So when I warned against Hachyderm and its corporate-friendly atmosphere a few months ago, several people expressed concern, and felt that I was seeing ghosts and that "just because companies are allowed doesn't make Hachyderm itself bad".

Then recently, the Hachyderm admin casually posted a thread where, aside from problematically using slavery as a debate prop, they mentioned that they intended to monetize Hachyderm and their "FOSS governance" thing, Nivenly - and that they are, paraphrased, a "reasonable capitalist".

And here's the thing: this isn't a surprise to me at all. This is *always* what happens with corporate-friendly "communities". Every single time. It always becomes a vehicle for profit, either directly or indirectly. That is what capitalism does.

When we warn against an instance that's corporation-friendly, that's not because of some weird conspiracy theories or whatever. It's because we've seen time and time again where that leads, and how it harms the most vulnerable people - and crucially, *why* that happens, even despite the (appearance of) best intentions.

Instead of waving away our warnings as being "unrealistic", or "naive", or whatever this week's pejorative for anti-capitalists is, spend a moment to think about *why* we're issuing those warnings. Where they come from, what history they are based on.

Because I promise you that they aren't arbitrary, and that learning to recognize the signs will save you from a *lot* of ruined communities, and allow your communities to flourish like they couldn't before.