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> People saying that it is easy to migrate don’t know what they are > talking about. GitHub isn’t just Git hosting, but a social network > of open source de
by braythwayt 8y ago
> People saying that it is easy to migrate don’t know what they are
> talking about. GitHub isn’t just Git hosting, but a social network
> of open source developers and projects. You can’t migrate stars,
> issues with comments and the history of PRs, all linked to the
> profiles of their authors.
Every single for-profit company works their ass off to build a "moat" around their business and to create switching costs, even if they boast that you can "just take your data and leave."
It is not an accident that it is difficult for non-trivial projects to "just leave GitHub." That is by design, it is part of how it grew to become the 800 pound gorilla, and it is part of why Microsoft bought them.
- vxNsr 8y agoHe made it pretty clear that there wasn't a moat that he needed to forge but rather the missing the community, that's not really something that anyone could build a tool to transfer...
- thomasthomas 8y agocommunities are moats too
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- RugnirViking 8y agoIndeed. And while it might seem that pointing this out is setting impossibly high standards, companies encourage communities for soley this reason. It's debatable weather the advantage of companies pushing community is worth this cost, but its something to consider.
- crazypyro 8y agoMaybe even one of the strongest moats that exists because it doesn't feel like a cage... until it does.
- braythwayt 8y agoAbsolutely, as people who try to leave Facebook discover. It's easy to download your data from Facebook. Not so easy to keep in touch with people who have moved "keeping in touch" to Facebook groups and messenger.