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Can we please stop treating GitHub like it's an open platform? It's not. It's a closed, walled garden like every other one. The fact that they host a bunch of o

by jehb 3y ago

Can we please stop treating GitHub like it's an open platform? It's not. It's a closed, walled garden like every other one. The fact that they host a bunch of open source projects you use doesn't make them better; if anything, it makes them worse, because they've helped these projects wall off a part of their contribution infrastructure behind the lock and key of a corporate account.

bbkane 3y ago
I think it also needs to be said that GitHub has helped countless open source projects grow- Git Hosting, wiki hosting, issues, GitHub Actions, GitHub Pages, a nice API... There are LOTS of reasons to host your open source project on GitHub
- anthk 3y ago
  The are more reasons to run away from GH and just set a locally managed SourceHut instance for sanity and interop.
- pjmlp 3y ago
  Sourceforge used to have similar reasons.
  - ApolloFortyNine 3y ago
    And if github truly goes to shit like source forge did people will just move to a clone. But if you look at any source forge repo right now, I think you'll see github as a long way to fall before it gets that bad.
    - pjmlp 3y ago
      The tragedy here is that folks don't learn.
      - arp242 3y ago
        Learn what, exactly? Anything can go sour, including community-run open source stuff. There is never any guarantee for the future about anything.
        pjmlp 3y ago
        Yet many expect that everything always stay the same, and flock like sheeps to the next one that sells themselves as otherwise.
ShakataGaNai 3y ago
If I have to sign up for a "corporate account" or I have to sign up for a random self-hosted gitlab account or I have to sign up for your bugzilla & wiki & gitwhatever.... it makes no difference. As a user, it's all the same. Actually... of all of these options, I prefer a "corporate account" (aka github) because I can participate in a nearly infinite amount of projects without having to create new accounts/logging in/etc. No one has walled anything off in any way that is materially different than any other option in the space. I would argue that Github has done a LOT of good in the space. Making good software, making it freely available. Keeping it reasonably open and accessible. Keeping it standards compliant where there are standards. Having API's for the rest. And in general, giving a huge amount of storage and compute away for free for open source projects.
- myaccountonhn 3y ago
  The beauty with git is that it doesn’t need an account. It can all be done via email. Hosted repos that use that are much more open and allow you to use the tools you want to contribute. A lot of these walled garden platforms have contributed a ton and github has made source code more easy to host, no doubt. At the same time, we need to ask them to do better and not allow them to concentrate power for when the inevitable enshittification begins.

by jehb 3y ago

bbkane 3y ago

I think it also needs to be said that GitHub has helped countless open source projects grow- Git Hosting, wiki hosting, issues, GitHub Actions, GitHub Pages, a nice API... There are LOTS of reasons to host your open source project on GitHub

anthk 3y ago
The are more reasons to run away from GH and just set a locally managed SourceHut instance for sanity and interop.
pjmlp 3y ago
Sourceforge used to have similar reasons.
- ApolloFortyNine 3y ago
  And if github truly goes to shit like source forge did people will just move to a clone. But if you look at any source forge repo right now, I think you'll see github as a long way to fall before it gets that bad.
  - pjmlp 3y ago
    The tragedy here is that folks don't learn.
    - arp242 3y ago
      Learn what, exactly? Anything can go sour, including community-run open source stuff. There is never any guarantee for the future about anything.
      - pjmlp 3y ago
        Yet many expect that everything always stay the same, and flock like sheeps to the next one that sells themselves as otherwise.

ShakataGaNai 3y ago

If I have to sign up for a "corporate account" or I have to sign up for a random self-hosted gitlab account or I have to sign up for your bugzilla & wiki & gitwhatever.... it makes no difference. As a user, it's all the same. Actually... of all of these options, I prefer a "corporate account" (aka github) because I can participate in a nearly infinite amount of projects without having to create new accounts/logging in/etc. No one has walled anything off in any way that is materially different than any other option in the space. I would argue that Github has done a LOT of good in the space. Making good software, making it freely available. Keeping it reasonably open and accessible. Keeping it standards compliant where there are standards. Having API's for the rest. And in general, giving a huge amount of storage and compute away for free for open source projects.

myaccountonhn 3y ago
The beauty with git is that it doesn’t need an account. It can all be done via email. Hosted repos that use that are much more open and allow you to use the tools you want to contribute. A lot of these walled garden platforms have contributed a ton and github has made source code more easy to host, no doubt. At the same time, we need to ask them to do better and not allow them to concentrate power for when the inevitable enshittification begins.