AFAICT all they developed is a plain website, even signups are through an external service (Tally). That’s why I question their commitment to open source.
I’m all for activist.org’s goals, and I understand the convenience of those third party services if you’re whacking a site together fast. I even halfway understand why they’d use Instagram, if only for its reach.
If I were an activist planning disruptive or potentially illegal events however, I’d be more inclined to use a platform that has also put thought and care into the privacy of its users — and making those choices clear through transparency at the code level — rather than linking to a bunch of different closed source sites. At the moment the site only seems to use OSS as an empty gesture of virtue, and the privacy of users is… dubious.
I’ll give activist.org the benefit of doubt that it will eventually evolve to include some actual open source (and private) services that the platform itself controls. Right now I’m apprehensive.
AFAICT all they developed is a plain website, even signups are through an external service (Tally). That’s why I question their commitment to open source.
I’m all for activist.org’s goals, and I understand the convenience of those third party services if you’re whacking a site together fast. I even halfway understand why they’d use Instagram, if only for its reach.
If I were an activist planning disruptive or potentially illegal events however, I’d be more inclined to use a platform that has also put thought and care into the privacy of its users — and making those choices clear through transparency at the code level — rather than linking to a bunch of different closed source sites. At the moment the site only seems to use OSS as an empty gesture of virtue, and the privacy of users is… dubious.
I’ll give activist.org the benefit of doubt that it will eventually evolve to include some actual open source (and private) services that the platform itself controls. Right now I’m apprehensive.