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The tag line isn't the most informative. It took me a scroll or two on the main page to figure out its purpose. (Self hosted GitHub alternative). I'd suggest ma

The tag line isn't the most informative. It took me a scroll or two on the main page to figure out its purpose. (Self hosted GitHub alternative). I'd suggest making that clearer earlier as the word "forge" in terms of software could have a variety of interpretations.

baobun 2y ago
Disagree. Refering to GitHub as category-defining would be antithetical to the Forgejo spirit. Forgejo stands on its own.
- phantomathkg 2y ago
  Disagree. Unfortunately Forge is not a well known category defining term. Using it as a tagline defying the purposes to popularize Forgego.
  - szszrk 2y ago
    Yet when posts online described it as an alternative/clone of GitHub/gitlab/gitea it was alsa received with criticism and complains that "what if I don't know what gitea is". Naming and creating descriptions is not trivial, I wish more complaints would also simply come with proposals of better taglines, so we can bash those ideas quickly in comments and cut that long feedback loop.
  - WhyNotHugo 2y ago
    Defining itself as simply an alternative to the mainstream is a not a great way to makes its own identity. Imagine if Fedora presented itself as simply “an open source alternative to windows”. Sure, that might be easier to understand for those less in the field, but really doesn’t help it’s own identity.
  - rollcat 2y ago
    Disagree. SourceForge was established in 1999. The term "software forge" was in widespread use, until Github started gaining mainstream attention. But the term "hub" doesn't necessarily always refer to the same thing - e.g. certain adult entertainment website is also using it.
    - actionfromafar 2y ago
      "Software forge" has a certain explanatory ring to it, but approximately nobody has any clue what SourceForge is, or even less, what it represented back in its heyday. The kids know github, many don't even know the difference between github and git, or slighly less concerning, assume git is a tool from github.
    - lee_ars 2y ago
      > SourceForge was established in 1999. The term "software forge" was in widespread use... Not trying to be contentious, but I've got a 5-digit slashdot ID and I've never heard that phrase explicitly used in my entire life as a term of art by software devs, including at or around 1999. Definitely not saying that nobody was using the term, but "widespread use" is a big claim that requires some substantiation. It absolutely does not align with my lived experience of the time.
      - dotancohen 2y ago
        Funny that you mention /., I just mentioned it in another comment. Sourceforge bought /. and advertise there heavily - I very much associate the two.
      - hinkley 2y ago
        Also five digit /. id, and I would like to remind grandparent and upvoters that 1999 was a long fucking time ago. There are senior programmers who weren’t born in 1999! Why the fuck would they know about Sourceforge? Was it on a special episode of the Backyardigans?
      - dmd 2y ago
        I’ve got a three digit id (/. user number 404!) and I agree.
    - IshKebab 2y ago
      You're objectively wrong in this case - look at all the comments in this thread. Clearly "forge" is not a well known category defining term.
- arp242 2y ago
  Forgejo is a GitHub clone. No one can claim with a straight face that it's somehow completely unrelated.
  - rapnie 2y ago
    And then all software revision control systems / forges have more or less the same conceptual model for their platform, and just adding their specific sauce and some tailoring to specific needs. Some more innovative and deviating platforms from this more-of-the-same approach are Sourcehut (brutal minimalism) and Gitlab (enterprise dev lifecycle, process support). And then there's the general trend for these platforms to become one-stop-shop maximized lock-in walled gardens, aiming to support the entirety of software development practices (while they seem open and gratis).
    - rapnie 2y ago
      PS. This trend for one-stop-shop platforms will also see their owners start to monetize the absolute hell out of their existing (and often vast, take Github) 3rd-party vendor ecosystem via plugin marketplaces, app stores, and their platform API's and SDK's, which many of these vendors now think bring along on a free ride.
  - konart 2y ago
    Why Github and not Bitbucket?
    - selectnull 2y ago
      Maybe because Github was there first. BB was created as the GH clone, for mercurial repos.
      - konart 2y ago
        Both launched in 2008.
        2y ago
stevekemp 2y ago
"forge" has been used since "sourceforge" if not longer to describe these kind of hosting-packages. I guess technically you could have called Redmine, and other systems at the time, forges I think the term took off after that.
- dotancohen 2y ago
  The only time I ever see Sourceforge mentioned is in advertisements on /.. I think most young developers today have no idea what it is, if they even know what /. is.
  - spookie 2y ago
    Young developers are still learning the ropes :)
    - hinkley 2y ago
      And they have absolutely no reason to know what Sourceforge is.
      - spookie 2y ago
        I'm a young developer, I know what it is. It isn't an excuse.
        hinkley 2y ago
        Excuse? This whole thread is about you people making poor assumptions. Sourceforge isn’t an answer on a history test. At best it’s a cautionary tale but it has been followed by and preceded by so many nearly identical ones it’s not really relevant. Therac-25 is a name every developer should remember. Osborne computers is another. Sourceforge is irrelevant. Nobody cares.
- hinkley 2y ago
  I used to use libraries that were hosted on sourceforge and I did not get the connection. You can’t even rely on young devs to get Monty Python jokes anymore. Referring to a website that went away when jr devs were ten is a bad plan. You’re old, dudes.
dmje 2y ago
It’s clearly a self hosted GitHub alternative and that’s IMO the way to talk about it. And per other comments, it’s obviously this once you start using it - it’s basically the GitHub interface and it’s great that it is - it’s very familiar and easy to use
spookie 2y ago
Calling it a software forge is the correct form. Even if the term isn't that well known. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forge_(software) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forge_(software)
anthomtb 2y ago
Thank you. I was trying to figure out what "forge" meant here. When I think "forge", I think a tool to turn a raw material into finished product. Ergo, the blacksmith tool that turns iron into a horseshoe. The software analogy would be turning text source code into a runable binary. Ergo, a compiler or an interpreter. Github and SourceForge move source code from one place to another. To overextend the analogy, they are more like a combination shop/delivery service. Source code is moved but never altered or transformed. Long story short, this crusty C/C++ dev thinks forge is a really weird term for a self-hosted, sugar-crusted Git server.

baobun 2y ago

Disagree. Refering to GitHub as category-defining would be antithetical to the Forgejo spirit. Forgejo stands on its own.

phantomathkg 2y ago
Disagree. Unfortunately Forge is not a well known category defining term. Using it as a tagline defying the purposes to popularize Forgego.
- szszrk 2y ago
  Yet when posts online described it as an alternative/clone of GitHub/gitlab/gitea it was alsa received with criticism and complains that "what if I don't know what gitea is". Naming and creating descriptions is not trivial, I wish more complaints would also simply come with proposals of better taglines, so we can bash those ideas quickly in comments and cut that long feedback loop.
- WhyNotHugo 2y ago
  Defining itself as simply an alternative to the mainstream is a not a great way to makes its own identity. Imagine if Fedora presented itself as simply “an open source alternative to windows”. Sure, that might be easier to understand for those less in the field, but really doesn’t help it’s own identity.
- rollcat 2y ago
  Disagree. SourceForge was established in 1999. The term "software forge" was in widespread use, until Github started gaining mainstream attention. But the term "hub" doesn't necessarily always refer to the same thing - e.g. certain adult entertainment website is also using it.
  - actionfromafar 2y ago
    "Software forge" has a certain explanatory ring to it, but approximately nobody has any clue what SourceForge is, or even less, what it represented back in its heyday. The kids know github, many don't even know the difference between github and git, or slighly less concerning, assume git is a tool from github.
  - lee_ars 2y ago
    > SourceForge was established in 1999. The term "software forge" was in widespread use... Not trying to be contentious, but I've got a 5-digit slashdot ID and I've never heard that phrase explicitly used in my entire life as a term of art by software devs, including at or around 1999. Definitely not saying that nobody was using the term, but "widespread use" is a big claim that requires some substantiation. It absolutely does not align with my lived experience of the time.
    - dotancohen 2y ago
      Funny that you mention /., I just mentioned it in another comment. Sourceforge bought /. and advertise there heavily - I very much associate the two.
    - hinkley 2y ago
      Also five digit /. id, and I would like to remind grandparent and upvoters that 1999 was a long fucking time ago. There are senior programmers who weren’t born in 1999! Why the fuck would they know about Sourceforge? Was it on a special episode of the Backyardigans?
    - dmd 2y ago
      I’ve got a three digit id (/. user number 404!) and I agree.
  - IshKebab 2y ago
    You're objectively wrong in this case - look at all the comments in this thread. Clearly "forge" is not a well known category defining term.
arp242 2y ago
Forgejo is a GitHub clone. No one can claim with a straight face that it's somehow completely unrelated.
- rapnie 2y ago
  And then all software revision control systems / forges have more or less the same conceptual model for their platform, and just adding their specific sauce and some tailoring to specific needs. Some more innovative and deviating platforms from this more-of-the-same approach are Sourcehut (brutal minimalism) and Gitlab (enterprise dev lifecycle, process support). And then there's the general trend for these platforms to become one-stop-shop maximized lock-in walled gardens, aiming to support the entirety of software development practices (while they seem open and gratis).
  - rapnie 2y ago
    PS. This trend for one-stop-shop platforms will also see their owners start to monetize the absolute hell out of their existing (and often vast, take Github) 3rd-party vendor ecosystem via plugin marketplaces, app stores, and their platform API's and SDK's, which many of these vendors now think bring along on a free ride.
- konart 2y ago
  Why Github and not Bitbucket?
  - selectnull 2y ago
    Maybe because Github was there first. BB was created as the GH clone, for mercurial repos.
    - konart 2y ago
      Both launched in 2008.
      - 2y ago

stevekemp 2y ago

"forge" has been used since "sourceforge" if not longer to describe these kind of hosting-packages. I guess technically you could have called Redmine, and other systems at the time, forges I think the term took off after that.

dotancohen 2y ago
The only time I ever see Sourceforge mentioned is in advertisements on /.. I think most young developers today have no idea what it is, if they even know what /. is.
- spookie 2y ago
  Young developers are still learning the ropes :)
  - hinkley 2y ago
    And they have absolutely no reason to know what Sourceforge is.
    - spookie 2y ago
      I'm a young developer, I know what it is. It isn't an excuse.
      - hinkley 2y ago
        Excuse? This whole thread is about you people making poor assumptions. Sourceforge isn’t an answer on a history test. At best it’s a cautionary tale but it has been followed by and preceded by so many nearly identical ones it’s not really relevant. Therac-25 is a name every developer should remember. Osborne computers is another. Sourceforge is irrelevant. Nobody cares.
hinkley 2y ago
I used to use libraries that were hosted on sourceforge and I did not get the connection. You can’t even rely on young devs to get Monty Python jokes anymore. Referring to a website that went away when jr devs were ten is a bad plan. You’re old, dudes.

dmje 2y ago

It’s clearly a self hosted GitHub alternative and that’s IMO the way to talk about it. And per other comments, it’s obviously this once you start using it - it’s basically the GitHub interface and it’s great that it is - it’s very familiar and easy to use

spookie 2y ago

Calling it a software forge is the correct form. Even if the term isn't that well known. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forge_(software) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forge_(software)

anthomtb 2y ago

Thank you. I was trying to figure out what "forge" meant here. When I think "forge", I think a tool to turn a raw material into finished product. Ergo, the blacksmith tool that turns iron into a horseshoe. The software analogy would be turning text source code into a runable binary. Ergo, a compiler or an interpreter. Github and SourceForge move source code from one place to another. To overextend the analogy, they are more like a combination shop/delivery service. Source code is moved but never altered or transformed. Long story short, this crusty C/C++ dev thinks forge is a really weird term for a self-hosted, sugar-crusted Git server.