Values that are too broad - Debian Project Leaves Twitter \ stacker news ~tech

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Values that are too broad - Debian Project Leaves Twitter

241 sats \ 11 comments \ @kepford 30 Jan tech

The Debian Publicity Team will no longer post on X/Twitter. We took this decision since we feel X doesn't reflect Debian shared values as stated in our social contract, code of conduct and diversity statement. X evolved into a place where people we care about don't feel safe.

A couple red flags in this post that explain their actions.

Shared values - projects that have broad values statements are prone to isolation over time
Social contract - that's a meaningless vapid term

I have no issue with code of conduct guidelines or having value statements but when you pick sides on cultural divides and things that are not at all related to the logical objective of a project you are going to end up where Debian has landed.

X has its issues, I'm not a fan but the reasoning behind this seems really off.

One Debian user responded with what I thought was a good summary of why this is a bad move.

I'm a long-time Debian user and fan, and am also one of the champions for using Debian in space-based applications at NASA.

IMO this is a short-sighted and foolish decision. The notion of "values" is bring sadly misapplied here.

I urge you to reconsider. More channels of communication, even with those whom you disagree with, is good for both Debian and your user community.

I'm not into the "anti-woke" or "woke" crap and I dare say most people that use Linux do not care about either side very much at all. A loud minority has been gaining power in these types of projects for a long time. Today we have very loud counters to that group that also can be annoying and out of line.

Will be interesting to watch this all unfold over the next few years. Conservatives seem to be running victory laps and I think that's not only premature but also counter-productive.

I can see leaving X for other reasons.

Debian users are really using it to communicate with the project
The Debian publicity team isn't seeing very much of a response for their efforts
X has become more about politics than tech and communication
Specific examples of how X is causing issues for the project

They do say this

X evolved into a place where people we care about don't feel safe.

That's too bad but honestly I don't buy it. Maybe I don't spend enough time on X to have much credibility on this but I'm skeptical of this being the case.

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67 sats \ 2 replies \ @itsrealfake 30 Jan

I feel for people who don't feel safe behind a computer screen. I hope they can learn to feel safe somehow.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @kepford OP 30 Jan

Indeed. I feel pity for these people. Has to be a terrible way to live.

2 sats \ 0 replies \ @Lumor 4h

Makes me think of Linus Torvalds' attitude until the last few years.

30 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford OP 30 Jan

I will push back on my own take here and say that I can understand why people no longer find value in Twitter. I find very little value in it these days and haven't really used it much since around 2015. It changed and I have much more interest in open protocols and decentralized networks like Nostr. But this isn't really what they are saying in their statement.

47 sats \ 4 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 30 Jan

I am a Debian user, through Ubuntu. I think this is probably a bad move, to cut communication lines with users, however, you can contact them directly if you have a problem with the OS or a suggestion. Again, with the feelz. When will people learn, ”Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me!”

On X, I only follow those whom I feel are worth following. I guess you could call that a silo, but I don’t have to read some of the nonsense that gets put out by the others I don’t read.

15 sats \ 3 replies \ @kepford OP 30 Jan

Silos are under rated

40 sats \ 2 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 30 Jan

Yes, they are very underrated. If you have a specific interest you can indulge in it as much as you please. However, it is good to get outside the silo, too. Nobody wants to be buried in a silo, though.

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @itsrealfake 2h

enter the multi-silo model

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 2h

Yes, do a little silo jumping if you can. It is sometimes hard to take though. There are so many humorless silos out and about.

5 sats \ 0 replies \ @jeguebra 31 Jan

they should use Nostr

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @krispy_donkey 31 Jan

I don't really understand this stuff, I have been using X/Twitter for a good 7 years or so now and it's been great. The list of people I follow is pretty curated and it's mostly tech and finance subject matter experts discussing raw data, who don't get political as a general rule, so I am rarely exposed to that side of things. Also after 20 years of this, when I do see something that is clearly inflammatory I just skip right past it be it a prank or someone pushing an angle on a political topic.

People have been speaking ill of Twitter since before Elon's Antics and I have never really understood it, for the most part the signal/noise ratio has been great. I think all these people feeling so strongly that they have to remove themselves from a platform or community says more about them that anything else. I hope Debian come back.