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Re: New antifeature: Political messaging


From: Yuchen Pei
Subject: Re: New antifeature: Political messaging
Date: Wed, 04 Aug 2021 20:36:13 +1000
User-agent: mu4e 1.4.13; emacs 27.2


David Hedlund <public@beloved.name> writes:

I added a "Political messaging" antifeature label here
https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory:Antifeatures#Political_messaging

I don't think this is a good idea.

The free software movement itself is political, so is the preamble of GPL.


Let us know if you find a political messaging GNU/Linux software, so we
can label it "Political messaging".

On 2021-08-03 20:23, Lorenzo L. Ancora via wrote:
The easter eggs were a bit questionable at times, but Notepad++ is
still free software whether you agree with them or not.

I'll proceed and write down some of the jokes you are - I suppose
unknowingly - referring to:

* "If you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you, its yours forever. If it doesn't, you hunt that bitch down and kill her."

* "I'm not saying I hate her. I just hope she gets fingered by
wolverine."

* "The reason women will never be the ones to propose is because as
soon as she gets on her knees, he will start unzipping."

...and I also explained in the previous emails what I saw.

Free software should have a place in the Free Software Directory.

...and the word "should" is key. You wrote "should", not "must", because you know allowing Notepad++ has the potential of compromising your future, since this software has officially become a political tool, thus by linking to it you'll be forced into a political stance
against certain "hot" countries.

If one day China or another aggressive country decides to not only censor Notepad++ but also all websites that link to it, your current decision would cut off millions of end users from the FSD and the FSF. In addition, you likely don't want to attract the attention of a government which isn't an ally of your country, because that would also mean that your users/staff would end under surveillance too in
case something negative happens.

As a curiosity, did you know that China has a database to track the online communications of many Italian citizens, even people who never
went to China once? If they do that with Italians, I have the
goosebumps in thinking of what they do with the citizens of the new
continent.

If I were in you (and of course I could never be), I would be careful
in keeping the FSF out of politics and scandals of any kind.
So, I suggest to extend your wise words a bit:

> Free software should have a place in the Free Software > Directory as long as it is not a PUP/PUA, malware or developed for political motives.

Maybe nothing bad will ever happen, but why increase the odds? :-)

Il 03/08/21 15:34, Michael McMahon ha scritto:
The easter eggs were a bit questionable at times, but Notepad++ is
still free software whether you agree with them or not.

Free software should have a place in the Free Software Directory.

Best,
Michael McMahon | Web Developer, Free Software Foundation
GPG Key: 4337 2794 C8AD D5CA 8FCF  FA6C D037 59DA B600 E3C0
https://fsf.org | https://gnu.org

On 8/3/21 4:32 AM, Lorenzo L. Ancora via wrote:
While Notepad++ is one of the best editors for Windows coders, its developer is infamous for his (very) questionable "Easter Eggs" hidden in the software from time to time and for the insecurity of
his distribution channels.
From time to time I have to use Windows and I remember that one morning I executed that editor to take some notes and I got scared
when suddenly it started typing by itself a message. Standard
routine: disconnect the RJ, immediately reboot in recovery, run AV scans, ... but, soon after, I discovered it was a weird joke from the developer. I've read that after that he kept hiding political and sexual "jokes" into the code and, given one day he pretended to be hacked and after that he was really hacked by Islamic terrorist groups and he's also involved in political stuff, I decided to steer away because I thought "today its a jumpscare, tomorrow will be
ransomware".
A few months ago, China blocked Notepad++ after he inserted a
political message directly in the release name - message which I
personally support and find right - but that created a severe
disservice to end users. Very unprofessional.

Il 02/08/21 22:27, David Hedlund ha scritto:
Notepad++ is notable: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notepad%2B%2B




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