Why I left GitHub
Ever since GitHub has started adding AI features to the platform, I have been
careful. GitHub's CEO has also recently resigned and Microsoft moved GitHub to the
CoreAI team.
There's also a blog post written by the SFC about why you should Give Up GitHub.
However, despite all of this, I decided to continue using GitHub. The main reason is
vendor lock-in. On a lot of sites, such as Cloudflare, I would use the option
of logging in via GitHub, also known as SSO. However, recently, when I tried to
learn on freeCodeCamp, I got a message saying my account
is flagged.
When I wanted to contact support, they wanted me to verify myself via a phone
number. But hey, I might be a bot, right?
Here's the fun part. I initially thought that it's just a limitation on my account
which i can appeal. However, I found out my account was entirely hidden off the website.
A few hours after contacting support, I received a response
saying that I have created multiple free user accounts (which is a violation of GitHub's Terms of Service).
While I do agree that I broke the Terms of Service, why would
they lock me out of my SSO accounts for this?
I made it clear to GitHub that I was disapointed at them
for locking me out of my SSO accounts for this and stated that I was
gonna move to Codeberg.
I also asked them if deleting those accounts will get my
account reinstated.
GitHub replied to me by saying the security team has checked
out my account and decided that I should stay flagged.
But where was the answer to my question?
I responded by asking the question again. Suddenly, their
"few hours" response time was nowhere to be seen.
This behaviour matches with when one of my friends got banned from GitHub
and they told him to never open a ticket again.
What do we learn from this? You should never sell your projects
to a corporation.
Update (25th February): GitHub has decided to close my ticket without an answer.