Activists, Including Technical Activists, Need Not Pursue Affirmation
Seeing the sort of Web (and Gemini Protocol) traffic we get every day, it's quite clear that many people can relate to what we write or help other people publish (sans retaliation risk). Some of them come to IRC to tell us so. Some write us E-mail. Some participate over IRC and/or E-mail. Some read us via gemini://, many use RSS, and some actually open Web pages. We're also readable in plain text form (a daily digest or bulletin), so the site can be read with curl or GNU wget, nothing "bloated" like Lynx.
I don't want to be "accepted" by GAFAM. If I was accepted or praised by people who work for GAFAM, that would mean that I did something wrong. If only more bloggers realised this...
The press, in general, often conflates praise from companies it is covering with "success" or accomplishment. Some of the online media gets rewarded for it (e.g. advertising contracts or "partnerships").
Techrights will never be "widely" accepted. This is fine. As long as we don't do (or say) racist things, or encourage violence etc. any rejection of our stance can be judged based on the raw substance. Not agreeing with us is one thing; bullying us (even family members!) is another.
Activists are principled people. As my wife put it, RMS could probably make a lot of money. But he chose not to. He wasn't into hoarding. Activists that I've long admired perished or sold out (I'd rather not name them). Not all of them did that, but some did. In at least one case this happened due to a mindless, hopeless pursuit of affirmation. It didn't work. It made things even worse by alienating the supporters who were genuine, i.e. those who actually mattered all along.
If you see someone rejecting or badmouthing Techrights, ask why. Usually it'll boil down to some baseless canards, maybe even personal attacks on me (based on things I never said or did).
Techrights doesn't play or participate in a "popularity contest". Thankfully, moreover, it does not "engage" with platforms where it's basically a 'bunch of pricks' with big egos (or insecurities) doing a "popularity contest". In case it is too nuanced, yes, we're mostly talking about social control media here. Activism isn't a beauty pageant; it can sometimes be crude and ugly (like protests), no shining shimmer.
Yesterday I explained to somebody who had read this site since its genesis that we have loads of good articles (thousands) on the way; many are written already, just not polished. What truly matters is the timing, not just the substance. There's a "right" time to say things, based on the underlying objectives.
If you think Techrights is "hardball", be prepared of what's to come. We have loads more in store. █