3 ms·

This culture of radical openness must be quite refreshing for people inside the company. A lot of companies would never want this sort of thing to be out in th

by beachy 5y ago

This culture of radical openness must be quite refreshing for people inside the company. A lot of companies would never want this sort of thing to be out in the open. But really, why not? I imagine it helps to keep things sensible if you know that a thousand eyes could be trawling over your employee policies. You're certainly not going to be promoting astroturfing or other undesirable activities. At the same time, you aren't burdened with deciding what to share. Many (most?) companies tie themselves in knots trying to decide what to share, and end up sharing nothing. Sharing everything means less time spent deciding what to share and more time developing the stuff in the first place.

simpss 5y ago
Starting to change though. Personalized analytics and tracking roll-out (including on-prem) was pulled back ~2 years ago[0], they're on another try[1] currently with a heavy-handed hiding approach. Including small additions to release notes[1], short lived and hard to find feedback threads[2] etc... Including deleting/hiding tickets that get posted on HN[3][4] and contain plans/info that users might take negatively/provide negative feedback on. [0] - https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com/-/issues/5672 https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com/-/issues/5672 [1] - https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2021/07/20/improved-billing-and-subscription-management/ https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2021/07/20/improved-billing-an... - "4. operational data" [2] - https://forum.gitlab.com/t/updates-to-de-identifying-service-usage-data/59456 https://forum.gitlab.com/t/updates-to-de-identifying-service... [3] - https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/342078 https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/342078 - "Pseudonymization MVC Rollout Plan" [4] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28840685 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28840685 - issue submitted to HN[3] that got deleted/hidden quick. PS: full disclosure, I've been an active opponent of these changes, as they are illegal in the EU and make it impossible to self-host the service while protecting our users privacy.
- rossmohax 5y ago
  Also prompt departure of their VP of compliance after her concerns about discriminatory practices where dismissed/ignored in the open discussion thread.
- oblio 5y ago
  It's going to be a slow process, but they'll become a regular company over time. There's a reason (many? most?) people are jerks. Being a jerk works. Companies, being groups of people, are also jerks.
  - simpss 5y ago
    yeah, it's going to happen and someone else will come and win everyone over by acting nicely. It's a cycle and I can confidently say, working in a company that has used the same approach to win customers over, it's really hard to keep the honest culture going.
  - TheRealDunkirk 5y ago
    > There's a reason (many? most?) people are jerks. Being a jerk works. Yes, but I would argue that it only takes a few sociopaths to ruin an entire community, by exploiting trust, and doing other things that most other people wouldn't dream of doing.
    - falcolas 5y ago
      You're not wrong. That doesn't mean it's going to change, however. Might I recommend perusing "Meditations on Moloch"? It will both depress you (since you seem like a decent person) and give you a framework for why and how these things happen.

by beachy 5y ago

simpss 5y ago

Starting to change though. Personalized analytics and tracking roll-out (including on-prem) was pulled back ~2 years ago[0], they're on another try[1] currently with a heavy-handed hiding approach. Including small additions to release notes[1], short lived and hard to find feedback threads[2] etc... Including deleting/hiding tickets that get posted on HN[3][4] and contain plans/info that users might take negatively/provide negative feedback on. [0] - https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com/-/issues/5672 https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/www-gitlab-com/-/issues/5672 [1] - https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2021/07/20/improved-billing-and-subscription-management/ https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2021/07/20/improved-billing-an... - "4. operational data" [2] - https://forum.gitlab.com/t/updates-to-de-identifying-service-usage-data/59456 https://forum.gitlab.com/t/updates-to-de-identifying-service... [3] - https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/342078 https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/342078 - "Pseudonymization MVC Rollout Plan" [4] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28840685 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28840685 - issue submitted to HN[3] that got deleted/hidden quick. PS: full disclosure, I've been an active opponent of these changes, as they are illegal in the EU and make it impossible to self-host the service while protecting our users privacy.

rossmohax 5y ago
Also prompt departure of their VP of compliance after her concerns about discriminatory practices where dismissed/ignored in the open discussion thread.
oblio 5y ago
It's going to be a slow process, but they'll become a regular company over time. There's a reason (many? most?) people are jerks. Being a jerk works. Companies, being groups of people, are also jerks.
- simpss 5y ago
  yeah, it's going to happen and someone else will come and win everyone over by acting nicely. It's a cycle and I can confidently say, working in a company that has used the same approach to win customers over, it's really hard to keep the honest culture going.
- TheRealDunkirk 5y ago
  > There's a reason (many? most?) people are jerks. Being a jerk works. Yes, but I would argue that it only takes a few sociopaths to ruin an entire community, by exploiting trust, and doing other things that most other people wouldn't dream of doing.
  - falcolas 5y ago
    You're not wrong. That doesn't mean it's going to change, however. Might I recommend perusing "Meditations on Moloch"? It will both depress you (since you seem like a decent person) and give you a framework for why and how these things happen.