The communist manifesto was recently published in the xstore.
I am aware that webxdc is also suitable for eBooks and it makes sense to demonstrate this with a good example. After all, the official store does not have a monopoly on apps, but it is a kind of showroom for webxdc. So I don’t think the communist manifesto is a good choice for two reasons.
1.)
In my opinion, webxdc is more suitable for interactive eBooks.
For Example something like “The Cave of Time”. Although its cover is probably not ideal.
In addition, webxdc offers no advantages when it comes to sharing normal books.
The easiest way to do this is to send a PDF file. Interesting text passages can also be copied into a chat.
2.)
I think it would be better to present non-political books in the xstore as examples of webxdc eBooks. Perhaps a free poem or quote collection would be ideal to demonstrate the quote feature.
Otherwise there is a risk that DC could be perceived as a political project.
Since people have different political views, this could lead to many potential users not giving DC a chance.
One should also not forget that many crimes were committed in the name of communist ideology. Therefore, it is not a good idea to offer the communist manifesto for download in xstore, the showroom for webxdc.
Not that I’m a communism fan, but IMO in this particular case the app is there just because someone made it. Nobody made The Capitalist Manifesto so it’s not there.
I think it would be too strict of a policy for the store to disallow apps based on their political alignment.
But I agree that this could be viewed as a political expression of the core Delta Chat / webxdc developers given that most of the apps currently listed in the store have been developed by the said developers.
And, according to the developer, @adbenitez, it’s not to be taken seriously. His message in the Delta Chat Community group:
as a joke in some minutes created this lil app with a book/text that let you quote/share fragments of it with the group, maybe something to inspire other similar ideas, ex. the same for the Bible or other popular author that a group of people like to quote in some conversation in a fun way
But new users don’t know it.
That’s fine for fun, but you don’t have to publish the app in the official store.
In any case, I don’t think that’s a good idea. There would have been better ways to demonstrate the citation function.
i don’t know – how about you copy-paste the repository and submit some other text that is a better example? It’s not much work and i am sure @adbenitez would help in case of technical problems.
notice that even if the app can act as an example, it is just another app that I submitted to the store, its purpose is not to be “the example app” but actually be used by users that find it useful/funny that are the reason I created the app initially because I interact with some people that find it useful
and the app is not just a book, in that case a PDF would be enough, it allows to quote fragments in the chat it is sent, that is the webxdc part
There’s nothing wrong with that.
As I explained above, I simply think the book selection is problematic.
That’s why I wouldn’t publish it in the xstore.
I don’t find it problematic, it is just a book/document, if you or someone else don’t need it or like it just don’t use it, the ones that want it can use it, the same for all apps in the store, not everyone has to like every single app there, or? that I wouldn’t publish myself an app about X or Y topic because I don’t like/care about it, doesn’t mean no one else should/could do it, or?
also notice the app was published by DeltaZen organization, not by Delta Chat organization, it feels to me like you are demanding as if it was Delta Chat organization and you have some standards/expectations
Personally I have no problem with it, although I am not a communist.
I was just worried that potential users might not differentiate so much and think DC is a political project.
Everything I write here in this forum is my opinion and nothing else. I don’t make any demands. That would also be absurd since I am not part of Delta Chat.
there are a lot of “communist manifesto” apps at google play, I bet no one thinks Google from USA is a communist company as a store it doesn’t mean you should allow only content you agree politically with, that wouldn’t be a neutral/impartial store and would be quite a place full of censorship of anything not in the ideology of Delta Chat org members, that would be awful.
thanks for your reply and opinions, I know you say it because you care about the project, it is appreciated
I would go another angle and say it is not app/interactive enough to be a good example of a webxdc app.
Improvement ideas for the app part of the "E-book"
The “app” in question is not interactive/good enough in my eyes to be called a good demonstation of the technology, some ideas to improve it:
share quotes not as webxdc info message, but as real message and let users decide what chat to send it “webxdc.sendToChat”
turn the app more into a good ebook reader (allow changing font size and color scheme for best reading experience)
allow users to mark and discuss the book inline (in the app),
like share book marks and add comments to selected text (like how you mark and comment text when you read a book for university/school)
provide the reader as an app without a book as content
so it can be used by everyone (maybe a short demo book that explains the app)
there could also be a library bot that sends you the app with specific books,
- but the store version should not be tied to a book unless we add categories so the store so it is not spammed by the same app with different content
About the political argument
I guess we need to publish more books of different perspectives to not appear one sided, though in this webxdc store context we are a “Do-ocracy” (as long as it doesn’t violate our community standards). which means the people, that do the work, decide. so it’s up to you to publish other books to make a “balance”
(But really, we should add more books, I agree with @Raiden that it looks kinda bad to only have one political book, could be miss-interpreted as a political statement)
the app is not an example app!
you are probably aware that we have a calculator app in the store, it doesn’t use Webxdc at all, there is no need for it to be a webxdc app, yet no one has complained about it?
what is happening is that there are other reasons for you and some other people here not liking the app
1.) In my opinion, webxdc is more suitable for interactive eBooks.
An actual example would be more more appreciated than a mere opinion, I’m sure.
2.) I think it would be better to present non-political books in the xstore as examples of webxdc eBooks.
The publication in question is a philosophical work, and an enormously influential one at that.
Perhaps you could publish an interactive publication yourself? How about ‘Raiden’s Cancel Culture Manifesto’, as a working title? Instead of criticising somebody else’s contribution, make your own.
please try to use a more friendly way of expressing your opinion – it’s fine to have a discussion around curation principles for xdcget/xdcstore submission and there is no need to escalate it with terms like “cancel culture”. Thanks.
What specifically is so objectionable about the manifesto itself? I haven’t seen any arguments made here about the actual content of the manifesto.
The manifesto is listed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register for works of outstanding universal value, as part of its Memory of the World Program designed to protect the documentary heritage of humanity against collective amnesia, neglect, and destruction.
The inclusion of the manifesto in the xstore aligns with UNESCO’s call for works listed on its Memory of the World Register to be preserved, digitized, made accessible and disseminated.
Suspected of what exactly?
Unfortunately some people of evil and deluded views have misinterpreted and misrepresented the manifesto, just as people have done with virtually all other important works including the Bible, but it is unfair and prejudiced to assume that everyone who reads these works share those evil and deluded views. We can and should do better than to make these assumptions and perpetuate negative stereotypes.
I think there is a valid argument that by making the manifesto available, this can help to educate readers so they can read the original philosophical underpinning for themselves and see how the manifesto was misrepresented by the people who committed the crimes and how even today it continues to be taken out of context and either promoted or vilified by people who have never read it. Then they can recognize the crimes for what they were and not be fooled by scapegoats and propaganda. In this case more education is certainly better than censorship and ignorance.
Everything can be political. Even the right to encryption is up for political debate in many countries and governments around the world constantly try to erode peoples’ right to private and secure communication. This is antithetical to the mission of DC and if the DC project and community intentionally stayed silent about these issues because they are “political” I would be very disappointed. We should not be afraid to have a political voice.
With due respect Holger, we’re not friends here. We merely share some common interests. Therefore basic politeness is the baseline, anything else is entirely optional if not superfluous.
Also, the original post is inconsiderate towards the person who made the effort to provide the actual example application (whether he was trolling or not, it is a useful and easy to follow example) as well as ignorant as to the subject matter (a point which I trust needs no further development here due to its lack of topicality). On an incidental note, the original poster might also be surprised to know that his view of "communist ideology", as he wrongly puts it, is not shared by a majority in the (so-called) global South, comprising 88% of the world's population—Friedman's ‘Ripe for Revolution’ is probably a good introduction to the subject, for those interested. If he thinks that Delta chat or WebXDC should only be for the benefit of the West, it would be helpful for him to say so.
I don’t doubt that Raiden can make and has made useful contributions in other topics of our common interest, but it would be hypocritical as well as egoistic not to point out that this is not one of them.
I think the best thing would be to make a general app that could import epubs and sending to the chat as update, so from that point the quoting and rest of features could be added, the problem would be how to display the epub in the app, it is a shame that service workers doesn’t work on all platforms, that would make it so easy, but anyway epubs are not too complicated perhaps it can be done using iframes or any other idea.
Someone could then also make a bot as search fronted to https://www.gutenberg.org that sends you a custom version with the epub file hardcoded and the cover as webxdc icon.
Though the bot should have it’s own mirror of the whole of gutenberg to not be banned for automatic/robot access: Mirroring How To | Project Gutenberg
Some feedback about the citation function for future improvement, the citation UI gets occluded by the phone’s “copy/cut/select all” options which pop up automatically, makes it difficult to press the “share text” option.
