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I'd guess that this is more due to the popularity of GitHub among potential contributiors to these projects. I've seen it mentioned many times here on HN that a

by exrook 8y ago

I'd guess that this is more due to the popularity of GitHub among potential contributiors to these projects. I've seen it mentioned many times here on HN that a potential contributor may not want to put in the effort to create an account on another VCS provider or send a patch to a mailing list, whereas submitting a pull request on GitHub is a much less involved process for them, given that they likely already have an account and are familiar with the process. However you could definitely argue that given that the projects in question are alternatives to GitHub, a developer interested in contributing will likely be invested enough to sign up for the alternative service.

captaincrowbar 8y ago
"I'd guess that this is more due to the popularity of GitHub among potential contributiors to these projects." Doesn't that support bmsleight's point? If Github is more popular than NotGithub, even among the developers of NotGithub, that doesn't exactly inspire confidence in NotGithub.
- megablast 8y ago
  No, it is about making a compromise because you live in the real world.
- exrook 8y ago
  Oh, it definitely could be considered as evidence that Github is a better platform for code hosting than gitea, gogs, etc. However I think that the difference is popularity is far more likely to be caused by network effects around Github as well as Github's comparative age. There are also other factors impacting a users's decision to choose one hosting platform/software over another unrelated to the functionality of the software, such as code licensing and self hosting capability. In summary, popularity certainly can be an indicator of whether or not a software or service is worth using, but it's not a direct measure of the quality or robustness or whatever other factors you may care about when making a decision.
- nerdponx 8y ago
  This isn't a social network. There's more to a source code hosting platform than popularity.
  - atomi 8y ago
    For me it's the ability to self host on cheap hardware. For that Gogs gets my support.

by exrook 8y ago

captaincrowbar 8y ago

"I'd guess that this is more due to the popularity of GitHub among potential contributiors to these projects." Doesn't that support bmsleight's point? If Github is more popular than NotGithub, even among the developers of NotGithub, that doesn't exactly inspire confidence in NotGithub.

megablast 8y ago
No, it is about making a compromise because you live in the real world.
exrook 8y ago
Oh, it definitely could be considered as evidence that Github is a better platform for code hosting than gitea, gogs, etc. However I think that the difference is popularity is far more likely to be caused by network effects around Github as well as Github's comparative age. There are also other factors impacting a users's decision to choose one hosting platform/software over another unrelated to the functionality of the software, such as code licensing and self hosting capability. In summary, popularity certainly can be an indicator of whether or not a software or service is worth using, but it's not a direct measure of the quality or robustness or whatever other factors you may care about when making a decision.
nerdponx 8y ago
This isn't a social network. There's more to a source code hosting platform than popularity.
- atomi 8y ago
  For me it's the ability to self host on cheap hardware. For that Gogs gets my support.