Ooh! I would like to hear from all those who were fervently vouching for Discord as a support channel for FOSS projects.

Perhaps the same might happen to a web forum or matrix channel. But at least you get an opportunity to backup and migrate.

While I agree that many FOSS devs/maintainers would find donations and other monetary support very useful, please remember that money isn't the solution for everything. This is especially the case for mental and emotional wellbeing. Funding might increase the entitlement and demands of the users on the maintainer's time. What the maintainer really needs might be some time off or reduction on their workloads.

I'm all for donating to these projects. But don't let that be an excuse to treat them badly and make unreasonable demands on them.

One of the main factors contributing to this problem is how customers simply give up their rights for convenience. Pro-customer options don't disappear. They die a slow painful death.

Take the example of DRM in books. All the easy options like from Amazon are DRM encumbered. But the DRM-free options are still available if you are willing to search a bit. They don't cost much extra either. But people don't care. And direct sellers providing DRM-free books wither away in neglect. Similar examples are still around for reparable devices, DRM-free multimedia, etc.

Consumers rights are not a given. Like any rights, those are the ones you have to defend. You have to put at least a little bit of effort to protect it. When I suggested this recently, I was accused of 'victim-blaming'. What escape is there when the victims are not ready to fight back?

The return of investment on crypto doesn't come from any value it generates. It comes from other people who made bad bets and lost their money on the same. That makes investing in crypto the same as participating in a Pyramid. Your argument, if taken for face value, can easily be extended to defend pyramid schemes.

And they're investing in the customers in what sense? It's the customers who make the investment in their products and get their dignity challenged in return.

I have a need for a printer and HP is solidly in the don't-touch list. Companies that treat their customers so indignantly as HP should simply be raided and closed for good. Or perhaps, HP should realize that morons like this scumbag are a bad investment as a CEO.

Don't ever buy HP printers. Their customer abuse is getting egregious by the day. Though, I wish there was more competition in the printer market.

You don't get to ask questions like that to a free speech absolutist.

Bordering on dark patterns? Windows is riddled with ads and makes countless unknown connections when online. It's literally a Trojan OS. I don't understand how far ms has to push before its users realize that they are being mugged.

Ah! Nothing like millennia old scriptures to convince people that a genocide is necessary!

YouTube started nearly (or completely?) ad-free and stayed that way till all of their competition was dead, people were addicted to it and there was no alternative. Then they started turning up the ad knob - gradually to avoid people leaving for something newer, until it was so obnoxious that ad blockers became common among even nontechnical users. Now they're gas lighting ad block users as if they are committing a crime.

YouTube wouldn't be in a position to make these unfair demands if they didn't use their enormous wealth to create a video hosting monopoly and subjecting their users to bait and switch. F*** Google and their pretend morality. F*** them for destroying the web experience. F*** them for destroying web access and livelihood for many by banning their accounts and neglecting all appeals. I'm sure not going to create revenue for a very abusive, unethical and evil corporation.

If content creators want to get paid, start a patreon account or something. Or join a paid subscription service like nebula. I'm open to all those. I just don't want a disgusting leech in between.

And then you have monstrosities like these. Don't ever trust a word they preach.

It's easy to belittle their suffering like this, saying they should have left earlier. But there is always a back story to how people getting bullied end up getting victimized longer than they should. If you gave Madison's story more than a cursory look, you would realize that all the classic elements of abusive entrapment were there.

When she accepted the job at LMG, she had jeopardized her visa status in the US and was more or less starting from scratch in a very expensive city in Canada. You would expect the employer to be considerate and supportive of such employees. But LMG insisted that she cancel her patreon account and on representing her (which she says they didn't do at all). They insisted on taking a cut from her earnings too.

And like many other sexual harassment victims, she wasn't in a position to walk away like you say. LMG apparently gaslighted her and made vague threats. They certainly had the power to ruin her life with their somewhat mindless fanbase - and she was right to fear it. Leaving the company without another job would have probably ended her up in the streets - forget lawyering up. I honestly don't think employees in her situation can afford to hire lawyers.

I don't want to completely believe her words because it's still hearsay. That said, the evidence in the public is pointing more to the possibility that she may be telling the truth. But it doesn't help when people just dismiss her saying that she should have stood up for herself. You simply don't understand the position a victim of a vitriolic workplace finds themselves in.