Advocacy doesn’t work if you tell someone they’re wrong

[Jelle Hermsen]

Hi everybody,
I recently joined the fellowship and yesterday I wrote a blog post on my
new FSFE blog titled: Advocacy doesn’t work if you tell someone they’re
wrong
(http://blogs.fsfe.org/jelle/2010/10/31/advocacy-doesnt-work-if-you-tell-someone-theyre-wrong/ ). 

Guido suggested I add a paragraph about this idea to the advocacy FAQ. I
don't want to do this without hearing what other people think about it,
because advocacy touches the core of what we're doing.

My post states that it's best to not talk about proprietary software too
much when you're trying to advocate free software. Pointing out the
problems of the proprietary software somebody uses might actually lead
them to dig there heels in, preventing them to be susceptible to any of
your good arguments.

I derived this idea from social psychology and I would love to hear what
you all think of it.

Best regards,
Jelle