5 ms·

What's the criteria for being considered "a maintainer of a popular open source project"? They never actually publish the criteria anywhere from what I can tell

by ahnick 4y ago

What's the criteria for being considered "a maintainer of a popular open source project"? They never actually publish the criteria anywhere from what I can tell. They just say visit the subscription page and if you are eligible it should be available to you and if you see a charge then you are not eligible. I think though they should still be transparent about what their metric is for determining popular projects on GitHub; otherwise, the code that determines eligibility might be broken and no one would be able to tell. Or worse they could just be lying about it entirely.

notamy 4y ago
> What's the criteria for being considered "a maintainer of a popular open source project"? The FAQ [0] says > A maintainer of a popular open source project is defined as someone who has write or admin access to one or more of the *most popular open source projects* on GitHub (emphasis added) [0] https://github.com/pricing#i-work-on-open-source-projects-can-i-get-access-to-github-copilot-for-free https://github.com/pricing#i-work-on-open-source-projects-ca...
- netr0ute 4y ago
  That's the problem, what is a "most popular project?"
  - Beltalowda 4y ago
    It goes on to say "Simply visit the GitHub Copilot subscription page to see if you are one of the open source maintainers that meet our criteria for a complimentary subscription" When I go to https://github.com/github-copilot/free_signup https://github.com/github-copilot/free_signup it says: " Congratulations! You are eligible to use GitHub Copilot for free. Thanks for being a part of our open source and education communities. GitHub Copilot uses the Codex AI model to offer coding suggestions." I have a project with about 3k stars, and regularly contribute to another project ~4k stars (Where I'm also the primary maintainer, although it's not on my account), as well as some things in with hundred and dozens of stars. I don't how high up that is in the ranking, although given that most projects get 0 stars I suspect it's probably higher than you'd might expect.
- ahnick 4y ago
  Ummm, yes, that was my original point. What does "one or more of the most popular open source projects on GitHub" mean exactly? Do you need a certain number of github stars on your project? Are you listed on some "most popular github projects specific page"? or what?
  - bumpa 4y ago
    I got this free access. Tried to figure how to request this "Verified" status, whatever it means, but github seems to set it automatically and notified me "you are eligible to use GitHub Copilot for free". I'm not sure how exactly they do it and what defines "the most popular open source projects". The most popular repo (by stars) I have is with 3k stars. Apparently it is enough, not sure.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
    - itsharshag 4y ago
      Can you please share the link for this FAQ?
    - blagie 4y ago
      There isn't a definition. The FAQ states: People who maintain popular open source projects receive a credit to have 12 months of GitHub Copilot access for free. A maintainer of a popular open source project is defined as someone who has write or admin access to one or more of the most popular open source projects on GitHub. Simply visit the GitHub Copilot subscription page to see if you are one of the open source maintainers that meet our criteria for a complimentary subscription. If you do, you should see that you can add GitHub Copilot for no charge. If you see a charge on the purchase page then this means that you do not qualify at this time. Once awarded, if you are still a maintainer of a popular open source project when your initial 12 months subscription expires then you will be able to renew your subscription for free. As the principal author of a project used by millions, working 100% on open source today, I can say it's not free for me. My code is being used to train your models, but I can't use your models without paying you. That goes against the spirit of my share-alike license. "Write or admin access" is also a pretty crappy way of evaluating people. "Write or admin access" goes by politics, rather than by contribution. It's also hostile towards junior developers, who might not have commit access on projects which work by forks and PRs. This also excludes folks like Richard Stallman who don't host their projects with you (not that he'd use copilot, but just saying). github does a fine job reviewing nonprofits. It feels half-baked that it can't identify open-source contributors. At the very least, you should enable anyone whose code you scraped to train codex to use codex. I can make codex spit out code very similar to code I wrote. It's clear it was trained on it, and is creating a derivative work.
samth 4y ago
At a minimum, 4.3k stars is not enough, because I don't qualify.
- meibo 4y ago
  This is curious - I maintain 2 projects with 2k cumulative stars, and I was able to claim the free access. Wonder what the metric is? Maybe creation date has something to do with it?
  - baby 4y ago
    If you want to check if you qualify: https://github.com/github-copilot/free_signup https://github.com/github-copilot/free_signup
    - samth 4y ago
      Yeah that just redirects me to the paid page. I do wish the criteria were a little more transparent.
    - kevincox 4y ago
      I get " Congratulations! You are eligible to use GitHub Copilot for free." that was unexpected but in retrospect https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/ https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/ is pretty popular. (Currently 9.8k stars)
    - acro5piano 4y ago
      I have a repository with 625 stars, but it redirects to the subscription page.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- thamer 4y ago
  Reporting on my own experience, I got access to Copilot a few days after it was announced and am currently not expected to pay for it. I started a project that currently has 9.4k stars (now mostly maintained by someone else), and still maintain a project that has 2.5k stars.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
andrewmcwatters 4y ago
A sample of the first 25k repositories and their stargazers on GitHub shows that the top 1% have over 600 stars, and the top 0.1% have nearly 5,000 stars. That's a very small sample, however. [1]: https://github.com/andrewmcwattersandco/github-statistics https://github.com/andrewmcwattersandco/github-statistics [2]: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HBSwxr0jkUoMulQxyVTC81YHN2mr2lUZbc8kkdmnQWY/edit#gid=1949222561 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HBSwxr0jkUoMulQxyVTC...
kevincox 4y ago
> People who maintain popular open source projects receive a credit to have 12 months of GitHub Copilot access for free. A maintainer of a popular open source project is defined as someone who has write or admin access to one or more of the most popular open source projects on GitHub https://github.com/pricing#i-work-on-open-source-projects-can-i-get-access-to-github-copilot-for-free https://github.com/pricing#i-work-on-open-source-projects-ca... I like how "open source project" == "on github". Can't say that I am surprised though.
- Washuu 4y ago
  I authored/contribute/maintain stuff that is used by tens of millions of people world wide. I do not qualify. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
kootenpv 4y ago
I have 2 popular python projects, one with 4.9k and one with 2.3k stars and I don't qualify :/ https://github.com/kootenpv https://github.com/kootenpv If anyone knows why pls let me know

by ahnick 4y ago

notamy 4y ago

> What's the criteria for being considered "a maintainer of a popular open source project"? The FAQ [0] says > A maintainer of a popular open source project is defined as someone who has write or admin access to one or more of the *most popular open source projects* on GitHub (emphasis added) [0] https://github.com/pricing#i-work-on-open-source-projects-can-i-get-access-to-github-copilot-for-free https://github.com/pricing#i-work-on-open-source-projects-ca...

netr0ute 4y ago
That's the problem, what is a "most popular project?"
- Beltalowda 4y ago
  It goes on to say "Simply visit the GitHub Copilot subscription page to see if you are one of the open source maintainers that meet our criteria for a complimentary subscription" When I go to https://github.com/github-copilot/free_signup https://github.com/github-copilot/free_signup it says: " Congratulations! You are eligible to use GitHub Copilot for free. Thanks for being a part of our open source and education communities. GitHub Copilot uses the Codex AI model to offer coding suggestions." I have a project with about 3k stars, and regularly contribute to another project ~4k stars (Where I'm also the primary maintainer, although it's not on my account), as well as some things in with hundred and dozens of stars. I don't how high up that is in the ranking, although given that most projects get 0 stars I suspect it's probably higher than you'd might expect.
ahnick 4y ago
Ummm, yes, that was my original point. What does "one or more of the most popular open source projects on GitHub" mean exactly? Do you need a certain number of github stars on your project? Are you listed on some "most popular github projects specific page"? or what?
- bumpa 4y ago
  I got this free access. Tried to figure how to request this "Verified" status, whatever it means, but github seems to set it automatically and notified me "you are eligible to use GitHub Copilot for free". I'm not sure how exactly they do it and what defines "the most popular open source projects". The most popular repo (by stars) I have is with 3k stars. Apparently it is enough, not sure.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
  - itsharshag 4y ago
    Can you please share the link for this FAQ?
  - blagie 4y ago
    There isn't a definition. The FAQ states: People who maintain popular open source projects receive a credit to have 12 months of GitHub Copilot access for free. A maintainer of a popular open source project is defined as someone who has write or admin access to one or more of the most popular open source projects on GitHub. Simply visit the GitHub Copilot subscription page to see if you are one of the open source maintainers that meet our criteria for a complimentary subscription. If you do, you should see that you can add GitHub Copilot for no charge. If you see a charge on the purchase page then this means that you do not qualify at this time. Once awarded, if you are still a maintainer of a popular open source project when your initial 12 months subscription expires then you will be able to renew your subscription for free. As the principal author of a project used by millions, working 100% on open source today, I can say it's not free for me. My code is being used to train your models, but I can't use your models without paying you. That goes against the spirit of my share-alike license. "Write or admin access" is also a pretty crappy way of evaluating people. "Write or admin access" goes by politics, rather than by contribution. It's also hostile towards junior developers, who might not have commit access on projects which work by forks and PRs. This also excludes folks like Richard Stallman who don't host their projects with you (not that he'd use copilot, but just saying). github does a fine job reviewing nonprofits. It feels half-baked that it can't identify open-source contributors. At the very least, you should enable anyone whose code you scraped to train codex to use codex. I can make codex spit out code very similar to code I wrote. It's clear it was trained on it, and is creating a derivative work.

samth 4y ago

At a minimum, 4.3k stars is not enough, because I don't qualify.

meibo 4y ago
This is curious - I maintain 2 projects with 2k cumulative stars, and I was able to claim the free access. Wonder what the metric is? Maybe creation date has something to do with it?
- baby 4y ago
  If you want to check if you qualify: https://github.com/github-copilot/free_signup https://github.com/github-copilot/free_signup
  - samth 4y ago
    Yeah that just redirects me to the paid page. I do wish the criteria were a little more transparent.
  - kevincox 4y ago
    I get " Congratulations! You are eligible to use GitHub Copilot for free." that was unexpected but in retrospect https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/ https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/ is pretty popular. (Currently 9.8k stars)
  - acro5piano 4y ago
    I have a repository with 625 stars, but it redirects to the subscription page.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
thamer 4y ago
Reporting on my own experience, I got access to Copilot a few days after it was announced and am currently not expected to pay for it. I started a project that currently has 9.4k stars (now mostly maintained by someone else), and still maintain a project that has 2.5k stars.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

andrewmcwatters 4y ago

A sample of the first 25k repositories and their stargazers on GitHub shows that the top 1% have over 600 stars, and the top 0.1% have nearly 5,000 stars. That's a very small sample, however. [1]: https://github.com/andrewmcwattersandco/github-statistics https://github.com/andrewmcwattersandco/github-statistics [2]: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HBSwxr0jkUoMulQxyVTC81YHN2mr2lUZbc8kkdmnQWY/edit#gid=1949222561 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HBSwxr0jkUoMulQxyVTC...

kevincox 4y ago

> People who maintain popular open source projects receive a credit to have 12 months of GitHub Copilot access for free. A maintainer of a popular open source project is defined as someone who has write or admin access to one or more of the most popular open source projects on GitHub https://github.com/pricing#i-work-on-open-source-projects-can-i-get-access-to-github-copilot-for-free https://github.com/pricing#i-work-on-open-source-projects-ca... I like how "open source project" == "on github". Can't say that I am surprised though.

Washuu 4y ago
I authored/contribute/maintain stuff that is used by tens of millions of people world wide. I do not qualify. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

kootenpv 4y ago

I have 2 popular python projects, one with 4.9k and one with 2.3k stars and I don't qualify :/ https://github.com/kootenpv https://github.com/kootenpv If anyone knows why pls let me know