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This is scary. For increasingly many potential contributors a project effectively does not exist if it is not on GitHub. And, being a huge centralized service,
by Fice 10y ago
This is scary. For increasingly many potential contributors a project effectively does not exist if it is not on GitHub. And, being a huge centralized service, GitHub is very susceptible to censorship (e.g. repos being taken down via DMCA or Russia blocking GitHub until they started to cooperate with the censors). I see this dependence as very bad and dangerous for the free software movement. Should we even consider convenience of a service that has serious ethical issues?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- ianai 10y agoBitbucket does exist though.
- chaostheory 10y agoWhy is it scary? Is it that hard to move to bitbucket, gitlab, or another alternative git host if needed?
- wyldfire 10y agoIt's not hard, IMO. But it would be nice if these critical projects created gitlab or bitbucket mirrors.
- Fice 10y agoThis is not about how hard or easy it is to move from GitHub. What scares me is that it is increasingly hard to participate in the open source/free software community without using GitHub, and it is increasingly hard to find contributors for your own project if you are not willing to host it there.
- chaostheory 10y agoWhy is it scary to use Github? Is there some hidden cost that people aren't aware of?
- Fice 10y agoThe programming community became globally dependent on a single commercial company. Using GitHub would mean contributing to that dependence and monopolization even more.
- chaostheory 10y agoIs anyone really dependent when the cost to switch to a different provider is low? You haven't given a good reason.
- Fice 10y agoIt's not just about moving data from one provider to another. GitHub is not simply a hosting service, it's a large centralized social network, and the cost of switching from it includes reduced project visibility and disconnection from the community.
- chaostheory 10y agoThese may be issues for smaller projects, but I don't feel that either visibility or community is a problem for a project like Python. They have the luxury of going wherever they want and people will follow.
- bastawhiz 10y ago> repos being taken down via DMCA or Russia blocking GitHub until they started to cooperate with the censors Is this not the case with other hosts? If Gitlab got a DMCA notice, would they not be forced to comply? I don't think this is a good argument against Github.
- Fice 10y agoBeing removed from one of many interchangeable hosting services is one thing. Being removed from the one central service that everyone around insists on using is another. GitHub, due to it's extreme popularity and centralized nature, is becoming the global gatekeeper for the programming community.