4 ms·

The most realistic one is, that people will get fed up and register an account, and github can brag about how many new users they brought in. The other side is

The most realistic one is, that people will get fed up and register an account, and github can brag about how many new users they brought in. The other side is, that existing users will get pissed at github, because they can't even search anymore without logging in, and sometimes that's a pain (not their pc, public pc, incognito tab, the time needed to do the 2fa, etc.). Github can still keep the cheap, fast basic search for users not logged in, but they didn't.

rudolph9 3y ago
I’m not saying you’re wrong, if anything it makes their decision even more ridiculous, but GitHub has completely saturated the market. Other than pissing people off what do they really benefit from this?
- usea 3y ago
  > GitHub has completely saturated the market That's an assumption which github may not agree with.
manvillej 3y ago
the most realistic one is to prevent other scrapers from building their own tools on top of github code search. by putting login, they can throttle or block it entirely.
txdv 3y ago
o wow, the KPI of user acquisition should be through the roof with login required
simonw 3y ago
Keeping the old search running for logged out users has substantial costs too: 1: You have to maintain two full independent search and indexing implementations 2: User confusion. Why are the search results different depending on if I'm logged in or logged out?
- spoiler 3y ago
  I agree with you, but I also feel like you're throwing pearls at swine. Some people will always have an incredible amount of entitlement to justify their laziness or incompetence. I mean, the person opening the issue escalated this into socioeconomic issues just because they don't know how to use grep... What else is there to say?
  - squigz 3y ago
    > I mean, the person opening the issue escalated this into socioeconomic issues just because they don't know how to use grep... What else is there to say? I suppose one could try to see the value in the argument and engage in good faith discussion but it's easier to flippantly dismiss people like this, I imagine.
    - spoiler 3y ago
      Sometimes you have to be flippant when engaging with trolls. There wasn't enough thought behind the issue, other than being outraged at their unsatisfied entitlement
      - squigz 3y ago
        > There wasn't enough thought behind the issue Slightly more than your response, at any rate
dormento 3y ago
This irks me to no end. They justify it with "engagement" and it kinda works to a point, since if you don't get pissed with the broken search and register an account, you're not considered a "user", and if you try to use the tool but don't want to register you're not "engaging" with it, I guess... But it makes the initial contact that much more miserable.
qabqabaca 3y ago
> people will get fed up and register an account, and github can brag about how many new users they brought in This makes no sense. The number of people who use GitHub code search but don’t already have a GitHub account is surely negligible
- fyokdrigd 3y ago
  it's about having you logged in for the day. logged in user ad impression is 8 to 12 usd. anonymous user is .01cent per thousands.
  - qabqabaca 3y ago
    I don’t see how that relates to my comment
    - jowea 3y ago
      I believe the previous poster means that there are people who have an account but aren't logged in all the time.
      - TheCleric 3y ago
        I honestly don’t understand why. On my computer I log in once and that’s it. They don’t automatically log you out. I haven’t logged into GitHub since setting up my computer.
  - jowea 3y ago
    There are ads on GitHub?
cmyr 3y ago
In reality, how many people are regularly using github search without having a github account? Can this change really be expected to bring in a meaningful number of users? Trying to think this through, my own best guess for what is going on is that there is some amount of traffic coming from bots/scripts and github would like to have all queries associated with an account so that they can block accounts? I'm not sure if this makes sense, but I think it's a reasonable possibility.
- fyokdrigd 3y ago
  most open source projects migrated to gh when they pledged it would always be free and open for open source... now under new ownership they closed search and "pray they don't alter the terms further" ps: also everyone here guessing wrong. Microsoft is an advertising company. requiring you profile for a service is self explanatory.
  - jabradoodle 3y ago
    Is it really an advertising company? Seems to be around 5pc revenue from a quick search. Not that I want to defend Microsoft.
zorgmonkey 3y ago
If you really care about being able to search github without logging in https://grep.app/ https://grep.app/ is pretty good, I would often use it instead of the old github search cause I found the results to be better.

rudolph9 3y ago

I’m not saying you’re wrong, if anything it makes their decision even more ridiculous, but GitHub has completely saturated the market. Other than pissing people off what do they really benefit from this?

usea 3y ago
> GitHub has completely saturated the market That's an assumption which github may not agree with.

manvillej 3y ago

the most realistic one is to prevent other scrapers from building their own tools on top of github code search. by putting login, they can throttle or block it entirely.

txdv 3y ago

o wow, the KPI of user acquisition should be through the roof with login required

simonw 3y ago

Keeping the old search running for logged out users has substantial costs too: 1: You have to maintain two full independent search and indexing implementations 2: User confusion. Why are the search results different depending on if I'm logged in or logged out?

spoiler 3y ago
I agree with you, but I also feel like you're throwing pearls at swine. Some people will always have an incredible amount of entitlement to justify their laziness or incompetence. I mean, the person opening the issue escalated this into socioeconomic issues just because they don't know how to use grep... What else is there to say?
- squigz 3y ago
  > I mean, the person opening the issue escalated this into socioeconomic issues just because they don't know how to use grep... What else is there to say? I suppose one could try to see the value in the argument and engage in good faith discussion but it's easier to flippantly dismiss people like this, I imagine.
  - spoiler 3y ago
    Sometimes you have to be flippant when engaging with trolls. There wasn't enough thought behind the issue, other than being outraged at their unsatisfied entitlement
    - squigz 3y ago
      > There wasn't enough thought behind the issue Slightly more than your response, at any rate

dormento 3y ago

This irks me to no end. They justify it with "engagement" and it kinda works to a point, since if you don't get pissed with the broken search and register an account, you're not considered a "user", and if you try to use the tool but don't want to register you're not "engaging" with it, I guess... But it makes the initial contact that much more miserable.

qabqabaca 3y ago

> people will get fed up and register an account, and github can brag about how many new users they brought in This makes no sense. The number of people who use GitHub code search but don’t already have a GitHub account is surely negligible

fyokdrigd 3y ago
it's about having you logged in for the day. logged in user ad impression is 8 to 12 usd. anonymous user is .01cent per thousands.
- qabqabaca 3y ago
  I don’t see how that relates to my comment
  - jowea 3y ago
    I believe the previous poster means that there are people who have an account but aren't logged in all the time.
    - TheCleric 3y ago
      I honestly don’t understand why. On my computer I log in once and that’s it. They don’t automatically log you out. I haven’t logged into GitHub since setting up my computer.
- jowea 3y ago
  There are ads on GitHub?

cmyr 3y ago

In reality, how many people are regularly using github search without having a github account? Can this change really be expected to bring in a meaningful number of users? Trying to think this through, my own best guess for what is going on is that there is some amount of traffic coming from bots/scripts and github would like to have all queries associated with an account so that they can block accounts? I'm not sure if this makes sense, but I think it's a reasonable possibility.

fyokdrigd 3y ago
most open source projects migrated to gh when they pledged it would always be free and open for open source... now under new ownership they closed search and "pray they don't alter the terms further" ps: also everyone here guessing wrong. Microsoft is an advertising company. requiring you profile for a service is self explanatory.
- jabradoodle 3y ago
  Is it really an advertising company? Seems to be around 5pc revenue from a quick search. Not that I want to defend Microsoft.

zorgmonkey 3y ago

If you really care about being able to search github without logging in https://grep.app/ https://grep.app/ is pretty good, I would often use it instead of the old github search cause I found the results to be better.