Post #1978072

2026-04-20 11:30 UTC

@smallcircles I have made various attempts in the past to explain to FLOSS communities that they need to have at least their users implied in their governance, and ideally even more distant stakeholders. With little success. The typical reaction is one of - Users get our work for free, they have no right to complain. - Users can join our community, e.g. by contributing to documentation, and then they have a say as well. @johannab

Replies (2)

@smallcircles@social.coop 2026-04-20 12:47

@khinsen @johannab Indeed. And we see what the result is. After various supply chain attacks and whole range of other software supply line related issues that typically are not well handled in most #FOSS projects, the 'market' (need not be commercial clients per se) start demanding all kinds of quality compliance guarantees. In the new and upcoming #HorizonEurope grant programs by @EUCommission I heard - there was much discussion about this - on changing nature of #NGI0 #grants as provided by @nlnet whereby the #EU mandate shifts towards placing bigger focus on these concerns. Though I admit that I'm not fully in the loop, and neither do I know if things were already all clearly communicated to the public. Perhaps @michiel or someone else at #NLnet might point to the most relevant info resource atm. Other than that, the misunderstandings which lead to perceived #entitlement (client/customer) or #privilege (creator/devs) are expectation mismatch, solvable by better comms practices.

Open ##1978073
@johannab@cosocial.ca 2026-04-21 03:02

@khinsen @smallcircles I feel like we could learn something in our space from crafters and artists who have committed to Patreon and Kofi to distribute their work. I know there are a few - too few - devs who are crowdsourcing part of their paycheque, but it's the other side of that we need. Crafters and creators get their work out in the world by welcoming fans and supporters IN to their sphere, humble though it may be. If you're convinced you have a great product ... *invite* ppl to it.

Open ##1991404