Re: [Dragora-users] FSF interview with Matías Fonzo

[Jing Luo]

I had been holding back myself not to dignify this with a response; but 
it seems that this person in the conversation does not share our 
principles and values at all. Unfortunately, to debunk disinformation, 
it requires 10 times the effort than to spread disinformation.

> Likely aggravated by the controversies sparked by the FSF every two 
> years or so

Not by FSF, by people like you who want free software to fail.

> I mainly see a forced fullscreen popup

You won't see the popup if you disable javascript.

> a permanent banner taking half of the page and 5 links

The banner is not permanent. Its height is 300 pixels, which does not 
take half of the page or the screen unless your screen resolution is 
800x600. FSF runs fundraising campaigns twice a year, so the banner is 
up twice a year, 2~3 weeks each time.

> All links include advertising campaign-based visitor click tracking, 
> akin to what a corporate would do.

This is not factual. Having a argument after the URI doesn't mean 
tracking; tracking is mainly done by cookies. Also, if you look at the 
javascript source code, which is libre, the popup window only shows up 
once a week, among other conditions that disable the popup. This is 
nothing like what corporations do.

> The FSF creates the illusion that their membership is equivalent to 
> sustaining all free software developers

This is also not factual.

> while the real usage of the donations remains opaque. They are stealing 
> your potential donors, giving back nothing tangible.

This is a lie.

> They are just exploiting the image of Dragora to attract more donors 
> for their personal profit

This is both a lie and an attack to FSF. "Personal profit"...do you 
realize how ridiculous you sound?

> most of those who visit that page will only donate to the FSF wrongly 
> thinking Dragora will receive part of the donation...

I seriously doubt this is the case.

> The FSF publicly accepts corporate patronage

FSF doesn't consider corporate patronage an ethical issue.

> FSF CORPORATE PATRONS
> Google LLC: 250000 $
> PIA Inc.: 200000 $
> IBM Corp.: 150000 $
> HP Inc.: 125000 $

Did you add the amount over a decade or did you just make them up? Where 
did you get those numbers?

> If that weren't sufficient, corporate sponsors who "donated" 50000 $ or 
> more were offered participation to the internal round tables on FSF 
> policy. In other words, the agenda of the FSF is already tainted by 
> those sponsors.

The page doesn't say _internal_ round table, you added the word 
_internal_. Also, correlation does not mean causation. You didn't prove 
that FSF's agenda is altered by any sponsors.

> Their fund management is totally opaque, hidden by generic terminology.

The fund management is not nearly as opaque as your words.

> Their financial statements are very hard to spot

...which is strange because I easily found it here [1] under "Press 
Information"[2]. If you have a problem, suggest a fix to FSF.

[1] https://www.fsf.org/about/financial
[2] https://www.fsf.org/press

> and do not indicate any direct payments or grants to free software 
> developers, with the exception of very few GNU projects managed by 
> their close friends.

Are you just fabricating stories now?

> What we know is that most free software developers don't get a single 
> penny.

The gross revenue of FSF in 2022 was about 1.3 million dollars, and 
there may be more than a million free software developers in the world. 
I myself am fine being unpaid because people like Matías need it more. 
Have _you_ donated a single penny to any one of them?

> Please don't be silly, anyone can get an old computer or a virtual 
> machine for a few dollars and have it managed by hyped kids thinking 
> they're saving the world.

I see that you are very comfortable exploiting people's labor, not 
paying or donating a single penny.

> Offering "visibility" and cheap shared hosting fully maintained by 
> young unpaid volunteers is a no-risk way to save the face while hiding 
> how the money is really used.

Besides the lies, you apparently have no idea how expensive hosting can 
be, and you don't know any of the volunteers.

> We users can only see the tracking codes and that the FSF started using 
> geolocation + browser fingerprinting.

Lies. You apparently have not read any piece of the code at all.

> Prominently like any advertising page, so more people can see those 
> invasive banners and popups.
> There Dragora is just exploited, nothing more.

Even more lies.

> The comments are about your decision, not only about the FSF. If you 
> aren't ready to accept the answers, don't post on a newsletter.

Well then, if you are not ready to get banned while attacking FSF and 
Dragora, don't post to a public mailing list.

> Make better and more honest alliances and people won't have any reason 
> to leave critical comments.

The comments you made are not critical comments but vicious attacks on 
the Dragora project and FSF. You are not our ally.

--
Jing Luo
About me: https://jing.rocks/about/
GPG Fingerprint: 4E09 8D19 00AA 3F72 1899 2614 09B3 316E 13A1 1EFC

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