Forum Software LC?

[Richard Gaskin]

Bob Sneidar wrote:
> Richard Gaskin wrote:
>>
>> Bob Sneidar wrote:
>>> Erm… neither of those are free. :-)
>>
>> Please explain.
>> https://github.com/discourse/discourse/blob/main/docs/INSTALL-cloud.md
>> https://discord.com/blog/starting-your-first-discord-server
>
>
> Well, if I go to my bartender and ask for a free beer, I might get one,
> but then the bartender or the owner has to pay for it.
 
True. These systems are popular enough that there's enough who choose to pay for optional premium services so the rest remains free of cost for everyone else.

> As for freedom, everyone I think knows that our freedoms are purchased
> at a precious price.
 
Also true.  After thousands of years of intellectual property theft, the Berne Convention of 1886 finally created a global framework establishing that the author of an original creative work has sole authority over its distribution.
 
A hundred years later the Free Software Foundation and others used the foundation established by the Berne Convention to create standardized licensing guaranteeing the freedom to read, modify, and redistribute software for any package using those licenses. These freedoms fostered such proliferation that today most of the world's software infrastructure is powered by open source.
 
--  
Richard Gaskin
Fourth World Systems