negative campaigning?

[Federico Bruni]

Il giorno mer 26 lug 2017 alle 12:14, Daniel Pocock <daniel at pocock.pro> 
ha scritto:
> 
> [...]
> 
> Is it negative to say, for example, "Debian doesn't send 10,000
> telemetry reports per day" and hope the user realizes we are comparing
> to Microsoft Windows 10?
> 
> If I was in somebody's house and I saw their kitchen had caught fire,
> should I avoid talking about it because it is a negative topic and 
> they
> might feel bad?  Or should I warn somebody?
> 
> What about a hidden risk that most people can't see, for example, if 
> you
> were an official who knew about the contamination[1] in the water in
> Flint, Michigan, should you keep your mouth shut?  Or would people 
> thank
> you for sharing negative information?
> 
> It would be really interesting to hear perspectives people have about
> how to introduce threats without appearing to be negative.  For 
> example,
> what narrative do we need to use to give proprietary software the same
> urgency as a burning kitchen or contaminated water?
> 
> 

As in the Flint example, I'm always grateful to people who open my mind 
to negative information I was ignoring. I feel it as a positive step 
for my critical conscience (even if sometimes I'd feel better not to 
know). And if I can do something, my little tiny contribution, to 
react, then I feel better than before.

I started being involved in free software because I was attracted by 
the positive arguments (e.g.: being part of an international community, 
learning new stuff, contributing to the commons, etc.). It was 10 years 
ago, perhaps the situation of "digital rights" was less negative than 
now. I think that negative campaigning matters today more than in the 
past.