Not linking directly because I don't want to shit on projects I believe are genuinely trying to make the web better, but every time I see a post about "the small web" or a more "humane" web or whatever that includes phrases like this about content: "created without the motivation of financial gain" I sigh so deeply lol
I am begging ethical web enthusiasts to understand what an extreme privilege it is to spend time working on something without worrying about money
this reply intended for the folks who feel called out by the thread
@sue As someone who also seeks to build things non-commercially to prevent perverse incentives: you can acknowledge this as a problem while still working to prevent those incentives.
It is entirely fine to choose *for yourself, personally* to build things for free. It is not fine to expect this from everyone else as a moral obligation.
If you want to build non-money-driven things, but also be inclusive, you just need to find a strategy where the privileged folks are doing the unpaid work, and others get paid for their work. Lots of ways to fund that, doesn't even have to involve commerce.
Yes, this is extra work, compared to "just doing everything for free". So it's a good thing you personally can afford working on things for free and set aside the time to figure this out, huh?
(Posting this as a reply to hopefully pre-empt other "non-commercial web" folks from trying to pit these goals as conflicting)
