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Gitlab is a great product but using it has a negative effect on getting contributions for an open source project outside of the core developers due to Github's

by costco 3y ago

Gitlab is a great product but using it has a negative effect on getting contributions for an open source project outside of the core developers due to Github's larger user base. I have seen this play out many times.

wizhi 3y ago
And the only way to mitigate the cancer that is GitHub is to normalize contributing elsewhere.
sesm 3y ago
It may have negative effect on the number of issues/PRs, but can also act as a spam filter and the net effect can be positive.
- zlg_codes 3y ago
  What reason do you have to believe that dissuaded bug reports and PRs are spam? Do you think Arch's community infrastructure is free of faults?
themerone 3y ago
I don't buy into this argument. If someone doesn't have the knowledge and motivation necessary to use another platform, they aren't going to be making meaningful contributions to your project. It might mean less bug reports from users who find bugs, but aren't deeply affected by them. The upside is a lot less garbage in your issue tracker.
- zlg_codes 3y ago
  You're forgetting the users that are tired of signing up for one-shot sites to do patches or drive-by bug reports. The actual value of the sign-up process is so little that the incentive to contribute lowers. It's another set of username/password to manage. Even if you're unwise and depend on a password app, it's another thing on the list to manage. OpenID was supposed to fix a lot of problems and doesn't appear to have, at all. Anyway, there are lots of people who are not only knowledgeable enough but also skilled enough to triage bugs, but don't want to go through the rigamarole of a new account, e-mail, clicking a verification link, reading the bug report guidelines, etc. Putting walls up to contribution is indeed a good way to get fewer people contributing. There's no guarantee the ones stubborn enough to still report bugs are reporting any better, though.
codemac 3y ago
This is moving the previous flyspray issue tracker to gitlab. It's not like they were on github before.

by costco 3y ago

wizhi 3y ago

And the only way to mitigate the cancer that is GitHub is to normalize contributing elsewhere.

sesm 3y ago

It may have negative effect on the number of issues/PRs, but can also act as a spam filter and the net effect can be positive.

zlg_codes 3y ago
What reason do you have to believe that dissuaded bug reports and PRs are spam? Do you think Arch's community infrastructure is free of faults?

themerone 3y ago

I don't buy into this argument. If someone doesn't have the knowledge and motivation necessary to use another platform, they aren't going to be making meaningful contributions to your project. It might mean less bug reports from users who find bugs, but aren't deeply affected by them. The upside is a lot less garbage in your issue tracker.

zlg_codes 3y ago
You're forgetting the users that are tired of signing up for one-shot sites to do patches or drive-by bug reports. The actual value of the sign-up process is so little that the incentive to contribute lowers. It's another set of username/password to manage. Even if you're unwise and depend on a password app, it's another thing on the list to manage. OpenID was supposed to fix a lot of problems and doesn't appear to have, at all. Anyway, there are lots of people who are not only knowledgeable enough but also skilled enough to triage bugs, but don't want to go through the rigamarole of a new account, e-mail, clicking a verification link, reading the bug report guidelines, etc. Putting walls up to contribution is indeed a good way to get fewer people contributing. There's no guarantee the ones stubborn enough to still report bugs are reporting any better, though.

codemac 3y ago

This is moving the previous flyspray issue tracker to gitlab. It's not like they were on github before.