[plug] Sobering read on the reality of open source software development

Yuchen Pei ycp at gnu.org
Wed Mar 23 06:31:19 AWST 2022


On Tue 2022-03-22 07:12:29 +0800, Onno Benschop wrote:

> Hi Yuchen,
>
> My point around those platforms was around my content being used to
> advertise to others. Their search indices integrate my content, as they do for
> all content they hoover up.
>
> With that, they then present "relevant advertising" to people who search for
> things that I'm answering with my content.
>
> I see none of that revenue, neither does anyone else.
>
> Not to mention, Google maps and reviews where my updates and reviews helps
> everyone else, but I don't see a dime.

I see.

Have you thought of leaving these platforms?

Both google and facebook are proprietary surveillance machines, and
there are free (as in freedom) alternatives to twitter and github, like
mastodon, sourcehut, codeberg.

There won't be direct income either, but at least you don't get
exploited by companies making money over your work through proprietary
software and surveillance capitalism.

Best,
Yuchen

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