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Disussing FOSS copying proprietary alternatives

In order for FOSS to garner market share, it needs to provide the end users with mostly the same features as their proprietary competitors. This can end up in libre software adding "anti-features", such as typing indicators.

A more recent example is Signal adding stories. They mentioned it was one of the most requested features, many refusing to move from WhatsApp because the lack of the aforementioned feature. Signal ended up in adding them, you can easily disable them in settings if you dislike them, like I. It's debatable whether they could've spent their resources better.

Obviously, it's a good way to gain users, but at the same time, stories are a medium that favors short attention spans, a medium popularized by mainstream social media platforms. This could be a good way to introduce casual tech users to more private and ethical alternatives. At the same time, we must not encourage toxic features in FOSS projects, as they should be ethical alternatives not open-source clones that harm the user's psyche as much. I do appreciate the Signal team adding an option to disable them, thus empowering the end user, not forcing the feature down their throat.

Another example I can think of is Mastodon copying Twitter's features. Even if it's a huge improvement, it still has all the toxicity of a social media platform, which could've been at least improved by not adding toxic features such as boosts or likes.

In the end, we must strive for ethical software that doesn't exploit the user or commodify their psyche, not copying proprietary products in which their sole goal is profit. It's one thing having modern features such as file sharing in an IM, it's another to have stories, likes, reactions, plus whatever they can come up next to keep people hooked. There are pros and cons to the methods various FOSS projects take, we should analyze them carefully and not forget, we, the person are at stake.

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