Talk:Wikimedians for software freedom/Context

Source

This page is based on Wikimedians for software freedom. (2026, May 4). Meta-Wiki. Retrieved May 4, 2026, from https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikimedians_for_software_freedom&oldid=30497188. iopensa (talk) 11:40, 4 May 2026 (UTC)

Simple arguments

dear @Boud, I think this session should be very simple. thanks for creating smaller sessions, but I am not convinced that organising the arguments around titles such as Consequentialist arguments (effectiveness), Deontological arguments (principles), Contractualist arguments is the most efficient approach. Most people do not feel comfortable with words such as Consequentialist, Deontological and Contractualist and using those tends to generate distance. Maybe focusing on the concepts of effectiveness, principles, and relevance/alignment would be easier to understand. We can also add references to enrich the discourse: those arguments are certainly not new. Thanks for your work, iopensa (talk) 08:17, 2 June 2026 (UTC)

@Iopensa: I understand your point that we need to use an appropriate level of language for the target audience, but I would expect that the people who use this page as a resource are people who have already been through most of these arguments repeatedly. Helping to understand the arguments more deeply may make it easier for complex discussions to converge. Links to enwiki policies and guidelines often help to avoid repeating the details of already-well-discussed arguments. Anyway, see the changes that I've made. The enwiki links are unchanged, but they are hidden by the more popular-level descriptions.

References and Wikipedia links (multilanguage using the translate tags) could help too. As you say, we haven't invented these arguments :). Boud (talk) 15:57, 2 June 2026 (UTC)