Charlotte 猫 Awoo Fide @confusedcharlot@awoo.space

"No, $software is fine, users just need to learn how to use it"

"That's a stupid feature, nobody should ever need that"

If you've spent any amount of time in FOSS circles, you've probably seen sentiments like that all over the place. Unfortunately, they're a big part of why dubious corporations (eg. Microsoft, Google, etc.) have been able to co-opt the FOSS community.

Why? Because regardless of what you, as a technical FOSS person, believe is "necessary"... users are not going to care about that. They have certain expectations from their software in terms of feature set and ease-of-use.

Either you meet those expectations, or users go elsewhere.

Now, "it's FOSS, it gives you freedom" can sway that decision *somewhat*, but it only gets you so far. Most people care more about getting their stuff done, than they care about (to them) abstract ideals of "freedom".

And because of that, you're setting yourself up to be vulnerable to corporate capture - because corporations can superficially *claim* to do FOSS, but provide an actually accessible user experience, and suddenly everybody flocks to the corporate thing.

And sure, corporate FOSS has real problems compared to community-run FOSS. But understanding that requires a degree of nuance that most people won't see, and that you frankly cannot expect from people for whom FOSS isn't their whole existence. It's specialized knowledge.

Which boils down to a very simple reality: either *you* provide the UX that users want, or a corporation will do it for you, and with none of the community governance and long-term sustainability. Those are the options.

A great example of this is systemd; yes, it has plenty of problems. But because of the widespread insistence in FOSS circles that "nobody needs more than SysVinit", everybody flocked to an actually usable alternative the moment it appeared, monolithic design and corporate governance be damned.

Don't be that person. Listen to users about their needs. Take complaints about UX and accessibility seriously. If you don't, then you're not helping FOSS; you're harming it.

federated lime line ?????

hey y'all

slow and steady we're getting there! thanks again for everyone support. you have all been trully amazing.

I come once again to beg for some attention. If you can spare just a little time to boost my post it would be of great help!

my bills are almost all due in the next few days. we're going grocery shopping today and I'll prolly have to spent all of the money I current have on me for groceries for the month.

I can work, it is just that I'm unable to do my main source of income since... two or so months and I have drained all of my reserves with bills + my father's monetary demands (you can check the thread/my profile for more info). I need to be in a good mental health space to do my job and the mounting stress haven't let me and I haven't had any demands for my side jobs stuff.

I can do tarot readings, pixel art, spreadsheets, game design consultancy, translations (en -> pt-br and vice-versa). If any of that interests you, just shoot me up a DM and we can work something out!

please help a trans black gal out >.<

any and every boost helps!

🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 45% of goal on Ko-fi! https://ko-fi.com/ardydo/goal?g=45

#mutualAid #transCrowdfund #mutualAidRequest #begpost
@mutualaid

Hi Mastodon it’s been a while, have some Skinner

Here's whats on my mind Mastodon, thanks for asking.

My new story is up at Booth Journal! Check it out! https://booth.butler.edu/2022/11/04/an-explosion-of-chekhovs-anguish/

Ever wanted an IP stack embedded into your app? With Tailscale's #tsnet library you can embed Tailscale right into your app! Find out how here: https://tailscale.com/blog/tsnet-virtual-private-services/

At this point, finding a man who can exit vi on the first try will be good enough 😜

Peter Falk was and is a treasure too lovely for this universe