5 ms·

SourceForge are still going, they were bought up (along with Slashdot) by BizX last year. SF President, Logan Abbot, does a fair bit of outreach on Reddit.[1]

by Nexxxeh 10y ago

SourceForge are still going, they were bought up (along with Slashdot) by BizX last year. SF President, Logan Abbot, does a fair bit of outreach on Reddit.[1] They do seem to actually care about the two properties. Supposedly there's a big redesign of SF in the pipeline, and more importantly, the first thing they did when they took over was cancel that malware hijack monetization bullshit which the previous owners had embarked upon. They scan for malware now too apparently, added 2FA and are offering HTTPS downloads. Regaining trust is an uphill battle, but they're giving it a damn good go. Searching HN to see if he'd done similar to his AMA-type thing on /r/sysadmin[2], it's sad to see their blogposts have been posted and got no love. I didn't even know SF had a blog, and it seems to have some cool content. (He didn't do an AMA-style post here, probably wise, but the Reddit post was submitted here and he showed up in the comments [3]). [1] https://www.reddit.com/user/loganabbott https://www.reddit.com/user/loganabbott [2] https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/4n3e1s/the_state_of_sourceforge_since_its_acquisition_in/ https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/4n3e1s/the_state_... [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11860752 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11860752

josh64 10y ago
SourceForge still provide the best project web hosting service that I know of. They recently enabled https on project sites too. It will be interesting to see what their big redesign is.
anon12345690 10y ago
Logan and his dad Roger Abbott are behind Wirefly along with Bizx and lots of other shady companies with plenty of criminal history. > ...Mr. Abbott, has a track record of entrepreneurial flair and illegal hustle. He spent three years in prison after conviction on cocaine trafficking in 1983. After his release, he set up a telemarketing company that attracted regulatory scrutiny for its tactics in selling precious metals investments. In 1991, Mr. Abbott founded Communications Telesystems, which became known for slamming, the practice of switching customers from one long-distance service to another without their permission. After tens of thousands of complaints, the California Public Utilities Commission revoked the company's permission to operate most services in the state. 1. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/27/business/technology-a-suit-says-worldcom-deals-obscured-millions-in-bad-debt.html http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/27/business/technology-a-suit... 2. http://articles.latimes.com/1997-05-21/business/fi-60971_1_state-regulators http://articles.latimes.com/1997-05-21/business/fi-60971_1_s... 3. http://law.justia.com/cases/california/court-of-appeal/3d/162/635.html http://law.justia.com/cases/california/court-of-appeal/3d/16... 4. http://www.droid-life.com/2014/03/13/wirefly-abruptly-closes-up-shop-shady-penny-phone-deals-and-all/ http://www.droid-life.com/2014/03/13/wirefly-abruptly-closes...
- Nexxxeh 10y ago
  The first three seem to be mostly about Roger Abbott. An interesting read. >Regulators said the company was the brainchild of Roger B. Abbott, 39, who served three years in state prison after a 1982 conviction for cocaine trafficking in Orange County. Court records show he drove a red Porsche at the time with license plates that read "CRACK." Not sure I would hold that against him, a drug trafficking conviction from the eighties. In 2002,the date on the first article, Logan would have been what, 13 or 14 years old? As for Wirefly, weren't they teetering on the edge of being bought by Wallmart or something? I'll reserve judgment, but be cautiously optimistic.
nkristoffersen 10y ago
If I follow a project link and it is hosted on SourceForge I leave very quickly. Can't win me back.
- stinos 10y ago
  I know the 'you screw me up once, I'll never trust you again' principle is very human, built into our genes probably, but just like in real life people can change. So suppose SF did change for the good (I didn't check yet, but it seems so according to other commenters) then maybe it's time for bit of open-mindness and some forgiveness?
  - inimino 10y ago
    Nope. That ship sailed so long ago, the only brand SF has now is "old busted OSS that nobody has bothered to migrate to something decent". There's nothing left to save.
    - loganabbott 10y ago
      We're a completely different company that owns SourceForge now than the one that made the decisions to erode trust. Everything we've been doing is is outlined here: https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/4n3e1s/the_state_of_sourceforge_since_its_acquisition_in/ https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/4n3e1s/the_state_...
      - inimino 10y ago
        Glad to hear it. Trust is hard to win back. I don't envy you the task of trying to make sourceforge relevant again but I hope you succeed!
Steeeve 10y ago
SFs malware installers should have served as a warning to all developers. Unfortunately, there seems to be the same thing happening with GitHub - at least from a layperson's perspective. (same thing meaning that github has extraordinary mindshare in the open source community) Personally, I'm usually surprised when I encounter an opensource project that is not hosted on github. There are plenty of other options, but github has entirely too much mindshare to be safe. The people currently managing it have proven trustworthy, and git's architecture makes it easier to migrate should that change in the future. But even if it's easy there is a cost in lost supporting data. Developers need to support other tools so that the big dogs have a reason to play nice through takeovers or changing business climates. I hope that Gitlab continues to grow. And I'd love to see at least one other VCS grow their footprint. Competition is good. Git and github are not without problems, even if they are the preferred option at the moment. The more competition there is, the more pressure they have to improve. <ironic I have a strong opinion considering I spent exactly $0 on version control in the last 6 months>
- criddell 10y ago
  Does SourceForge still mess with installers?
  - Steeeve 10y ago
    I have no idea. Once they made their first attempt on me, I stayed away for good.
  - Nexxxeh 10y ago
    No. And everything is scanned for Malware too.
  - loganabbott 10y ago
    No we do not. When my company acquired SourceForge in 2016 the first thing we did was eliminate bundled adware installers. We now scan all projects for malware as well, have https downloads, and more. Big redesign coming soon too. Ars: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/06/under-new-management-sourceforge-moves-to-put-badness-in-past/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/06/under... Reddit AMA: https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/4n3e1s/the_state_of_sourceforge_since_its_acquisition_in/ https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/4n3e1s/the_state_...

by Nexxxeh 10y ago

josh64 10y ago

SourceForge still provide the best project web hosting service that I know of. They recently enabled https on project sites too. It will be interesting to see what their big redesign is.

anon12345690 10y ago

Logan and his dad Roger Abbott are behind Wirefly along with Bizx and lots of other shady companies with plenty of criminal history. > ...Mr. Abbott, has a track record of entrepreneurial flair and illegal hustle. He spent three years in prison after conviction on cocaine trafficking in 1983. After his release, he set up a telemarketing company that attracted regulatory scrutiny for its tactics in selling precious metals investments. In 1991, Mr. Abbott founded Communications Telesystems, which became known for slamming, the practice of switching customers from one long-distance service to another without their permission. After tens of thousands of complaints, the California Public Utilities Commission revoked the company's permission to operate most services in the state. 1. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/27/business/technology-a-suit-says-worldcom-deals-obscured-millions-in-bad-debt.html http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/27/business/technology-a-suit... 2. http://articles.latimes.com/1997-05-21/business/fi-60971_1_state-regulators http://articles.latimes.com/1997-05-21/business/fi-60971_1_s... 3. http://law.justia.com/cases/california/court-of-appeal/3d/162/635.html http://law.justia.com/cases/california/court-of-appeal/3d/16... 4. http://www.droid-life.com/2014/03/13/wirefly-abruptly-closes-up-shop-shady-penny-phone-deals-and-all/ http://www.droid-life.com/2014/03/13/wirefly-abruptly-closes...

Nexxxeh 10y ago
The first three seem to be mostly about Roger Abbott. An interesting read. >Regulators said the company was the brainchild of Roger B. Abbott, 39, who served three years in state prison after a 1982 conviction for cocaine trafficking in Orange County. Court records show he drove a red Porsche at the time with license plates that read "CRACK." Not sure I would hold that against him, a drug trafficking conviction from the eighties. In 2002,the date on the first article, Logan would have been what, 13 or 14 years old? As for Wirefly, weren't they teetering on the edge of being bought by Wallmart or something? I'll reserve judgment, but be cautiously optimistic.

nkristoffersen 10y ago

If I follow a project link and it is hosted on SourceForge I leave very quickly. Can't win me back.

stinos 10y ago
I know the 'you screw me up once, I'll never trust you again' principle is very human, built into our genes probably, but just like in real life people can change. So suppose SF did change for the good (I didn't check yet, but it seems so according to other commenters) then maybe it's time for bit of open-mindness and some forgiveness?
- inimino 10y ago
  Nope. That ship sailed so long ago, the only brand SF has now is "old busted OSS that nobody has bothered to migrate to something decent". There's nothing left to save.
  - loganabbott 10y ago
    We're a completely different company that owns SourceForge now than the one that made the decisions to erode trust. Everything we've been doing is is outlined here: https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/4n3e1s/the_state_of_sourceforge_since_its_acquisition_in/ https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/4n3e1s/the_state_...
    - inimino 10y ago
      Glad to hear it. Trust is hard to win back. I don't envy you the task of trying to make sourceforge relevant again but I hope you succeed!

Steeeve 10y ago

SFs malware installers should have served as a warning to all developers. Unfortunately, there seems to be the same thing happening with GitHub - at least from a layperson's perspective. (same thing meaning that github has extraordinary mindshare in the open source community) Personally, I'm usually surprised when I encounter an opensource project that is not hosted on github. There are plenty of other options, but github has entirely too much mindshare to be safe. The people currently managing it have proven trustworthy, and git's architecture makes it easier to migrate should that change in the future. But even if it's easy there is a cost in lost supporting data. Developers need to support other tools so that the big dogs have a reason to play nice through takeovers or changing business climates. I hope that Gitlab continues to grow. And I'd love to see at least one other VCS grow their footprint. Competition is good. Git and github are not without problems, even if they are the preferred option at the moment. The more competition there is, the more pressure they have to improve. <ironic I have a strong opinion considering I spent exactly $0 on version control in the last 6 months>

criddell 10y ago
Does SourceForge still mess with installers?
- Steeeve 10y ago
  I have no idea. Once they made their first attempt on me, I stayed away for good.
- Nexxxeh 10y ago
  No. And everything is scanned for Malware too.
- loganabbott 10y ago
  No we do not. When my company acquired SourceForge in 2016 the first thing we did was eliminate bundled adware installers. We now scan all projects for malware as well, have https downloads, and more. Big redesign coming soon too. Ars: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/06/under-new-management-sourceforge-moves-to-put-badness-in-past/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/06/under... Reddit AMA: https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/4n3e1s/the_state_of_sourceforge_since_its_acquisition_in/ https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/4n3e1s/the_state_...