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Open source cohost! Here's why.

Hello everyone!


Very recently made the move from Twitter to Cohost, and I'd really like cohost become open sourced instead of being closed source. Other alternatives like Mastodon run by a not-for-profit organization similar to how ASSC is not-for-profit, is benefited big time by being open source, which opens up more opportunities for the community to openly contribute directly to the development and also develops incredible transparency around the project. While I am not a fan of Mastodon's fediverse (and their whole concept), I appreciate their values and one of the reasons I have decided to jump ship over to Cohost is due to somewhat similar values and how it's run by not-for-profit, but I am genuinely surprised by how it's not open source, I believe it's also important to support FOSS apart from some of the benefits that comes with becoming open source like I have listed above in this post. I think as a closed source software, we are already doing a pretty good job with user-inputs and community engagement with the development, open sourcing will be a much bigger, better next step towards the right direction.


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Would like to mention that we also have a pretty good stance when it comes to great privacy, no tracking and no ads, so it makes so much sense for us to be open source, if we really care about privacy and an open internet, then open sourcing should be a no brainer. Please do kindly consider.


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I believe this would violate the terms of ASSC's funding agreements, where the software (not site content) becomes property of the lender if they default on their loans.


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I think it would be very good to open source cohost. If it's against the funding agreements, then maybe it can be a goal for the future. It would be nice if the community could make pull requests for the website


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Found this after I commented on the other post and agree it would be super cool to work towards this if funding becomes more permissive.

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I think that there could be a CLA (Contributor License Agreement) in place where ownership of any code contributed goes to ASSC but then that's not very open-source friendly, but could be a short-term soluton.


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