Re:Open source ‘protestware’ harms Open Source
by kennywinker on Thursday March 24, 2022 @07:57PM
(#30797104)
One thing you might be coloring your perception, is the lack of visibility into other actions. Just because a person posts #blm and it’s largely a symbolic gesture and doesn’t have a big impact, doesn’t mean they didn’t take other more tangible steps - donations, calling their representatives, boycotts, etc. but you wouldn’t know about those. So every time you see the gesture you see inaction, when sometimes the gesture is just the tip of an iceberg of dedicated action.
I feel that way too. I want all those things. Adding “FreeUkraine” or “BLM” doesn’t do that. I don’t think virtue signaling is that big of a problem, but adding these phrases does nothing more than signal.
I don’t think it’s productive to call out virtual signaling in that I would never submit a PR to complain or remove. But I definitely notice it and it seems stupid. I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it but a second or two while reading docs doesn’t make me think more highly of someone.
I think cynically it just seems like people say this instead of doing meaningful things.