted client has flashy distractions, searching history is difficult, and exporting history is infeasible. Describes pros and cons of several alternatives, including Slack, IRC, XMPP, Mattermost, Signal, Discourse, and issue trackers of GitHub and other forges. 3/4
https://blog.mattcen.com/2023/07/04/stop-using-discord-for-your-open-source-communities/
#chat #discord #slack #xmpp #matrix #discourse #IssueTracker #BugTracker #mattermost #signal #github
@Catwoman69y2k I've concluded that much of the "join xyz platform for updates" mentality comes from the one-two punch of both web browsers ditching RSS and Atom and Google ditching Google Reader.
Say a free software project maintainer writes a development blog. The audience may or may not already have an RSS reader installed. This means the project maintainer might feel responsible for recommending a reader application for all 7 major platforms (Windows, macOS, desktop Linux, iOS, Android, Chrome extension, Firefox extension). Otherwise, people will land on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_feed_aggregators and experience analysis paralysis.
I guess one disadvantage of protocols is that platforms have tended to do better at landing pages than protocols. Is there a page to which a blogger can refer visitors who have never used RSS before?
#RSS #DevBlog #RSSReader #AnalysisParalysis #GoogleReader #Atom #FOSS #ProtocolsNotPlatforms #LandingPage
@PinoBatch Yeah. Ill admit that I got pushed out from the very start of this process because I disliked the idea of social media profiles being a stand in for a website. Even ecommerce was being performed over mediums that create all sorts of obstacles for accountability (vs the old way of having business correspondants handled via email).
Over the years, I have tried to encourage/be encouraging towards any peers how express interest or desire to build their own webpage or otherwise go platform agnostic.
I think RSS had so much potential to be more widely adopted. To me (back then), setting up RSS was easy ... but if people had taken a more active approach to bridging the gap, I think RSS would have gotten the play that it deserved.
Damian Yerrick
Pixel Dunn
Kat the Leopardess
asie
Nova Storm