refalo@programming.dev
on 05 Feb 2025 18:11
nextcollapse
Original title was “F-Droid Awarded Open Technology Fund’s FOSS Sustainability Grant”. Not trying to be tinfoily but I thought it would have been even more irresponsible to not make it clear where the money really comes from as I think most people aren’t aware.
Either way, please do your own research and draw your own conclusions and I promise I have no intentional agenda in reporting this… besides transparency.
autonomoususer@lemmy.world
on 05 Feb 2025 18:22
nextcollapse
Don’t worry, it’s libre software, we control it.
Telorand@reddthat.com
on 05 Feb 2025 18:38
nextcollapse
OTF has its own board, and they operate independently from the government, though their operations are tied in a roundabout way to how Congress decides to allocate funding.
That F-Droid got a piece of that pie is a good thing, especially in light of the current regime and how they’re basically giving the middle finger to Congress.
Badabinski@kbin.earth
on 05 Feb 2025 18:44
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Yeah, the edited title is implied to be unburying the lede, but there was nothing being hidden by the original title.
geography082@lemm.ee
on 05 Feb 2025 18:44
nextcollapse
I want to share that My brain first interpretation from the title is that they are receiving money to do dirty things. And reasoning about it , Nothing to do with reality of course I didn’t even read the article . End of message.
bluelander@lemmy.ml
on 05 Feb 2025 18:48
nextcollapse
Thanks for this clarification. Certainly something to be aware of and pay attention to, but a little less instantly alarming than the OP title.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
on 06 Feb 2025 07:35
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Why change the title??
JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl
on 06 Feb 2025 08:26
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I think you will find that almost all grants either come from a corporation or a government. Crazy isn’t it? A very small amount comes from non-profits and often those nonprofits are majority funded by governments and corporations.
unknown1234_5@kbin.earth
on 05 Feb 2025 19:42
nextcollapse
I swear this community is as bad as a flat earth one when the government gets brought up. why change the title from the original to imply that congress (other than deciding the federal budget) had anything to do with it? That is at best irresponsible and misleading and at worst actively malicious. Yes government entities do sketchy things, but that does not mean something can't be trusted because a government entity interacted with it.
refalo@programming.dev
on 05 Feb 2025 19:46
nextcollapse
why change the title
As I mentioned, I felt it was more transparent to say where the money comes from and let people draw their own conclusions. Of course there will always be dissenting opinions no matter which title is used, I think that just comes with the territory, and I’m ok with that; I don’t think there is a single right or wrong answer. I’m sorry that you disagree with my choice. I encourage you to make similar posts wherever you’d like with your own desired title.
Thank you for your perspective.
Hominine@lemmy.world
on 05 Feb 2025 20:24
nextcollapse
The only “territory” that deliberately manipulating a title comes with is that of misinformation. For what other reason would another application be wedged in? Why are other grants left out? It’s all very plain.
refalo@programming.dev
on 05 Feb 2025 20:50
collapse
I think real intelligence by definition requires empathy and humility, which is typically the opposite of such dogmatism in my opinion.
“As a rule, strong feelings about issues do not emerge from deep understanding.” -Sloman and Fernbach
unknown1234_5@kbin.earth
on 06 Feb 2025 06:47
nextcollapse
intelligence has nothing to do with empathy or humility, it is a measure of knowledge and problem-solving. lying about the contents of posts and pretending you are justified is not intelligent, even if you add a quote.
JustAnotherKay@lemmy.world
on 06 Feb 2025 07:16
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Strong feelings about issues do not emerge from deep understanding
My feelings about capitalism are largely fueled by how well I understand it. When I understood it less, I didn’t mind it as much
I don’t like this quote
Badabinski@kbin.earth
on 06 Feb 2025 19:25
collapse
Yeah, if strong emotions were such a liability then we probably wouldn't have them anymore. Emotions aren't vestigial or useless or contrary to rational discourse, they're an integral part of what it means to be sentient and sapient, and they can be incredibly useful when doing things that are decidedly "rational." I can tell that some code I wrote is shit because it "feels wrong" a hell of a lot faster than I can by logically reasoning it out.
I'm hoping that quote is simply lacking context. The alternative is that the people behind the quote are just fucking insufferable.
JustAnotherKay@lemmy.world
on 07 Feb 2025 01:42
collapse
I don’t think I could restate this any better. So many people hear about “logical brain” and “emotional brain” and just start trying to eliminate any emotion from logic.
Brother the entire reason we invented homes was because we didn’t fuckin like the alternative. But if we used logic way back in cave man time, it would have been more individually efficient to burn those logs for warmth. It took emotions to get us to the next step and then realise that it was more systemically efficient to burn logs inside of a little cabin and only then could we start applying logic to housing.
Emotions are so important
x00z@lemmy.world
on 05 Feb 2025 21:14
nextcollapse
where the money comes from
Well you failed because it comes from the taxpayer.
notfromhere@lemmy.ml
on 05 Feb 2025 21:23
nextcollapse
OTF receives the majority of its funding from the U.S. government via the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM). Funding is appropriated for OTF through the annual Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs appropriations and provided to OTF via a grant agreement from USAGM.
For FY 2023, Congress allocated $90.5 million for programs to promote Internet freedom globally, representing a $13 million increase from FY 2022. Of the funds allocated for Internet freedom, $40 million was designated for OTF. Per the appropriations, all Congressional funding provided to OTF is used to support “programs to promote Internet freedom globally.” In addition to helping to further OTF’s mission, this funding increase is also further recognition of the increasing need for the tools and technologies OTF supports.
In addition to funding from USAGM, OTF also accepts funding from other mission-aligned donors for discrete Funds, Labs, or Fellowships. For example, OTF’s FOSS Sustainability Fund is supported in part by funding from Schmidt Futures’ Plaintext Group, Okta for Good, and the Github Foundation.
unknown1234_5@kbin.earth
on 06 Feb 2025 06:45
collapse
it isn't more accurate though, you are lying about where the funding came from. congress only approved the budget for the government, they didn't have a say in who got the money that was being handed out. there is a single right answer and it is to not change the titles of news articles to suit your own opinions. if you want to present your opinion, you do it by making your own post. posting a news article is for sharing the article, not for lying about it's contents to suit the story you want to tell.
JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
on 05 Feb 2025 23:20
nextcollapse
Well said. And I think there’s more. In the Anglosphere and the USA in particular, government and state are often conflated, but they really are two different things. The former is the cockpit, the latter is the airplane.
Things are different in European cultures. In Latin languages, for example, the government is understood to be the body of politicians in control right now, whereas the state is a sort of expression of the people’s will and therefore has much wider legitimacy. Two very different things. I believe it’s similar in German.
I sometimes wonder if this semantic quirk has exacerbated the general skepticism of English-speakers towards collective action.
deprecateddino@lemmy.world
on 08 Feb 2025 08:17
collapse
Whatever fed 😉
mox@lemmy.sdf.org
on 05 Feb 2025 21:50
nextcollapse
Huz-fucking-zah. Independence from corporations like Google in the technologies we depend on is important, and F-Droid provides an unmatched service in support of that goal.
Thorned_Rose@sh.itjust.works
on 06 Feb 2025 09:56
nextcollapse
I mean, Fdroid has problems but funding from government is the absolute least of them.
surph_ninja@lemmy.world
on 06 Feb 2025 20:15
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Depends what the funding is for. If it’s payment for compliance with CALEA (which has become a major revenue stream for big tech), then it’s compensation for building backdoors.
UnfortunateShort@lemmy.world
on 06 Feb 2025 15:19
nextcollapse
Cool
jagged_circle@feddit.nl
on 06 Feb 2025 16:18
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Do they also have a warrant canary?
refalo@programming.dev
on 06 Feb 2025 22:25
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I don’t consider those to be useful anymore because a court can compel them to keep the canary up in secret, and I’m pretty sure that’s already happened more than once before.
jagged_circle@feddit.nl
on 06 Feb 2025 22:49
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That’s never happened in history
refalo@programming.dev
on 07 Feb 2025 00:04
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How would you know?
You probably wouldn’t have heard about it simply because it’s illegal to publicize a secret subpoena/warrant. Such orders are given as National Security Letters with a permanent gag order, going so far as to preventing the recipient from even seeking counsel; it’s a massive abuse of power and due process in the US.
IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com
on 07 Feb 2025 09:06
nextcollapse
Oh no, I’re received funding (welfare) from the governemnt, guess I’m a CIA asset now… 🤷♂️
/s
phase@lemmy.8th.world
on 07 Feb 2025 09:21
nextcollapse
Noob question: are tye people saying “gov funding = NSA” mostly American?
threaded - newest
Original title was “F-Droid Awarded Open Technology Fund’s FOSS Sustainability Grant”. Not trying to be tinfoily but I thought it would have been even more irresponsible to not make it clear where the money really comes from as I think most people aren’t aware.
Either way, please do your own research and draw your own conclusions and I promise I have no intentional agenda in reporting this… besides transparency.
Don’t worry, it’s libre software, we control it.
I don’t think your edited title is that clarifying, and in fact, muddies the water by glossing over some key details. Chiefly, Congress doesn’t fund the OTF, they fund the US Agency for Global Media, which in turn uses some of their money to fund the nonprofit OTF; the OTF then uses their money to “support open technologies and communities that increase free expression, circumvent censorship, and obstruct repressive surveillance as a way to promote human rights and open societies,” per their 501©3 non-profit mission statement.
OTF has its own board, and they operate independently from the government, though their operations are tied in a roundabout way to how Congress decides to allocate funding.
That F-Droid got a piece of that pie is a good thing, especially in light of the current regime and how they’re basically giving the middle finger to Congress.
Yeah, the edited title is implied to be unburying the lede, but there was nothing being hidden by the original title.
I want to share that My brain first interpretation from the title is that they are receiving money to do dirty things. And reasoning about it , Nothing to do with reality of course I didn’t even read the article . End of message.
Thanks for this clarification. Certainly something to be aware of and pay attention to, but a little less instantly alarming than the OP title.
Why change the title??
I think you will find that almost all grants either come from a corporation or a government. Crazy isn’t it? A very small amount comes from non-profits and often those nonprofits are majority funded by governments and corporations.
I swear this community is as bad as a flat earth one when the government gets brought up. why change the title from the original to imply that congress (other than deciding the federal budget) had anything to do with it? That is at best irresponsible and misleading and at worst actively malicious. Yes government entities do sketchy things, but that does not mean something can't be trusted because a government entity interacted with it.
As I mentioned, I felt it was more transparent to say where the money comes from and let people draw their own conclusions. Of course there will always be dissenting opinions no matter which title is used, I think that just comes with the territory, and I’m ok with that; I don’t think there is a single right or wrong answer. I’m sorry that you disagree with my choice. I encourage you to make similar posts wherever you’d like with your own desired title.
Thank you for your perspective.
The only “territory” that deliberately manipulating a title comes with is that of misinformation. For what other reason would another application be wedged in? Why are other grants left out? It’s all very plain.
I think real intelligence by definition requires empathy and humility, which is typically the opposite of such dogmatism in my opinion.
“As a rule, strong feelings about issues do not emerge from deep understanding.” -Sloman and Fernbach
intelligence has nothing to do with empathy or humility, it is a measure of knowledge and problem-solving. lying about the contents of posts and pretending you are justified is not intelligent, even if you add a quote.
My feelings about capitalism are largely fueled by how well I understand it. When I understood it less, I didn’t mind it as much
I don’t like this quote
Yeah, if strong emotions were such a liability then we probably wouldn't have them anymore. Emotions aren't vestigial or useless or contrary to rational discourse, they're an integral part of what it means to be sentient and sapient, and they can be incredibly useful when doing things that are decidedly "rational." I can tell that some code I wrote is shit because it "feels wrong" a hell of a lot faster than I can by logically reasoning it out.
I'm hoping that quote is simply lacking context. The alternative is that the people behind the quote are just fucking insufferable.
I don’t think I could restate this any better. So many people hear about “logical brain” and “emotional brain” and just start trying to eliminate any emotion from logic.
Brother the entire reason we invented homes was because we didn’t fuckin like the alternative. But if we used logic way back in cave man time, it would have been more individually efficient to burn those logs for warmth. It took emotions to get us to the next step and then realise that it was more systemically efficient to burn logs inside of a little cabin and only then could we start applying logic to housing.
Emotions are so important
Well you failed because it comes from the taxpayer.
it isn't more accurate though, you are lying about where the funding came from. congress only approved the budget for the government, they didn't have a say in who got the money that was being handed out. there is a single right answer and it is to not change the titles of news articles to suit your own opinions. if you want to present your opinion, you do it by making your own post. posting a news article is for sharing the article, not for lying about it's contents to suit the story you want to tell.
Well said. And I think there’s more. In the Anglosphere and the USA in particular, government and state are often conflated, but they really are two different things. The former is the cockpit, the latter is the airplane.
Things are different in European cultures. In Latin languages, for example, the government is understood to be the body of politicians in control right now, whereas the state is a sort of expression of the people’s will and therefore has much wider legitimacy. Two very different things. I believe it’s similar in German.
I sometimes wonder if this semantic quirk has exacerbated the general skepticism of English-speakers towards collective action.
I understand that “Regierung” (government) = executive branch “Parlament” (parliament, in the US congress+senate) = legislative branch
“Staat” (state) is an imprecise word as it can mean different things de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staat en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/State en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_(polity) (see Definition)
Whatever fed 😉
Huz-fucking-zah. Independence from corporations like Google in the technologies we depend on is important, and F-Droid provides an unmatched service in support of that goal.
I mean, Fdroid has problems but funding from government is the absolute least of them.
Depends what the funding is for. If it’s payment for compliance with CALEA (which has become a major revenue stream for big tech), then it’s compensation for building backdoors.
Cool
Do they also have a warrant canary?
I don’t consider those to be useful anymore because a court can compel them to keep the canary up in secret, and I’m pretty sure that’s already happened more than once before.
That’s never happened in history
How would you know?
You probably wouldn’t have heard about it simply because it’s illegal to publicize a secret subpoena/warrant. Such orders are given as National Security Letters with a permanent gag order, going so far as to preventing the recipient from even seeking counsel; it’s a massive abuse of power and due process in the US.
Oh no, I’re received funding (welfare) from the governemnt, guess I’m a CIA asset now… 🤷♂️
/s
Noob question: are tye people saying “gov funding = NSA” mostly American?
F-Droid needs to be audited to make sure no backdoors have been installed. Otherwise funding FOSS is one of the few good things any government can do.