My biggest problem with e-books is DRM. Except for shops that give you the document with full ownership, no other e-book is in accordance with the rights of users and violates the ownership of individuals on their own property. I explained about DRM before so I’m not going to talk about it again.
Continue readingDon’t like me, please!
One thing I don’t understand is people’s behavior in social media. First of all, when did we start calling social networking sites and apps “social media”? Like, that’s not media I’m active on. Of course I share media but that’s a network rather than media. yeah I get it all of these are media but still, nevermind.
I have a lot of problems with this social networks. I mean I’m OK with sitting in a cafe and suddenly a person comes and talks to me then somebody else mentions a thing and we make a social group. No matter that’s temporary or permanent, that’s nice. However, what I see in online social networks, say like Twitter, is misery.
People’s interactions are now boosting (retweeting) and liking comments. Everywhere we sit there are people taking photos from their food and rating restaurants and checking-in in squares. In most fun places, we see sad, tired, sick, and dead (not physically) people looking at their phones being active in their so-called social media not having fun but pretending.
I have a lot of problems. When did we start needing followers? When following people became a thing? I follow a bunch of people that’s not basically bad but what I have problem with is needing and craving for followers. What I don’t understand is showing a relationship or endorsement or likes by following people.
I don’t need my friends following me. If one of my friends unfollows me, I wouldn’t break my friendship with that person. I understand how simple it is. If a person doesn’t like what I’m saying or sharing, that person should be able to stop interacting with me.
Since when do we need followers? How a number on our profile online shows our personality or whether we’re good or bad or right or wrong? How can we be hurt by having less followers than others? Why we need to have less following than followers to have dignity or self confidence?
Another thing I have problem with is liking. Why there’s no social network that doesn’t have a like button? Why we can’t simply agree or disagree by talking? I would really appreciate if someone comments on my blog post and tells me that that person disagrees.
How liking a post shows agreement? I never like any post on social networks because I hate it. I hate showing my interest by clicking on a button. What’s wrong with mentioning people and talking? What happened to people being able to respond?
There are social networks that let you disable commenting; why there’s not social networks that lets you disable liking? Talk to me. If you do like it, write it down and tell your reason. Even write your own experience and story about it. I hate getting likes. I hate getting boosted. What I like is to see you write your own experience about stuff I said.
No. I’m not interested in you because you had more followers than following or your toots (tweets in Mastodon) get hundreds of likes and boosts. I’m following you and I’m interested in you because you have experienced life and career and a lot of other things and I found them interesting.
Another thing I have problem is messaging apps. Since when WhatsApp and Telegram and Signal became our standard messaging system? What happened to emailing people? Why are you giving me you Telegram phone number instead of a professional or personal email address? Why do I have to install an app to be able to communicate with people?
Back in the days, we did everything with our emails. Even for planning stuff. We weren’t scheduling a party or a meeting on a group chat on a messaging app, we would create a mailing list, private or public, and discuss it there and everybody were happy.
Another thing I have problem with is having social profiles instead of a website or a weblog. Now everybody has a Twitter or Mastodon or Facebook. Even those who have websites just put links to their social networking profiles. You open their website and it’s like here’s my Twitter, here’s my GitHub, here’s my Instagram, don’t bother me, bye.
What’s wrong with people? I miss those days when it was fun to open a personal webpage of somebody and surf it. I miss those days that we would create special pages for stuff. People were enjoying their lives before social networks. We would take pictures of our trip and even if we wanted to share them, we would create a post or a page.
Now everybody has a Medium account. Even our weblogs are now in social networking sites. Social network for photos, social network for statuses, social networks for code, social network for weblogs, social network if you read a book.
Why we don’t read books? The hell happened to reading books? Now we get every information from BBC or Fox News for retarded people or CNN for those who believe Biden really likes them. When did we stop reading books or going to a library? I’m OK with reading news, I read news, but that’s not where you learn stuff. You learn by reading and experimenting.
Another thing I have problem with is talking. Why we can’t talk to each other anymore? Why people think me not agreeing with their view means that I have a personal issue with them? I don’t even know you and you have no impact on my life. I do care if you’re violated or abused or hurt because you’re a human being but those are serious stuff.
Why are you boosting/retweeting stuff you don’t agree and make more people see that? Why can’t we comment or mention stuff like normal human beings. What’s different on online social networks than non-digital networks? Why people get offended or hurt because we don’t agree with them?
Me telling you that your belief about flat earth is stupid, is because your belief about flat earth is stupid. I don’t care if you were graduated from Harvard or you employ 300 people. And I don’t have any personal issue with you whatsoever. Let’s say if you get hurt and some random other person gets hurt, I would do everything I can for both of you equally.
Lots of problems. Why do people share everything? Getting on the plane, getting off the plane. Going to a party, coming back from a party. Eating food, going out, having a date, taking a shower, having a new job, quitting a job. People share everything. Have a little privacy. I don’t care if you’re hungry, get some food instead of writing about it.
Another thing that I have problem with is craving for acceptance and being right. Why can’t we apologize? Why can’t we be wrong? I’ve been wrong in many things in my life, so were you. What happened to accepting our mistakes and moving on to fix them? Why do we argue when we know we’re wrong? Nobody ever said oh that person just apologized that guy has no dignity. have you ever heard such stupid thing?
Accept your mistakes. Don’t block people because they proved you wrong and you didn’t want to be seen as a person who has mistakes. You’re not a god. Everybody makes mistakes and you’re not an exception. Accept your mistakes so we know you’re reasonable human being.
Emotional decisions are mostly destructive
While ago, I wrote about how freedom of thought is more important than free software itself. I also mentioned that people should move forward step by step with patience.
Hasty and thoughtless decisions often have a devastating effect on that work. Specially when it comes to free software, many people get excited about new tools they see. They see logic in our conversations and, unfortunately, they want to make quick changes without addressing the principles.
Free software movement is heavily focused on principles of it. There is no software that can violate or give us freedom by itself. It’s people who violate the essential freedoms and/or make a free software. When a software, for whatever reason, fails to respect and comply with the four essential freedoms, it is called nonfree and proprietary software.
Now, if people understand the concept of software freedom and believe in the philosophy of the movement, we see less of these violations and a better community. Emotional and hurried decisions, most of the times, lead us to regret. I’ve seen many people who decided to stop using proprietary software and privacy-violating services and they regretted it after a while.
Most of the times it’s because they were unable to repeat the experience they had with proprietary programs they used to use. Every time a person decides to join us in the free software movement, I tell that person to be patient. I ask people to first study about the movement and try to understand every principle of software freedom and also free (as in freedom) culture.
Software freedom is more about principles of freedom and people/users’ rights than the software itself.
Separation vs Segregation
People should understand the differences between separation and segregation. Many people are against segregation. A lot of times, separation is a good practice. For example, separation of criminals from other people is good.
If a black person commits a crime, it would not be wrong to separate that person from other people; that’s not racism, that’s punishment for society’s safety. Same goes when a white person commits a crime. Separation is not a bad thing.
Separation is the act of disuniting two or more things, or the condition of being separated. Separation is based on decisions and wills.
However, what we are against is segregation. Segregation is racist. Segregation is a system of institutionalized discrimination. Segregation is forced on people not because of their acts but because of their nature.
I believe criminals, thieves, abusers, etc. should be separated from other human beings, for a specific period of time, of course. I believe dictators, racists, fascists, Nazis, and many others that I can’t recall now should be segregated.
Let’s campaign for our (digital) rights
For many years, campaigning was the only option we had to defend our rights. Even today, when we want to raise our voice to show what we want, we campaign for or against stuff. For example, FSF is now campaigning against using proprietary software for education and wants schools to use free software instead, to protect students and defend their digital rights.
Well not every time we campaigned for something, we succeeded but at least many people heard our voice and started learning about what we said. Campaigning is still very important for advocacy. Individuals like me, can do nothing without the power of society joined together for a common interest.
In today’s world, many of our rights are being violated. Even those who believe that are supporting us sometimes do stuff we don’t expect at all. The 16th anniversary of OpenStreetMap was celebrated at an online Zoom conference. We know for a fact that Zoom has serious problems over security and is a proprietary software.
Now, as a user of OSM, if I protest against it, nothing would happen as I would be considered an individual who doesn’t like Zoom. But if we campaign against it, the anniversary holders will realize that what we’re talking about is a matter of public interest of OSM users.
Joining the campaigns that defend our rights is very important. In many ways, campaigning is the only way that can support our belief and rights. For example, while ago, ICANN was giving the .org registry control to a private firm, which EFF campaigned against. The results were great. ICANN canceled it because it realized that people are highly disappointed. Now, PIR (Public Internet Registry which is a nonproft) is still in control of .org domain extension.
Now, our problem is that many people don’t participate in a campaign because they see a large group of people were already joined. We should know that no number is considered enough when we campaign. The amount of people who join the campaign shows the power of that statement people are campaigning for.
Sadly, many people don’t bother to take few minutes and signing a campaign which they know is for their own benefit. It is very wrong. As I said, more people joining the campaign, more power the campaign gains to defend its goal.
Please join the campaigns that defend your rights because they are not worthless. In fact, they did a lot of things for our own good and they are still powerful to defend us. Campaigning is still important and useful in many ways. Let’s campaign for our rights again.
Why do you have children?
I see some people ask others “why don’t you have children?” and I believe it’s a stupid question. Not having any children should not be asked about. In fact, what should we ask people is “why do you have children?”
We need license for many things, such as driving. However, having children does not require anything. Having children is a big and important responsibility and not everyone should be allowed to have children. Those who do not have children, in my opinion, have done their social and human duty better than others.
I believe people with no children realize how important and serious this responsibility is. Not having children should not be questioned; it’s having children that should be criticized.
With current problems in the world, having children in many cases is cruelty to that child and should be considered selfishness. We give birth to children, but we don’t own them. Raising them good is our responsibility and duty. They’re not our properties, so we can’t treat them anyway we want.
If they are oppressed in any way, whether physical or emotional, we are guilty. If they are dissatisfied with the situation they are in, we are responsible. I’m not against breeding at all, what I’m against is giving birth to children without being prepared for the responsibilities.
I also believe nobody should be forced to have children nor be forced to not having children. I believe we should spread knowledge and information about it. Forcing people to not having children is not acceptable at all, just like how forcing people to have children is wrong.
Freedom of thought is more important that freedom of software
It’s been quite some time that I’m active in promoting software freedom and free culture movement. In all these years that I’ve been active, I saw many people that use free software because they are excited about it. They are trying something new (for them) and they are interested in finding every aspect of it.
However, when I talk about software freedom to somebody and that person decides to immediately delete his Google (and other proprietary) accounts, services, and programs, I ask for patience and tell that person to not hurry. I tell those who make emotional and hurried decisions not to move fast and to move forward step by step with patience.
I believe, freedom of thought is much more important than using free software.
A free-thinking person makes decisions not out of temporary feelings but out of study and awareness. That person weighs the consequences of each action and chooses tools not on the basis of emotion, but on the basis of its long-term impact on himself and society.
A free-thinking person cares about free software because that person is deeply aware of his rights and responsibilities.
Instant decisions often lead to short-term use and boredom, while informing people and giving freedom of thought to people leads to the right choice and development of software and culture freedom movement.
Attracting new contributors and free software enthusiasts
As the number of computer users is growing, the need for free software is being felt more than ever. We see new services every day and free software developers are trying to make their programs look more like the proprietary ones, in order to make sure nobody is forced to use any proprietary software because of the user interface or possible features.
Some foundations such as FSF and EFF are trying their best to spread knowledge about people’s digital rights. However, getting people to avoid proprietary software and only using free programs is not an easy job to do.
We need more than possibility of using free software to get people respecting their computer freedom and rights. There should be benefits for people in using free software. For example, whenever I ask people to leave Google services and use free (as in freedom) tools such as Nextcloud, I tell them how more efficient and useful Nextcloud is comparing to proprietary services such as Google.
Another example is telling them how tech giants are violating their privacy and those corporations control people by controlling the flow of information people get. I tell them how using free software benefits them and gives them back their control over their digital and non-digital life by giving them back their rights.
Another thing which can attract people is that I treat them with respect. I tell them they have rights over what’s theirs and I answer their questions with patience. Unlike most proprietary software companies that treat people as “customers” or “money machines”, I try to treat people with kindness and patience. This way, they understand that free software is more humane. GNU Kind Communications Guidelines can be a good document regarding this.
Another thing that I always have in mind is to teach people how freedom of software can lead us to a free society. I teach them how their rights is being violated every day and how governments are benefiting tech giants instead of people. For example, I tell people how governments spend millions of people’s taxes in buying license of Microsoft Windows when they can use GNU+Linux for free.
Many times, I try to teach people about about their privacy and security. I teach them how free software is generally more secure than proprietary software because we can study and/or change it while proprietary software forces us to use them as is, without any ability to actually know how it works. I teach them how using free software can free them from being a digital slave.
Finally, I teach companies and projects/individuals about how they can make money from their project by publishing it under a free (as in freedom) license and receive help from a large community to make their program better and more efficient, so they can attract more people into buying it. I teach them how they can benefit from the free software communities worldwide and how they can be mutually beneficial.
I teach people how free software generally costs less than proprietary software and how free software projects are more economical for them.
Enough tea is better than energy drinks
Aside
I think getting enough tea helps more to stay awake than coffee or energy drinks. Maybe it’s only me but I get a lot more focused and awakened with tea.
A journalist’s job
Quote
If someone says to you it’s raining outside and someone else says to you it’s not raining outside, your job is not to say “person A says it’s raining, person B says it’s not raining.” Your job is to open the fucking window and find out if it’s raining outside.
Mehdi Hasan