---
layout: post
title: "Leaving PrivacyGuides team"
category: [english]
tags: [privacyguides]
published: false
draft: true
---

*PrivacyGuides.org was supposed to be the continuation of PrivacyTools.io
 based on transparency/openess, actually reviewing recommendations and having
 at least two reviews by team members before un/recommending anything. That
 is no longer the case.*

Between 2021-11-12 and 2021-11-20 I had a friend visiting me physically so
I was less available online. During that time, on 2021-11-18 9.30 UTC+2
a pull request was force-merged by a team member listing three new projects
and removing two.

* https://github.com/privacyguides/privacyguides.org/pull/274

This was mentioned in the team room and reviews were asked during one hour
period before the force-merge, but no one was online to review before it was
already merged. I didn't realize what had happened, until another PR came in
on 2021-11-21.

I believe this change violates what PrivacyGuides stands for and as no one
has any interest making an announcement (this may be the first one) or
reverting the pull request until proper process, I consider that the team
has no purpose and isn't needed for reviewing anything as opinions of an
individual can be force-pushed through like that.

This has brought me enough anxiety and stress to distract me from other
aspects of my life and I consider my departure to be healthy in general.

The way things appear to be going is that there will be a change of criteria
that will then justify the change. To me this is just the other side of the
coin from changing a law to ban something and then punishing people for it
and not the way a transparent project should work.


## Previous leaving

I previously left Privacy Guides team, then known as Privacy Tools due to
there having been an issue I viewed as conflict of interest, someone in the
then-team being offered work or gig by a software/service that was willing to
be listed, which the rest of the team didn't consider as one or worth mentioning,
but you can find more information about that online.

Maybe I am just incapable of working in teams that claim to be something
they are not, while I personally aspire to stand for my values and be openly
and honestly myself.

## Other issues

I haven't been in the Matrix rooms of Privacy Guides in a long time outside
of the team, as I find them very draining. I think I have an issue with how
multiple people communicate and there are ongoing discussions on improving the
Code of Conduct.

Technically I disagree with the MATRIX LINK HERE recommendation, which is
partially my fault as I haven't send a PR on it which will not be happening now,
and a couple of recommendations or lack of them. I am sorry, this goes into
a bit of Matrix VS XMPP, while neither one is perfect.

* https://github.com/Mikaela/mikaela.github.io/issues/261

## What now

I hope leaving PrivacyGuides will leave me more time to do things that matter
to me and my hobbies and other things taking time. For example, I am at work
try-out practice, seeking for employment and I have recently agreed to contribute
into [FluffyChat's](https://fluffychat.im/) Finnish translations (while I feel
a bit guilty about the state of Finnish translations in KISS Launcher and Onion Share
that I haven't looked into in ages). Language learning also takes a lot of time
and stubborness to not give up.