The entire point of an online repository is to share ideas with other people. What you are doing is the very opposite of this; not only in the removal of the repository *before* actually getting feedback from your community, but in your insistence in ignoring the valid concerns and points of the people who have offered their feedback here. You are looking at things and making assumptions based on nothing but observation - please read the above posters. The reason why it is asked to make throwaway accounts is because people who would want this consumer revolt to shut down are more than willing to smear individuals in it. If I were to use my personal accounts to support the consumer movement, I would have my workplace called, my family threatened, etc. which is not something I want. Moreover, a handful of companies have bowed to the consumer complaints that you label as spam: do you sincerely think that Intel, a Fortune 500 tech company, would listen to spam? We are concerned consumers exercising our consumer rights.
I am not disappointed in this decision solely as a consumer, but also as a programmer. It is fully within your rights as the host of the repository to remove any and all data from your servers; however, to stifle an idea because *you* don't agree with it is not a good way to run a business that revolves entirely on the communal sharing of ideas and solutions. After GitHub proved to have a nasty agenda and after you welcomed our repository via Twitter, I immediately started to promote your product to not only social media but my professional contacts (I work for a *very* large and *very* important employer). I was also planning to migrate my code over to your company. i.e., I was planning to join the GitLabs community and bringing my contacts with me. However, I cannot and will not support a company that A) stifles ideas B) shoots first and asks questions later C) calls the exercise of consumer rights a "harassment campaign" and D) insists that my wanting to protect my identity from unscrupulous people signifies that I want to "spam" companies I support monetarily. In short: I am disappointed in this decision. It will not affect my life nor your life nor the consumer movement much, but it does pain me to see a site based on sharing ideas is stomping on those very principles, even more so because your company's Twitter offered an alternative only to have a sudden change of tone. Respectfully and with deep disappointment, Tom On Monday, October 6, 2014 7:12:12 AM UTC-5, sytse wrote: > > Dear GitLab friends, (/cc GitLab-core) > > I want to get your opinion on the following. > > Yesterday the GamerGate repo was set up at > https://gitlab.com/gamergate/gamergate. This repo was removed from other > hosting services for organized harassment. > > In response to questions on twitter (and without informing myself or > looking at the repo) I indicated that all respectful people are welcome in > https://twitter.com/gitlabhq/status/518391065037258752 > > I didn't see previous discussion about this at Gitorious > https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/gitorious/YX8O-gF1KSw/discussion > > I feel very uncomfortable with the whole situation. The repo itself seems > to call for boycotts (which is something people are free to do). But some > instructions in the repo are for twitter and email spam via throwaway > accounts, for example > gamergate/blob/master/Twitter%20Flooding%20Instructions.md > "Make a cock.li/Gmail throwaway email address if you don't want your new > Twitter account to be linked to your main email address. > Create your new Twitter account, using your new email address if > appropriate. Also make sure to choose a Twitter username not associated > with any of your other accounts, to reduce doxxing risks." > > Spamming people is not OK as far as I'm concerned and our reason for > removing this repo, in accordance with our terms: "Termination. Gitlab B.V. > may terminate your access to all or any part of the Website at any time, > with or without cause, with or without notice, effective immediately." > > The worst thing is that there seems to be systematic harassment of people > (especially women) by this campaign. If so this is terrible and something > that we absolutely condone. But I'm not sure what happened or if this is > related to this repo so this didn't factor into our decision making. > > Best regards, > Sytse Sijbrandij > CEO GitLab B.V. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "GitLab" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to gitlabhq+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/gitlabhq/c29465bd-76ff-4268-8568-2c58e46890d3%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
