4 ms·

Not allowing unpaid labor of Russian developers in your software project somehow damages the Russian economy?

• shiroiushi 2y ago
  Yeah, this is what I don't get. Basically, the rest of the world is getting a bunch of free labor here, and also keeping these Russians busy doing this free labor that probably doesn't directly benefit Russia's war machine, rather than having them go get a job in the defense sector (or spend more time at work there). Edit: upon further reading, it seems that the free labor isn't being completely refused, but rather these peoples' maintainership status has been revoked, apparently because lawyers said it was necessary due to sanctions. So they can still contribute, but now they have to submit their patches through a maintainer just like any other regular contributor. And also apparently, all the people involved aren't just random nerds who happen to live in Russia, but rather are directly employed at Russian companies on the sanction list. So yeah, it kinda sucks, and probably feels like a slap in the face to them, but this is one of the harsh realities of international politics. At least it's not like back in the Soviet days when there was essentially zero contact between scientists and engineers on both sides and they couldn't collaborate on projects like this at all.