Helping the Pirate Party to vanish

[Michael Allan]

Marc and Alex,

Marc said:
> B) Why do you do not want to merge Outcast and CDS?

Thank you, I do.  We just have to finish clarifying how the merged
platform is going to obtain its users.  Again, either we (1) eliminate
network effects and enable the users to range freely across all
platforms, including competitors; or (2) rely on network effects to
force all users onto the single, merged platform.

> I am still towards (1) and I don't see any reason not to be. But I
> guess we have some basic misunderstanding here.
> 
> So let's condense the goal:
> 
> a) Let the users freely choose their favorite tooling,
> b) while the whole discourse is covered and
> c) without any loss of data.
> 
> What is the point now?

I agree with (a), but why restrict the user's choice to (b) and (c)?
Suppose user U needs a toolset that covers only part of the discourse,
or part of the data.  Why not give U the same freedom as others to
choose according to personal need, or preference?  Who would have the
authority to say, "No, that choice is not permitted".

> A) One of the main paradigms of the Pirate Party is: "If we have
> reached our goals, then there is no need for the Pirate Party
> anymore!"  Therefore, no - there will be not much resistance on the
> way towards (1), because the Pirate Party is more like a movement
> than a party. And if not, I will quit my membership.

I think it's just human nature and unavoidable for any organization.
People have interests - advantages, sunk expenses, hopes - and will
fight to protect them.  All organizations are resistant to change.
After much arm twisting, an influential Pirate might agree to (1) in
principle, only to turn around and refuse to act in practice.  That
kind of thing is likely to happen repeatedly.  Although the party
would begin to feel the strain as soon as you seriously commited to
(1), I'm afraid one of the first pieces to come breaking off would be
you, Marc.  Could you work on the technology from outside the party?

One thing in your favour is that political parties can't last much
longer anyway.  The party that first allows people to move freely from
party to party (platform to platform) will rip open the party system
"like a can of tuna", to use Beppe Grillo's phrase.  This rogue party
wants everyone to participate, so it just allows them to participate
regardless of membership.  That destroys it as a political party, of
course, but delights the majority of people who don't like political
parties anyway.  Now they have a chance to express that dislike by
giving the rogue party's candidate list (their candidate list) a
majority in the Bundestag, or Italian Parliament, or whatnot.

Alex said:
> That's the sole purpose of the pirate party, to vanish! :-)

If you folks want, you can help the party to honour that word.

Mike


marc said:
> Hi Michael,
> 
> Now I am confused!
> 
> A) One of the main paradigms of the Pirate Party is: "If we have reached our 
> goals, then there is no need for the Pirate Party anymore!"
> Therefore, no - there will be not much resistance on the way towards (1), 
> because the Pirate Party is more like a movement than a party. And if not, I 
> will quit my membership.
> 
> B) Why do you do not want to merge Outcast and CDS?
> 
> 
> I am still towards (1) and I don't see any reason not to be. But I guess we 
> have some basic misunderstanding here.
> 
> So let's condense the goal:
> 
> a) Let the users freely choose their favorite tooling,
> b) while the whole discourse is covered and
> c) without any loss of data.
> 
> 
> What is the point now?
> 
> Cheers
> marc