What an interesting discussion. The responses on lemmy are shocking, "He should know better" "Lesson learned for the author." etc.
For me, Free Software has always had at its core the idea of rising everyone up, not just the few privileged. If we want to do that, we need to do so in the town squares people live, not segregate ourselves off.
I am not saying we need to stand on soap boxes and preach, but we need to be seen.
Victim blaming doesn't move us forward.
The problem is that entering #Facebook and similar surveillance platform creates several bad side effects for everybody:
1) you legitimize it, while not being there AND being some sort of "tech-savy" makes people question their own dependence on it
2) with your presence, you increase the lock-in of everybody else through network effect
3) you let them monitor you AND the people who interact with you.
Also, if you want to be on Facebook to help people locked there, you should always be careful to never upload there contents that might attract people from the outside and instead only add links TO the outside, so that people can experience the rest of the Web.
But I would not say that "not being on Facebook" means being invisible: on the contrary it can makes you stand outside.
@mycroft@mastodon.social
These are choices we may not agree that others may make. I am not on Facebook, but am on Twitter, for example.
I may make other life choices you may not agree with, such as where I live, the religion I practice, the food I eat, the people I love, etc.
When the Free Software community dismisses people because they would not make the same choices, it belies a deep lack of empathy, of willingness to undertstand and a dogma that I take a hard line stance against.
It's not matter of dismissing anyone.
#Facebook (like #Google and many others) is both an addictive drug for each of its users and a toxic poison for their whole society.
People addicted to these platforms need help. But you cannot help them by becoming addicted yourself.
Arguing that Free Software is invisible if it's not there, is arguing that Free Software should legitimize these business models.
In fact, you are right: Open Source might well be more visible exactly because it serves those companies.
But while it might be more visible, it's useless in term of Freedom.
The only way a person or organization can fight the power and the oppression from these corporations is by refusing them all together.
You might, theoretically, be there to try getting people out. But you must be very careful to not attract people there instead. Not to mention the issue of not being manipulated yourself!
It's not easy at all and to be honest I don't know anyone who managed to do so, so far.
People can do whatever they want, but following them on these platform is not going to help anyone, but to further empower the platforms and enrich those who own them.
@mycroft@mastodon.social
