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"There are thousands of volunteers who donated their labour to Duo... Bit by bit all of our work was hidden from us as Duolingo became a publicly-traded company." (aus.social)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 23 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Seriously. I don't know what outcome people expected. Duolingo is not a non-profit, or a community project like Anki. I hope everybody who is surprised by this is receptive to the lesson.

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  • [–] 19 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    While it is true that corporations are terrible and will do anything in the name of profit, what you guys are saying is “they got fucked and it’s their fault.” It’s not like corporations are some animal who can’t help but be who they are. They are formed by people who choose to fuck other people over for their own benefit. Fuck off with your victim blaming.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago

    they got fucked and it's their fault

    That's not at all what I'm saying. What I'm saying is people can choose to participate in a community that is controlled by a for-profit company if they want to, but they should temper their expectations accordingly.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago

    It’s not like corporations are some animal who can’t help but be who they are.

    That's exactly what they are. They are composed of people only to the extent that a car is composed of wheels.

    If it's otherwise in working order, a flat tire will be replaced and the car will be going wherever it's meant to go. Profit city is where all roads lead to, and a flat tire (or four) can only delay for so long.

    If you want to hold corporations to moral standards, you have to change the incentives (destinations) and restructure corporations to be actually owned and controlled by people who are then held to those moral standards (put more of the car into the wheels).

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    It’s not like corporations are some animal who can’t help but be who they are.

    I think you need to read a little more about economics, because this is exactly what they are. In fact, they have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders to maximize profits.

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  • [–] -3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Corporations don't exist in a vacuum. They need to fuck people over or they'll get outcompeted.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Thieves don’t exist in a vacuum either. So what you’re saying is a thief should rob more, or else other thieves will take what he could have stolen instead, and then he’ll be out of the thieving business? What kind of fucked up bullshit logic is that?

    I know corporations are part of reality, but that doesn’t mean they should be excused for profiting on volunteer work. But my point is that the volunteers are being blamed as if they fucked around and now they’re in the stages of finding out, as if they’ve done something so stupid no one would have ever done. Unfortunately, part of reality too is that unless one of these volunteers has sufficient power and money to fight them, corporations like Duo will go on with impunity and they’ll keep fucking people over and others will keep not only justifying them, but also supporting them by buying their products, because it’s just easier to be spineless.

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