I’m done cross-posting @elementary to Twitter. I really hoped it would get better, but with the latest news of Elon promoting Ron DeSantis’ presidential run, I’m done. It’s become a far-right social network no different from Parlor or Truth Social and I won’t be a part of it.
I guess It’s my turn to echo what other trans people in the Linux space have been saying: if all you care about is the software, you still need to care about trans people. An attack on trans rights is an attack on desktop Linux. Several of the major things you probably care about and use every day are made or maintained by trans people. Even if you only care about the software, you still need to care about what happens to the people who make it. We need you to show up.
I don’t do this lightly. I’ve really been hanging on hoping Twitter would get better. I think dropping Facebook caused a major drop in revenue and dropping Twitter is going to cause a major drop as well. I’m leaving behind nearly 50K followers. I really hope I still have a job honestly.
@danirabbit Big hugs. I left 20K followers in the #rstats world behind over there when I made the same call a while back. It’s scary. I hope folks are supportive. ❤️
@danirabbit with your skills, you really shouldn’t have an issue finding a job if it comes to that (and I really hope it doesn’t). I think I’ve heard you say that you aren’t sure you could have a “regular” job (was“again” in there?). I know I’ve been looking around at open source-first firms to try and find something (which… not many are hiring full-time devs). I really do hope everything works out for you and elementary. But Twitter needs to be dropped, as it is a cesspool now
@danirabbit yup. 💩's fucked up. I'm thinking of deactivating my account on the birdsite just because I don't want to give even a cent of ad revenue to these cretins
Not only do we support wading penguins, daemons and grey beards. Not only Androids, Chrome and Clouds but more ...
The offline :ablobcatwave:
The disconnected :vulcan_hmn_g1:
The udder other :paganverify:
We are all transitioning. All cliques. All surplus genders :blobDab:
My python, bashscript or BASIC assembler does not have a gender, race, religion or seance when it dies or is rebitten ... :QueerCat_Trans:
We the script kidders are no match for the hardy coders. The power napp. The blind WatchMam :raspberrypi:
We the addminis of the protected future are FREE at point of Mx and Miss Use. The bran stem. The rough nicks. The pirate treasures. 🦞 🏴☠️ :blobthanks:
Bee there or Buzz in a square box to soil returns ... :blobcatghostdead:
@danirabbit May I just go slightly further and say: if you only care about the software, fuck you, you privileged piece of shit, you ARE the fucking problem.
@SusanHR Yes that would be nice but I’m directly responding to a lot of voices right now that are saying we’re bringing politics into things and they want to remain apolitical and trying to point out that there is no way to remain apolitical here
@danirabbit@elementary I left twitter last year, after 14 years. It was the only social network that I still bothered to access, but I could not participate in anything related to musk.
Later I was surprised to see that twitter was not relevant for me.
@danirabbit@elementary I had cancelled my Twitter account before Musk purchased the platform, because of the reason you cited, just too many vile angry nut-jobs. Life really is too short!
@danirabbit@elementary The amount of vile people who are hostile against Trans folk on Linux space is still staggering. More Linux dev should speak up against these Fascist leech within Linux community especially on Twitter. We shouldn't want them to benefited by something they inherently against.
@danirabbit@elementary Have you considered a newsletter? And there's nothing wrong with pushing a bit harder for donations in your posts or even a little in the OS!
I have noticed Thunderbird is doing very well with engaging new users and donors lately, maybe it's worth looking at what they're doing?
I keep using Laura Kidd as an example, she got her self-published album into the UK Top 20 Albums Chart this year (and #1 UK Album Download), mostly driven by her email newsletter to 10,000 subscribers: https://penfriend.rocks/
@danirabbit I don't do subscriptions (I've been burned hard by Patreon & subscription software), but I can pay something upfront. Hope that's better than nothing. You deserve something for taking a stand today.
(That, and Elementary is the only Linux I get on with. Beautiful, clean, intuitive, native, it's like Elementary is the only distro that cares about the user experience. Hope I can break free of Win/Mac and make Elementary my daily driver soon.)
The Elementary Blog is great too with your monthly posts. Maybe that could be emailed out when you make posts to it? I'm just thinking that you want to push hard to get Elementary in the minds of people, frequently and repeatedly whenever you can.
And charities push hard on the "You need to help or we're not going to make it" angle, because it does tend to work (just something I've noticed, working in the Not-For-Profit sector, online fundraising events are popular too). I notice the Elementary site and blog don't do a very hard sell on sponsorships. You're allowed to!
@ianmclean it’s so wild to hear you say this because I’ve heard nonstop for the last decade that we push way too hard and are greedy and money grubbing etc and gotten tons of hate comments for asking for money at all 😅
@danirabbit No way, if anything I think you're far too modest!
Most people just don't understand what pays for the software they use, but hey, anyone who gives you stick about asking for donations was never going to be the type that would help out anyway.
I think you're totally in your rights to regularly remind users, "We don't sell your data, we don't spy on you, we don't nickel-and-dime you, we don't have big corporate sponsors. If you don't donate, we can't survive."
Personally, I feel quite guilty when I remember there's so much software I'm relying on every day, and I'm just quietly helping myself to it. I'm sure there's lots of people like me around.
Add comment