I wasn’t going to say anything. I was going to take my experience with the Funkwhale project and file it under finished, and I wasn’t going to go out of my way to put myself or anyone else through more stress than they were already under. I don’t think anyone involved in the running of the project has done anything with malicious intent. But with the project’s recent decision to publish a call for “diversity”, I should at least speak up and point out the exhaustive and unending nightmare that is white dudes trying to figure out “diversity”.
My first interaction with the original maintainer of Funkwhale was them @’ing on my Mastodon instance in 2017 to tell me that codes of conduct were a waste of time and expecting them from anyone was ridiculous. If you don’t know anything about Fediverse software or communities, don’t worry about it. I promise you it is not currently worth the hassle. You can guess that someone complaining about needing set guidelines for communities is not a great look for a project head. I blocked them and moved on, continuing my activism work within FOSS and fighting against the extreme right-wing abuses fostered by the open software culture, mostly just gaining more death threats while being further shut out of spaces.
Two Years Later
In February of 2019, Funkwhale’s maintainer had changed their tune and asked someone else involved in the project to reach out to me and ask me to work for them. One of my main sticking points was how open software projects only cater to people who have the time and money to contribute, which means the software is only built for the needs of able-bodied white dudes who happen to be the ones with all the time and money. If you wanted your software to actually work properly and to fill needs for people other than the very limited use case of rich white dudes, I argued, you would have to find a way to pay those people for their contributions and make space for them.
I was offered some pay (250€/week) to do as much as I could to help them create a code of conduct, reorganize, figure out what the hell was going on with their software and their need for anti-harassment and abuse features, and also functioning as a general #2 in taking over any non-programming tasks that the maintainer did not have time for or needed help with. That was not enough to even cover my rent where I was living, but not only can you not say no to any amount of money when you are poor, the project genuinely seemed like it had nice people in it that wanted to do the right thing.
And they were, and they did.
Except for that pesky money thing.
Dirty Tech Money
In the beginning of 2020, Funkwhale was awarded a grant, and my payment agreement was thrown out without discussion. Instead, it was replaced by a percentage of funds awarded for each task that met a goal negotiated with the grant. My pay suddenly dropped, becoming unstable and dependent on tech people doing tech things, without me really having a say in it. That was simply the only option for me to be paid for my work. So of course I accepted it. How could I not? By then I had made the frantic move to France (where Funkwhale is based, or was) with all my worldly goods being in one suitcase and 2 cat carriers (if cats count as worldly goods and not inter-dimensional blessings) due to death threats in my home country and crippling poverty. I was very keen to continue working with a French organization and to continue getting paid so I could eat and not be homeless.
I had/have a lot of opinions about the organization that the grant money was coming from, who they gave money to, and how their payout structure was based on enforcing the coders-only toxic organizations that FOSS suffers from. But beggars can’t be choosers.
At the same time, burnout began to affect the project leader. Tasks began to go by the wayside, as did my pay. And while I would never have ill-will towards someone because they needed mental/physical/emotional help, it doesn’t make my need to pay rent go away. I am not going to second-guess or speculate about what could have or should have been done differently in that situation and I certainly am not trying to make anyone feel bad about it, I can only live with the consequences of it.
Later That Year
It took until November of 2020 for Funkwhale’s lead to ask for help with maintaining the project. We drafted blogs and posted in all the usual spots. It was slow going, and I was not included in or privy to any discussions of new maintainers. And then months later, seemingly out of nowhere, there was a new project leader. As far as I know, no one in the Funkwhale organization was consulted or informed, but then I only know what went on in any of our official channels.
I kept waiting for someone to come to me and tell me what was going on with the organization, the funding, and my long gone promised pay. Weeks and weeks went by with a new maintainer and radio silence about what was happening. Finally, on April 19, I gave up and told the organization via their internal Matrix channel that I’d no longer be doing any work for them and it was pretty uncool how I was treated. I got a couple sorrys. I wished everyone the best. I deleted my access to the chat rooms and whatnot and switched to full focusing on finding some income to help keep me housed and my visa renewed.
Insult To Injury
I assumed that was the end of it. I deleted any mention of Funkwhale on my public website and resolved to never involve myself with FOSS shit, or any tech shit, again. But the new project head decided that wasn’t going to be the end of it.
First, he posted a blog (deleted, see here) announcing themselves and also claiming I was continuing to work for them and moderate open.audio. I have no idea where this idea came from or why it was posted since I announced my departure from them on the April 19th and that blog was posted on April 25th. I continued to say nothing.
Then a week later on June 2nd, the new project head emails me. This is where I start getting angry. The not being paid, the communication issues, all the nonsense before this was out of my mind and in the forgiven box until this fool’s email yanked it back out again.
“I was not aware of the fact you once got payed for your work…”
“I was not aware how important you were for the project…”
“All these words cannot fix the fact you lost your income. I am aware that I am privileged being able to work on the project for free and not everybody is in this good situation.”
“I currently have no idea how to organize a steady income for you (or others).”
The email had lots of thank yous, just like I got thank yous in the Matrix room two weeks prior to that. You know what poor people can’t pay rent with or eat or pay visa fees with? Thank yous. What was this email supposed to do other than unload this dude’s guilt onto me? Why would you email someone this? If you aren’t offering to make actual amends, DON’T FUCKING SEND EMAILS LIKE THIS.
I almost considered replying with something, but no. I didn’t want this stress. I wanted it to go away. I was too busy with trying to pay my rent to deal with FOSS boy feelings.
The “Diversity” Bullshitting
But now, in a move that would be laughable if it weren’t so infuriating, Funkwhale is posting blogs asking for help with “Diversity” (deleted, see here). I have spent years and years explaining to the FOSS community that they cannot fix their problems if they refuse to raise marginalized contributors to an even playing field with monetary consideration. Their “diversity” calls are hollow and insulting. White dudes will continue to extract free labor from people who can’t afford it. And they’ll get more grants and more money to pay themselves to extract more labor ad nauseam.
The current maintainer of Funkwhale has “no idea” how to “organize income” for anyone, yet they want you to spend more of your unpaid time to tell them how to make their organization more attractive to people they can then take advantage of in the same manner. For all the both paid and unpaid work I put into Funkwhale and the reputation I put on the line for them, this feels like such a piss balloon in the face.
Funkwhale, just like most open software projects, will fail in its “diversity” endeavors because the people with power refuse to acknowledge their responsibility in creating space at the table and instead continually put the table inside an exclusive clubhouse where most of us will never be able to afford the membership fees or dress code, and even if we are allowed in, the abuse we receive from just being there requires its own resources.
If you want “diversity” in your software projects, pay the people who can’t afford to work for you for free. Pay those who take on a much greater risk than you do for just existing in your project. Pay those with talents and experiences different from yours. Otherwise, shut the fuck up about “diversity”, because you cannot have it for free.
