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   翠星石 (suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com)'s status on Sunday, 29-Sep-2024 20:35:15 JST 翠星石

   in reply to

   • asie
   @asie I have pledged to carry out a GNU/Jihad against all forms of proprietary software, including "FOSS", but I assume you actually mean free software.
   
   A user who doesn't pay or contribute are not a cost - as an extra person running a copy of software does not cause any kind of wear to the software - they are simply users who you are helping, some of which who will choose to help you.
   
   No free license allows a developer to "kick out those who annoy you", although any free software developer is to not take messages or ignore such from people who annoy them.
   
   A fork under a free license that states that it is not the original is never hostile.
   • Embed this notice
     asie (asie@mk.asie.pl)'s status on Sunday, 29-Sep-2024 20:35:17 JST asie

     In "things that are true, but he shouldn't say it": for any given FOSS project, users who don't pay or contribute are technically a cost, so kicking out those who annoy you is a form of savings. Catering to non-contributing users is a form of volunteering, an act of charity on behalf of the developer.
     
     As such, I'm not surprised a lot of projects kick or block people liberally, at the slightest whiff of annoyance. I think people treat too many FOSS projects as if they were companies which stand to lose something significant if their PR suffers even a minor hit.
     
     In the end, "fork it if you don't like it" and similar sentiments are not an insult, they're a challenge. Some accepted this challenge and were even successful! If you're unhappy with a project, try making a hostile fork and see how far you get - I mean it.