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The only notable thing here IMO is the lack of limits imposed by GitHub on notifications. Apparently a random tag of `@microsoft` in the comments was enough to

The only notable thing here IMO is the lack of limits imposed by GitHub on notifications. Apparently a random tag of `@microsoft` in the comments was enough to notify 4000 people [1] as well. I have no idea why the user is even being mentioned in this headline. I haven't used GitHub in a while, and am unfamiliar with orgs and subgroups, but tagging a developer subgroup on a PR seems...a reasonable thing for a new contributor to do? How is it their fault that the developer subgroup has been hijacked by this organization to mean "Anyone who has ever signed the Terms of Service To View Our Code"? The correct thing for Epic Games to do here would be to rename the group to `@EpicGames/terms-of-service-signatories`, and restrict `@EpicGames/developers` to people who have requested access to open a PR. Assuming that people should magically know not to mention `@EpicGames/developers` in their PRs because Epic is doing some ToS shenanigans is preposterous. I guess I'll be looking carefully at mentions the next time I have to use this social network [2] masquerading poorly as a code review tool to submit a pull request. ---------------------------------------- [1] https://github.com/EpicGames/Signup/pull/24#issuecomment-1146722197 https://github.com/EpicGames/Signup/pull/24#issuecomment-114... [2] Looking at the profile of the contributor making the PR tells me that GitHub has apparently decided to let their users independently rediscover the experience of SuperWall on Facebook circa 2007.

spullara 4y ago
I agree. EpicGames and to some extent Github is at fault here.
EugeneOZ 4y ago
People who blame that kid are ridiculous. People who are asking to punish him somehow are pathetic. There should be no way to send any non-premoderated information to 400k people (from the system that has some trust and is unlikely to be filtered) - “spam” is the most innocent thing that might happen. It's just a fly you should ignore. Political, religious, and radical extremist groups could use it for a much more dangerous impact. If it so incredibly easy to send a message to 400k users, malicious actors could find some more sophisticated ways to get an audience of millions of users for their needs.
- elif 4y ago
  agree, whatever that kid did, it is not as bad as the first commenter there spamming everyone knowingly. which is not as bad as the second commenter who is even less original yet still seeking attention, ad infinitum. the last commenter is the biggest jerk IMO.
- remram 4y ago
  If anything I'm surprised no one spammed ads this way. At least now it's sure to happen so GitHub is going to have to fix it.
  - johnnyanmac 4y ago
    part of it is timing. This happened late Saturday night in America. If this happened during normal daytime hours it woulda been shut down in a few messages. Also, I'm sure Github has spam filters itself, so obvious attempts at ads may not even make it to the PR discussion.
- johnnyanmac 4y ago
  The kid was annoying but if the discussion was closed and restricted immediately it wouldn't have amounted to much (Granted, it was a very late Saturday night for Epic's timezone, so I'm not surprised it lasted a few hours). The follow up is what made this headline news. Now the dude who posted goatse and ruined the whole thing should be completely banned from Github. I guess I see why image uploads were restricted for so long there.
werth 4y ago
> How is it their fault that the developer subgroup has been hijacked by this organization to mean "Anyone who has ever signed the Terms of Service To View Our Code"? I was wondering why on earth epic has 400k github accouns. This explains it.
ratww 4y ago
> How is it their fault that the developer subgroup has been hijacked by this organization to mean "Anyone who has ever signed the Terms of Service To View Our Code"? Oh, but hijacking developer subgroups for almost anything is totally kosher in Github. They do it themselves. That's how you get into some of their private betas.
bhargav 4y ago
> I have no idea why the user is even being mentioned in this headline. I haven't used GitHub in a while, and am unfamiliar with orgs and subgroups, but tagging a developer subgroup on a PR seems...a reasonable thing for a new contributor to do? How is it their fault that the developer subgroup has been hijacked by this organization to mean "Anyone who has ever signed the Terms of Service To View Our Code"? At mentioning all admins and developers in general on a PR is bad etiquette. Look at the title of the PR here as well. "Merge ASAP"? What kind of attitude is that? Github should have some controls on notifications as should Epic games in how they manage their groups, but this highlights bad etiquette.
- registeredcorn 4y ago
  >mentioning all admins and developers in general on a PR is bad etiquette. I'm not trying to be argumentative, but why even is this? If you're trying to perform a pull request, is it not logical to ping the people who approve those requests? Also, can you give an example of how one would perform a PR and follow this unwritten etiquette? I have only made a total of something like to PRs in GitHub, but I would like to stay on peoples good sides, if I can help it. I had no idea this was seen as some kind of obscenity.
  - bhargav 4y ago
    I assume you work in tech. Let's say you work at Netflix, are you pinging anyone and everyone to review each PR you make or are you assigning a few reviewers (or better yet, does it just auto assign owners based on CODEOWNERS)? Are you titling your PRs this way? How do you describe the changes? Now imagine, everyone at Netflix made PRs the same way this author did. How do we make sure there is not a lot of noise? How do we collaborate well together? I don't think you are being argumentative. I definitely think Epic games is at fault here, and that this points to issues in how they've setup teams and lack of guard rails on Github's part in terms of spam protection. But separate to this, the author's behaviour is not what I would want at a workplace I am at.
- quadrifoliate 4y ago
  > At mentioning all admins and developers in general on a PR is bad etiquette. Look at the title of the PR here as well. "Merge ASAP"? I think this is highly dependent on your org. Usually you should look at previously merged PRs and follow what they were doing, if they mention admins/developers then it should be fine to do so. I agree that with the admins ping and "merge ASAP" it seems that this particular PR is kind of terrible from an etiquette and usefulness perspective, but PRs with little usefulness and bad etiquette don't make it to the top of HN every day. I am merely saying that the "sending notifications to 400k" people is a side effect that is entirely Epic Games' fault, not the author's.

spullara 4y ago

I agree. EpicGames and to some extent Github is at fault here.

EugeneOZ 4y ago

People who blame that kid are ridiculous. People who are asking to punish him somehow are pathetic. There should be no way to send any non-premoderated information to 400k people (from the system that has some trust and is unlikely to be filtered) - “spam” is the most innocent thing that might happen. It's just a fly you should ignore. Political, religious, and radical extremist groups could use it for a much more dangerous impact. If it so incredibly easy to send a message to 400k users, malicious actors could find some more sophisticated ways to get an audience of millions of users for their needs.

elif 4y ago
agree, whatever that kid did, it is not as bad as the first commenter there spamming everyone knowingly. which is not as bad as the second commenter who is even less original yet still seeking attention, ad infinitum. the last commenter is the biggest jerk IMO.
remram 4y ago
If anything I'm surprised no one spammed ads this way. At least now it's sure to happen so GitHub is going to have to fix it.
- johnnyanmac 4y ago
  part of it is timing. This happened late Saturday night in America. If this happened during normal daytime hours it woulda been shut down in a few messages. Also, I'm sure Github has spam filters itself, so obvious attempts at ads may not even make it to the PR discussion.
johnnyanmac 4y ago
The kid was annoying but if the discussion was closed and restricted immediately it wouldn't have amounted to much (Granted, it was a very late Saturday night for Epic's timezone, so I'm not surprised it lasted a few hours). The follow up is what made this headline news. Now the dude who posted goatse and ruined the whole thing should be completely banned from Github. I guess I see why image uploads were restricted for so long there.

werth 4y ago

> How is it their fault that the developer subgroup has been hijacked by this organization to mean "Anyone who has ever signed the Terms of Service To View Our Code"? I was wondering why on earth epic has 400k github accouns. This explains it.

ratww 4y ago

> How is it their fault that the developer subgroup has been hijacked by this organization to mean "Anyone who has ever signed the Terms of Service To View Our Code"? Oh, but hijacking developer subgroups for almost anything is totally kosher in Github. They do it themselves. That's how you get into some of their private betas.

bhargav 4y ago

> I have no idea why the user is even being mentioned in this headline. I haven't used GitHub in a while, and am unfamiliar with orgs and subgroups, but tagging a developer subgroup on a PR seems...a reasonable thing for a new contributor to do? How is it their fault that the developer subgroup has been hijacked by this organization to mean "Anyone who has ever signed the Terms of Service To View Our Code"? At mentioning all admins and developers in general on a PR is bad etiquette. Look at the title of the PR here as well. "Merge ASAP"? What kind of attitude is that? Github should have some controls on notifications as should Epic games in how they manage their groups, but this highlights bad etiquette.

registeredcorn 4y ago
>mentioning all admins and developers in general on a PR is bad etiquette. I'm not trying to be argumentative, but why even is this? If you're trying to perform a pull request, is it not logical to ping the people who approve those requests? Also, can you give an example of how one would perform a PR and follow this unwritten etiquette? I have only made a total of something like to PRs in GitHub, but I would like to stay on peoples good sides, if I can help it. I had no idea this was seen as some kind of obscenity.
- bhargav 4y ago
  I assume you work in tech. Let's say you work at Netflix, are you pinging anyone and everyone to review each PR you make or are you assigning a few reviewers (or better yet, does it just auto assign owners based on CODEOWNERS)? Are you titling your PRs this way? How do you describe the changes? Now imagine, everyone at Netflix made PRs the same way this author did. How do we make sure there is not a lot of noise? How do we collaborate well together? I don't think you are being argumentative. I definitely think Epic games is at fault here, and that this points to issues in how they've setup teams and lack of guard rails on Github's part in terms of spam protection. But separate to this, the author's behaviour is not what I would want at a workplace I am at.
quadrifoliate 4y ago
> At mentioning all admins and developers in general on a PR is bad etiquette. Look at the title of the PR here as well. "Merge ASAP"? I think this is highly dependent on your org. Usually you should look at previously merged PRs and follow what they were doing, if they mention admins/developers then it should be fine to do so. I agree that with the admins ping and "merge ASAP" it seems that this particular PR is kind of terrible from an etiquette and usefulness perspective, but PRs with little usefulness and bad etiquette don't make it to the top of HN every day. I am merely saying that the "sending notifications to 400k" people is a side effect that is entirely Epic Games' fault, not the author's.