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[META] Are paid for, closed source projects, being advertised on this community, appropriate? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by breadsmasher@lemmy.world to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

145 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A number of brand new accounts have popped up shilling their paid for applications.

Is this within the rules? Is the community happy with this? Could mods clarify this in the rules?

Either allowing advertising, or banning it entirely.

my point is - there is a difference between an open source homegrown project that might be useful, vs closed source paid for projects from brand new accounts

some replies are misunderstanding, somehow.

I am against

brand new accounts who:

first post is a brand new project
project is closed source
project will cost money
is asking for free testing
the post is literally an advertisement

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[–] x3lz@lemmy.zip 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Ban all advertising for proprietary software.

[–] TheHound@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Producing software is not free. Serious projects need to be able to commercialize, it can't always be for passion and vibes. But it can be done tastefully, there is a difference between shilling slop and monetizing a serious project.

[–] utopiah@lemmy.world 3 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

That's not what they said. Free software can be paid for, either via users or via subsidies. Nobody in this thread suggested that developers starve.

To be pragmatic here are ways free software can be monetized :

get a salary from a company or institution that relies on free software
ask for donations via e.g. https://liberapay.com/ or Patreon or OpenCollective
get money per project via CrowdFunding platforms e.g. KickStarter or for hardware https://www.crowdsupply.com/
get subsidies directly, e.g. NLNet (International, no need to be European), or https://www.sovereign.tech/programs/fund or by being part of a consortium, e.g. public/private partnerships on a theme e.g. https://www.ciiic.nl/en/calls/learning-communities

I professionally do both, namely I get paid to develop free software but I also pay free software developers, e.g. https://gcompris.net/ via their https://www.patreon.com/animtim . I also until recently worked in a public institution and was paid to write free software.

I think it is important not to conflate free software with free of cost and indeed free of production. Free software developers, like me, need to pay their bills but that does NOT have to be opposed to your freedom in using and modifying that software. By implying a false dichotomy by software being either proprietary or funded somehow you are in fact sadly promoting proprietary software, please do not do that.

[–] TORFdot0@lemmy.world 3 points 19 hours ago

You don’t have to go closed source to monetize your software (although it does make it easier)

[–] i_love_FFT@jlai.lu 7 points 23 hours ago

Developing hardware also is not free. I still don't want to see ads for the latest cooling system.

[–] ken@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

Even so, it does not follow that this community should provide that commercialization venue. If you want me involved in solving your business problems or monetization strategy, we should discuss terms and rates first.

[–] Hund@feddit.nu 0 points 16 hours ago

Paying for software is an exception, not a rule.

And we only have proprietary software because there's greedy people out there that take advantage of people who don't know better.

With that said. I'm not saying that developers shouldn't get paid for what they do. They absolutely should! And a lot of them do, even when the code is free as in free beer and free speech.