Non-free software shouldn't be mentioned

If you put a statement before the first thread, saying “Our policy is not to identify non-free programs, since doing so could lead more people to use them, and we would thus be contributing to their success” then it will be easy to explain. Just send the person a copy of that text, saying, “This is stated in the front page.”

Definitely Prog should say that non-free software is bad, but one can do this without mentioning any specific non-free program. In fact, that makes it more powerful.

While this kind of statement makes it clear you don’t think the non-free program is a good thing, readers who encounter the mention the non-free program might still go and use it anyway. A reader for whom freedom is not a priority might ignore the site’s negative opinion, follow the link, and become a customer for the program. If you don’t mention the specific program, this can’t happen.

Most users in our community have never even heard the idea that non-free software is ethically bad. They have only heard of the open source movement and its values; they think our goal is simply to make software “better” (technically). So this statement is important. To make it as visible as possible, I’d suggest putting it in every thread.

>>44
*Giggle*. If I wanted to rob a people of their freedoms, a good start would be to convince them that there are only two possibilites: freedom and slavery, with no gradations between them. Then as I would take their freedoms one by one, with draconian viral licenses and mandatory anal inspections, each time I would point out that it is done in the name of Freedom, and since they are not slaves yet and even have some of their other freedoms somewhat increased, then what I took from them cannot be a real freedom, can't even be called "freedom". And everyone who is concerned about these false freedoms must be an enemy of the Freedom.

To the point where even the idea that there's no such thing as "the Freedom" would sound like an incomprehensible nonsense to my thralls, and they would label an obvious observation that having a choice makes you more free than not having a choice as a product of "slave mentality".