One of the things I think protestware doesn’t understand is that the “users” of something are not clear-cut, and that should be especially obvious for things like chains of dependencies in modules/libraries. In other words, some (if not many or even most) people have no idea that something else they use (or even need) is depending on your stupid module.
For example, how would I know if my mouse driver software happens to use a certain Node module, and one of its auto-updates just starts breaking things? Yes, it would be a stupid technical decision on the part of the mouse driver company (and that company would ultimately be responsible for the fallout) but how does that help the person actually affected, in the meantime? And did the protestware developer really not think that someone “downstream” like this could be affected by such decisions? Not everyone is sitting at a terminal seeing a message printed out.
Of course there are other reasons too, e.g. you completely destroy your credibility as a project (or even potential employee in the industry) by pulling stunts like this, and how could that be worth it in the long run?
So company is making mice in bad place X, mice break after update, tech sleuths inevitably link mouse problem to protestware, people start asking questions about company? Isn’t that potentially causing change? Doesn’t that specifically rely on affecting downstream users? So you weigh the likelihood of positive vs negative outcomes against your risk tolerance and act accordingly.
I’d personally think that working on Truth Social would permanently affect your credibility in the industry, yet they have some devs who probably feel proud to work there. So people have different priorities in their lives.
For example, how would I know if my mouse driver software happens to use a certain Node module, and one of its auto-updates just starts breaking things? Yes, it would be a stupid technical decision on the part of the mouse driver company (and that company would ultimately be responsible for the fallout) but how does that help the person actually affected, in the meantime? And did the protestware developer really not think that someone “downstream” like this could be affected by such decisions? Not everyone is sitting at a terminal seeing a message printed out.
Of course there are other reasons too, e.g. you completely destroy your credibility as a project (or even potential employee in the industry) by pulling stunts like this, and how could that be worth it in the long run?