Open source ‘protestware’ harms Open Source
To be honest, I'm annoyed by the benign protestware messages when they start to get in the way of using the software, particularly on mobile. I was looking at the isomorphic git documentation the other day, and noticed that their "#BlackLivesMatter #DefundThePolice" banner scrolls under the rest of the content, leaving this annoying gap that takes up screen real estate, especially in landscape mode on a phone.[0] What's the point? Is a single person going to be persuaded to support either cause by seeing this banner on a relatively niche JS library that reduces readability of its documentation? Will anyone find the library any more useful because they support the cause? (I support neither cause, but find the library useful nevertheless.)<p>Recently, I saw a similar pattern with the Svelte REPL adding a pro-Ukraine message.[1] The banner along the bottom is so large that landscape mode becomes unusable, and non-trivial examples are hard to see even in portrait mode. Again, who does this help? (I support Ukraine, so feel like, "yeah, I get it; can I close the banner now?")<p>The worst part about these patterns is that they can't be disabled and seem to be deployed haphazardly without regard for the overall design.<p>While these aren't malware, they are still hostile for the majority of users who aren't so gung ho in their support for the current thing.<p>[0] <a href="https://isomorphic-git.org/docs/en/deleteBranch" rel="nofollow">https://isomorphic-git.org/docs/en/deleteBranch</a><p>[1] <a href="https://svelte.dev/repl/hello-world?version=3.46.4" rel="nofollow">https://svelte.dev/repl/hello-world?version=3.46.4</a>