Is it acceptable to use proprietary software (platforms) to promote software freedom?

[Daniel Pocock]

On 23/06/17 09:47, Mirko Boehm - FSFE wrote:
>
> I am glad you asked. Overall global GNUsocial users rank in the
> 1000s-100.000s, as far I know. Maybe somebody has better statistics on
> that. Here is a good overview of proprietary social media
> reach: http://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/ Of
> the 3.7 billion internet users, 2.8 are active social media users
> (see Q5. What is the overall Social Media usage globally?)
>
> However, I don’t think this means much. And I don’t want to get into
> an argument about lying statistics or whether or not everybody should
> be using free software. My main point was and is: FSFEs mission (part
> 2 in the original email) is to advocate, and we won’t achieve that by
> preaching to the acolytes.
>

We also won't achieve the mission by preaching in the middle of a busy
street where people are in too much of a hurry and nobody can hear us
over the noise of the traffic anyway.

If people are going to argue in favour of violating our principles to
use facebook, then I would prefer to see the data first and if data is
not available, I'd like to see what plan is in place to collect data
about the effort being spent and the outcomes achieved (e.g. what
metrics will be monitored and why they are good metrics).

Without data, you can't convince anybody that this is worthwhile.

Regards,

Daniel