2011/7/6 Henry Jensen
<address@hidden>
Hello,
If it occurs at the forum of a FSDG compliant distro that now and then
non-free software is mentioned, how do you handle this?
Here at BLAG, we have a non-free forum. But noone uses it (in fact, the forum is not that much used), and I doubt of its usefulness
The question came to my mind because of
http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Free_System_Distribution_Checklist#Only_Suggests_Free_Software
IMO, redirect the user to some free solutions would be the best way, and maybe remind the user the purpose of a free linux distro.
Deleting the posts would be censorship and I think this would be not
good.
Non-free software "should be discouraged if someone brings them up."
All right, but in case of many new users or a high-traffic forum a
small team wouldn't be able to discourage every reference to non-free
software because of their limited resources.
What we did on another forum was having a "pre-made" text explaining the purpose of the forum that we posted on every topic of persons that didn't understand it. We can adapt it for free software : something like making a wiki page (or even a full wiki) about all the free alternatives to proprietary software, a list of working hardware with linux-libre and only post this link (with a little comment) on the concerned post. I know that some sites already exist about this, maybe centralizing it would be a good idea
What about references of NON-FSDG software? Let's say if someone would
post instructions how to install a Linux kernel with included blobs or
any other software mentioned on
http://libreplanet.org/wiki/List_of_software_that_does_not_respect_the_Free_System_Distribution_Guidelines?
In this case, simply redirect to this link.
I can imagine that there is a situation where such posts are overseen by a small team.
Henry