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My guess is the network-effect. If you want more contributions Github is the platform to pick for your project. Good or bad it is the de facto standard platform
by fileeditview 6y ago
My guess is the network-effect. If you want more contributions Github is the platform to pick for your project. Good or bad it is the de facto standard platform for OSS projects with a huge pool of potential developers.
- iforgotpassword 6y agoThat's it. Back in the day that's what was great about source forge. Now it's github. Many people already have an account there so you significantly lower the bar for people to get involved with patches, bug reports etc. If a project has self hosted infra and wants me to sign up to their Bugzilla I think twice before doing so. And if github really turns to shit because Microsoft shows their true evil face you can just move platforms again.
- jhasse 6y agoCheck out https://gitlab.kitware.com/users/sign_in https://gitlab.kitware.com/users/sign_in or https://gitlab.xiph.org/users/sign_in https://gitlab.xiph.org/users/sign_in You can sign up with your GitHub account.
- iruoy 6y agohttps://gitlab.gnome.org/users/sign_in https://gitlab.gnome.org/users/sign_in even allows you to login with a GitLab account. Which ironically isn't possible on these other two.
- devmunchies 6y agoI don't think this is it. I think it's more about (1) marketing and discoverability and (2) ease for current maintainers. Getting new contributors is overrated for OSS unless they are an exceptional contributor (like if a big org were to contribute). Main incentive is getting more consumers of the project (increase popularity) and making it more convenient for current team.
- fileeditview 6y agoI agree but think it's a bit of both and depends on the project. I e.g. don't think SDL needs more exposure. Everyone in game dev knows SDL.. many game engines / frameworks are built on top of it.