Shamar @Shamar@qoto.org

@valere
@paolo

Mmm... weird:

@mwlucas

Just in case somebody need this to be said: it's the same with programming (which actually is writing).

@xj9

I just became #Google and I didn't know... 🤣

Crazy idea: a #GCC backend that produces #C code.

@khird

Roadmaps are not political goals.
They talk about what is going to happen to the software, not about what we are trying to achieve through the project.

While I have to admit I'd read carefully a RELIGION.txt to understand how a software is related to religious beliefs, I don't think it's the same.

#Software impacts #society in several ways, while it doesn't impact God, usually.

However there are notable exceptions such as #TempleOS that deserve all of our respect.

Anyway, as I said you are free to ignore the political goals of a project at your own risk, just like you can ignore the license or the code they write.

For example I purposedly ignore #CoC because I refuse to adopt an #US workplace like behavior in my #free time.
If forced to read them I look for ways to ridiculize them by violating their letter without violating their rational. So usually it's better for the project leaders to NOT try to impose me their #moralism.

Yet I do this at my own risk.

@khird

While you are obviously free to ignore a POLITICS.txt it's pretty obvious it's a rather short sighted decision, at least from a professional perspective.

For example you might build your software upon a library specifically designed to be broken, just to put shame on developers who don't give a shit about politics! 😉

Another example: suppose you want to integrate #Jehanne into a #Web application. I will refuse your pull request, no matter how many people want it and no matter its quality.

The fact is that when you decide to depend on my work, you decide to depend on my goals. Writing down my political goals I let you know what to expect. You are free to ignore it, but at your own risk.

@jump_spider

@jump_spider

You should write a POLITICS.txt as you would write an architectural description of the application.

There's no prescription in it as there's no way to enforce it on the receivers.

It's just a set of statements that the authors accept to be judged upon, something they will use to measure the political achievements of the project.

Imagine a crypto library: it could be a technical success AND a political failure, and the politics.txt exists to make it easy for everyone to verify this condition.

@freemo

@freemo @jump_spider

The POLITICS.TXT should be a short list of easy to verify #political goals of the #software itself.

It's not a general declaration of authors' ethical values or party's affiliation.

It should briefly describe how the software project is intended to chance the society, through clear and verifiable statements.

To be honest I'm not sure you can have a template for this.

For example this is the one of #Jehanne https://github.com/JehanneOS/jehanne/blob/master/POLITICS.md

The word #Politics has been chosen according to its actual meaning: Politics is the art of serving the "#Polis", the society at large (as it was conceived in ancient Greek cities).

Over centuries it has been turned into a game of Power and it's not by chance that today #money drive political movements: money sublimates power and allows its accumulation on large scale.

So today it's important to rediscover Politics as a practical activity with clear and measurable #social goals.

@ekaitz_zarraga @txusinho

Actually we have had a similar dynamic in #Italy: most of industrial investments have been in the northern part of the country with the centre and (much more) the southern Italy left behind (under the control of Mafia, 'Ndrangheta and other criminal organizations).

For decades we have had a political party (#LegaNord) that pretended to fight to get independence of the northern Italy, with an hate rhetoric directed at southern people.

Now it evolved to the #Lega which directed the #hate towards immigrants (poor ones, obviously... just poor ones..) but left any separatism and independentism behind.

Their actual selling point was: we are riches and our taxes are going to support people (and bureaucracies) who live at the south. Which technically was actually true, but even fair since, we are all Italians after all.

Our history teach that when a Nation builds a rich region hoping that it will drive up all the national economy, it will at the same time mining its own root.

The rich cannot really feel #solidarity.

____

NOTE: I don't know if it's the same with #Spain and its autonomies.

Thank you both for your perspectives.

@ekaitz_zarraga

ehm... I'm sorry...