With respect for your writing, I couldn’t understand the argument against meeting people where they’re at. The wife approval factor is the tongue in cheek official benchmark for acceptance. It’s gentle wisdom that can be applied to all potential users, and I understand it to mean compromise is always needed unless your partner is also a FOSS advocate.

I love free software, but I come to it almost purely from a privacy perspective. And if privacy is the main goal, there is commercial software that doesn’t care about vacuuming up consumer data. So for some, including me, it’s only a question of risk - tolerance, appetite, and mitigation.

Admittedly I think I don’t yet understand the free software movement. My journey began with docker and self hosting some alternatives to big commercial software. There’s probably more need to explore why meeting users where they’re at is a good rule. Me as an example, I may have overlapping interests with free software but my motivations are different. Therefore the fundamental need for me to use a libre alternative to discord just isn’t there. That’s not to say I wouldn’t be able to appreciate libre more as I interacted with the software and community (regardless of the platform theyre talking on).

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes. -Henry David Thoreau

Op was subliminated

I love your honesty. I expect for many people it’s more about losing what they’re comfortable with. For others there are legitimate functionalities that perhaps don’t exist yet in the native app - a former mod will need to chime in, as I’m not sure about specifics.

I asked a couple with a 3 year old daughter how they get around without a car, and they said they cycle by default and use a car-share service occasionally for longer journeys. The amount they save on insurance alone pays for the car-shares and short term car rentals to get out of the city for a few days.

Suburbs and rural areas can benefit from electric bikes to an extent. And a more deliberate focus on building transit oriented communities should help quite a bit.