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1. Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Tuesday, 28-Nov-2023 23:06:29 UTC Aral Balkan

   in reply to

   • FOSDEM
   • Open Source Design
   • Jan D
   • ninavizz

   @ninavizz @opensourcedesign @simulo @fosdem But I wrote all that when Audre Lorde said it so much better and with far fewer words:

   “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.”

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   • Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Tuesday, 28-Nov-2023 23:06:30 UTC Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • FOSDEM
     • Open Source Design
     • Jan D
     • ninavizz

     @ninavizz @opensourcedesign @simulo @fosdem To answer your question: we did a round of crowdfunding ten years ago (mistake; not the way to fund ongoing work), then I sold two apartments my family had in Turkey. That kept us going for a while. Then I made a tracker blocker and sold licenses to that on Apple’s platforms. Then we ran out of money so Laura started contacting so I could continue building the Small Web. And that’s where we are.

   • Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Tuesday, 28-Nov-2023 23:06:30 UTC Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • FOSDEM
     • Open Source Design
     • Jan D
     • ninavizz

     @ninavizz @opensourcedesign @simulo @fosdem So yes, it’s hard. Damn hard. Pick between your principles and afford having a family hard. But I can’t do anything else. I’d rather starve than legitimise a bloody people farmer like Google or Meta. And we haven’t gotten a single bloody cent from the EU or grants (not for lack of trying). Going forward, my goal is to hopefully make us sustainable by being one of (hopefully many) Small Web hosts.

   • Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Tuesday, 28-Nov-2023 23:06:31 UTC Aral Balkan

     • FOSDEM
     • Open Source Design
     • Jan D
     • ninavizz

     @ninavizz @opensourcedesign @simulo @fosdem So here’s the thing, I couldn’t take money from surveillance capitalists even if I wanted to because they rather dislike being called surveillance capitalists. So the only way I could take money from Google is if I said “Hey, guys, I was wrong, Google aren’t a threat to human rights or democracy.” (And actually, that would be worth *a lot* of money if I did that. But then I wouldn’t be me.)

     Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅 likes this.