In Defense of Quincy Larson and freeCodeCamp
Tags: freecodecamp, devto, meta, news
Published: 2019-06-04 14:49:29

In case you missed, it [freeCodeCamp News has moved to Medium](https://www.freecodecamp.org/forum/t/we-just-moved-off-of-medium-and-onto-freecodecamp-news-heres-how-you-can-use-it/279929). Since then, there has been a slight uproar about copyright infringement and @ossia’s motivations.

Before we start this discussion, let’s recap.

## Recap

### Medium Threatens freeCodeCamp

![Quincy Describes Actions Taken By Medium in an Email]( https://i1.wp.com/wptavern.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Screen-Shot-2019-05-31-at-1.48.01-PM.png)

As seen in the image above, Quincy describes steps Medium took to get freeCodeCamp behind their paywall to capitalize on the traffic the freeCodeCamp News blog brings. The email clearly states that:

> They pressured us to put our articles behind their paywalls. We refused. So they tried to buy us. […] We refused. Then they started threatening us with a lawyer.  

The motivation to get freeCodeCamp away from Medium is clear: Medium sole interest is money. Even @ben explains that:

{% link https://dev.to/devteam/medium-was-never-meant-to-be-a-part-of-the-developer-ecosystem-25a0 %}

### freeCodeCamp Moves off Medium

On May 27th, 2019, freeCodeCamp announces their move off Medium. It is impossible for me to describe freeCodeCamp’s move off Medium better than @ossia himself: [https://www.freecodecamp.org/forum/t/we-just-moved-off-of-medium-and-onto-freecodecamp-news-heres-how-you-can-use-it/279929](https://www.freecodecamp.org/forum/t/we-just-moved-off-of-medium-and-onto-freecodecamp-news-heres-how-you-can-use-it/279929).

To summarize, freeCodeCamp used the [Ghost blog platform](https://ghost.org/) to serve as the home of freeCodeCamp News. He admits that the freeCodeCamp team is “still fixing quite a few bugs.”

### @ben Writes About the freeCodeCamp Move to Medium

In {% link https://dev.to/ben/i-m-concerned-with-the-move-that-freecodecamp-just-pulled-by-leaving-medium-io8 %} explains that:

> FreeCodeCamp seems to have just pulled the plug and taken everyone’s Medium content with them, to be displayed in a different context, wiping out the canonical URLs, while depriving the authors their ability to edit, delete, or manage in any way.  

He tweets his article:

{% twitter 1133444368289927174 %} to 29K+ of his followers. In the thread, he accuses freeCodeCamp of literally stealing content without the consent of the copyright holder:

{% twitter 1133494706363609088 %} and breaking the law {% twitter 1133459111184666631 %}

## Personal Opinion

@ossia has made his motivations for moving off of Medium very clear. It is obvious that Medium wants to monetize the freeCodeCamp blog posts while freeCodeCamp (in their usual fashion) believes in an open internet and blog posts that are free to read.

@ben is concerned about freeCodeCamp and those who have created content for the freeCodeCamp publication. However, I don’t understand why that concern needed to be made public in front of the entire developer community. If the concern is real, why blast it? Why not approach @ossia in private or, better yet, schedule an open discussion with @ossia present?  Why accuse @ossia of being “super flippant in addressing the issue?”
{% twitter 1133492390520676352 %}

[Tyler McGinnis](https://twitter.com/tylermcginnis) points out that @ben’s article “feels a little premature and virtue signally.":
{% twitter 1133490470829547520 %} and I completely agree.

This uproar on the @ben’s part comes off as a play against the perceived competition (though [@ossia promises it will not be a competitor to dev.to](https://twitter.com/ossia/status/1133457561070579712)) and to promote his position as a content creator advocate.

The freeCodeCamp migration from Medium to their own platform did not go so well. There are issues with the author link that are being patched up. Mistakes were made. However, given everything that [freeCodeCamp](https://www.freecodecamp.org) has done for the developer community (read: provide a FREE platform for ANYONE to learn web development), we as a developer community should give their small, non-profit organization the benefit of the doubt.

Lastly, please feel at liberty to share your thoughts on this issue. Don’t let “content creators,” tell you that it’s hard to understand if “you’ve never been a content creator” {% twitter 1133475647664398337 %} or that you’re not at liberty to criticize @ben {% twitter 1133790929389871104 %}

Most of all, don’t let “content creators” make you feel as if your questions and concerns are “costing a lot of time.” {% twitter 1133801190096023552 %}

Don’t let your voice be stifled.

I’m with @ossia. ✊