Oh boy. This is a dark day for the 3DS scene. And it's all because of some stupid butthurt "muh entitlement to open-source" trolls.
None of this should have ever happened. When a developer makes a program, it is up to the developer to decide of he wants to release the source or not. The developer has ultimate control over their code, and others need to respect that decision. Personally, I prefer projects to be open source. But if a developer does not want to release their code, then that's fine. I won't persistantly nag them to open-source their code, because I respect the choices of the developer. They don't need a "reason" to close or open their code to the public. They may have their own personal beliefs about open or closed source, and it's not within our rights to know these personal reasons. I prefer open-source code because it contributes to the greater good, so people with ideas to make code better can freely put them into place. But there are pros to closed source to, especially in a community as scummy as the 3DS scene with all the piracy and copyright infringement (flashcard makers, I'm looking at you). You don't want people stealing your code, or modifying it in a way that opens doors for more shadier practices, like piracy. One can argue that a good open-source licence will protect the developer from being blamed for these kinds of modifications, but no neveloper would want to live with the fact that their project, made for a completely innocent purpose, was turned into a black area of all sorts of shady practices. We all need to respect the decisions that developers make, whether we like them or not.
The trolls (I won't name names, but everyone probably knows who I'm talking about) are behaving in a way that I find inexcusable. It it not within yours or anyone's rights to probe into the personal and moral decisions of someone. And what's even worse is that you just have to get all butthurt over it. Learn to live with the fact that everything does not revolve around you, and people have their own reasons for their decisions. There's a difference between asking someone
why their code is closed source, and asking someone
to open-source their code. There's no problem with asking someone why they have chosen what they want to do with their code. If they don't want to give an answer, then we need to respect that, and not try to probe deeper into the developer's choices. But when you are telling someone to open-source their code, that's not ok. You can ask them to, and if they reject, again, that's ok, and that choice should be respected. But if you keep nagging and nagging them to open-source their code, you're trying to get them to change their stance of the openness of their own project unwillingly. Nobody should have to do that. People need to learn to respect the decisions of not just a developer, but the decisions of people they meet in their everyday life. Acting like this is going to get you nowhere, and is only going to make you hated by more and more people.
Here's my personal stance on the whole debacle: NTR CFW should be kept closed source for it's life. I don't have a single problem with that. Even if I had the knowledge to make meaningful contributions to the project, I would hold onto them and save them for a day where the project may one day become open-source, or give it to someone who could make more use of it. When the project dies out, I would much prefer to see it become open source, as it would be very useful to the community to see how things were done. But if cell9 still wants to keep it closed-source, again, that's fine.
@cell9, the contributions you have made to the 3DS scene have been absolutely amazing, and it's sad to see such potential for the scene just up and leave because of trolls. But I respect your decision to leave the scene, and I don't blame you either (as I'm sure many other people on this forum do). At the end of the day, it's up to you to decide if you want to continue or not. If you don't want to keep going, that's fine. But if you do stay, many of us would be happier that way. None of us want to see such great potential for the scene be just washed away by trolls. It really saddens me that it's come to this point, and I hope that the trolls can see the error of their ways, and that all of us who have supported you throughout the life of this project will respect your choice to leave the scene. I think I can safely say that we are all sad to see such a great project die like this. But what's happened has happened, and there's nothing we can do to change this. We just need to move on, and continue making progress in the scene, like we have been doing for the past 2-3 years.
What I've said here is entirely my opinion, and nobody has to share the same mindset as me. But if you don't, I only ask that you respect my opinions stated here, as I have discussed many tines throughout this post.
drops mic
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BigOnYa:
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K3Nv2:
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Xdqwerty:
