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That's interesting but the technical reasons are really besides the point. The end result is that it's no longer possible to participate in "GitHub hosted open
by isodev 3y ago
That's interesting but the technical reasons are really besides the point.
The end result is that it's no longer possible to participate in "GitHub hosted open source" without actually being a member of GitHub.
- Justsignedup 3y agoright, but being a member isn't a pay-wall. This feels more like an academic argument than a practical one.
- isodev 3y agoBecoming a member means sharing your personal information with GitHub and abiding by their terms of service. It also implies that they will then track and profile locations where you sign in, technologies you use to interact with their services etc. That's a lot to give for "I want to browse a piece of code someone made for free".
- underdeserver 3y agoAnd it's what they get in return for hosting and providing indexing and a git server. I'm not saying it's a deal that makes sense for everyone. But it's certainly a barter trade and is well within their prerogative to offer.
- johnfn 3y agoThe only bit of "personal information" you need to provide is an email, and you're free to use a burner. > That's a lot to give for "I want to browse a piece of code someone made for free". You can still do this. All repositories are accessible without signing in.
- isodev 3y agoFacebook recently estimated that knowing about a user costs close to €11/month. That's a lot of money for hosting and indexing git repositories... I guess we need an alternative.
- arp242 3y agoAnd it's EXACTLY the same on Codeberg, and GitLab, and SourceHut, and anything else online. Some of these don't even have a "search" feature. This is just degrading in to conspiratorial FUD.
- usea 3y agoGiving them your personal information is a form of payment. I don't mean this in a pedantic or academic sense, but a very real one.
- goodpoint 3y agoNot at all. FOSS should be built on FOSS tools.
- Dalewyn 3y agoThe kinds of people averse to user accounts wouldn't be using ("participating in") Github in the first place. Or to put it another way: It's a surprise you need a Github account to use ("participate in") Github?
- mattpavelle 3y agoAgreed. If this is indeed a resource issue and they want to just block crawlers/bots/anonymous users from using lots of resources then perhaps having the old "less resource intense search" for users who aren't logged in and having the new "more resource intense search" for users who are logged in would be an improvement.
- rattray 3y agoIdeally yes but the old code search may also require costly infra, like building specialized indexes of the codebase (eg an elasticsearch index). Since those are "fixed costs" per repo rather than per search, they'd now be much more expensive per search if they were only used by logged-out users. Pure outside speculation of course.
- cheald 3y agoYou can still clone and grep, can't you? You can't file issues or submit PRs through Github without an account, either.
- isodev 3y agoYou're kind of making my point, one needs to take their code elsewhere to be able to browse it. In other words, GitHub is no longer suitable to host open source repositories because of all the closed "extras" it adds on top.
- cheald 3y agoYou can browse code on Github just fine (and search within a file!) - you just can't search through the tree, which is a function of whatever platform the code lives on, be it your box or Github or some other web UI.
- uxp8u61q 3y agoHow does providing more features to some people make the core service unusable for "open source"?
- anthk 3y agoThis is adding less features for libre software users. I hope everyone migrates to local SourceHut servers when possible.
- __MatrixMan__ 3y agoAre you suggesting that there's a place that you can file a PR (or equivalent) without an account? They're shady AF, but some features require an account not because they're moat water but for some other reason.
- isodev 3y agoI'm really focusing on the search feature that's no longer available for a given repository unless you're logged in. Everything else is "Microsoft added extras to git". If all I can do on GitHub is use it to git clone, then what's the purpose of it? It's clear the "extinguish" phase of Microsoft's open source venture has started. There're plenty of very good alternatives, it's time to move on.
- acedTrex 3y agoIts never been possible to participate in github hosted open source without an account...
- saagarjha 3y agoI have a GitHub account. Until recently most of my GitHub participation was done without being logged in.
- jahsome 3y agoWhat do you do that doesn't require authentication?
- saagarjha 3y agoRead code and issues mostly.
- jahsome 3y agoIt's rather pedantic, but I wouldn't call that participating. That's more in the realm of observation. An account has always been required for active participation, e.g. committing directly to any repo, submitting a PR, opening an issue, etc.
- saagarjha 3y agoYes, and I use an account for those. But I value not having to use an account for any work before that, which is just a crucial.
- acedTrex 3y agoYou can still do that without being logged in, thats also not participating in open source. More observing open source then anything
- 3y ago