diff --git a/theStory.md b/theStory.md index bcebca4..f8ab416 100644 --- a/theStory.md +++ b/theStory.md @@ -1,16 +1,12 @@ -Since so many people want to know now, I am putting it here. - -So BetterCanvas is/was a nice extension that grew to 2M users. It was a very good extension and it added some nice things to canvas lms while being FOSS. -One day the extension was force-updated and turned into what is now BetterCampus. It was completely (I think) rewritten version that wanted an account to use some things (but really pushes you to make one), mixed up the settings UI, and added things under a subscription that used to be free/nobody wanted and pushes it at 20$/month or 10$/month if you do a year. They also state under their companies tab on their website “Put your brand inside the student learning experience“. Most importantly it was no longer open source. +BetterCanvas was a nice extension that added some nice things to canvas lms like dark mode and some small style changes while being FOSS and grew to 2M users. One day the extension was force-updated and turned into what is now BetterCampus. It was a completely (I think) rewritten version that wanted an account to use some basic things (but really pushes you to make one), mixed up the settings UI, and added things under a subscription that used to be free/nobody wanted and pushes it at 20$/month or 10$/month if you do a year. They also state under their companies tab on their website “Put your brand inside the student learning experience“. Most importantly it was no longer open source. I got mad and found that their open-source repo of the original to fork it, but then I noticed it was no longer under MIT. I checked the commit history and saw they just changed the license without the code so I reverted back to the MIT version. -My goal was originally to just have the original version and maybe add a few things, but it over time it became a goal to add the good new features they added in the update and more to get people to use the FOSS version over theirs since simple educational tools should be free and open source. - -I called it "Actually Better Canvas" for a while until I revealed my repo to them in a post where they asked for feedback they immediately C&D'd me for using their old name "Better Canvas" (not a big deal, I rebranded to Canvas Refined) and because Instructure said not even they can use "Canvas" in their name. I told them I’ll change the name and "I'll let Instructure decide if they want to C&D a small harmless FOSS project". +My goal was originally to just have the original version and maybe add a few things, but it over time it became a goal to add the good new features they added in the update and more to get people to use the FOSS version over theirs since simple educational tools should be free and open source. +I called it "Actually Better Canvas" for a while until I revealed my repo to them in a reddit post where they asked for feedback they immediately C&D'd me for using their old name "Better Canvas" (not a big deal, I rebranded to Canvas Refined) and because Instructure said not even they can use "Canvas" in their name. I told them I’ll change the name and "I'll let Instructure decide if they want to C&D a small harmless FOSS project". I made a few posts on reddit (probably not the best idea) to ask if someone can help me get a canvas account from a school or somewhere so I can get my extension reviewed and published on the chrome web store because after the hack Instructure removed Free-for-Teachers. As soon as I did they quickly made a lot of progressively more angry posts with their official account trying to defend themselves and make me look bad. (ps: I don’t need one since I am self hosting canvas now) -They also said “if the user wants to make a net-new extension, we can't stop them. but if they use our code from our open source repo, a stipulaton is they can't post on webstore” despite me having the MIT license. They also emailed me again about it and started talking about their lawyers and not wanting to start billable hours which is when I contacted FULU because I didn't know who to contact and my friends suggested it. (Thank you so much -Louis Rossmann!). +They also said “if the user wants to make a net-new extension, we can't stop them. but if they use our code from our open source repo, a stipulaton is they can't post on webstore” despite me having the MIT license. They also emailed me again about it and started talking about their lawyers and not wanting to start billable hours which is when I contacted FULU because I didn't know who to contact and my friends suggested it. (Thank you so much Louis Rossmann!). +After only a few days he respond with a lot of inspiring words and made a community post on his youtube channel advertising my repo, which seemed to have gotten betterCampus off my back and is why the starchart looks like that.