toastal

The comment implies Signal is peak chat when it’s flawed & other than maybe onboarding, isn’t superior to alternatives—with the phone number being a pro for onboarding is a con for privacy. It still requires you have an Android or iOS primary device (fueling that duopoly). They don’t want you installing it from a safer space like F-Droid. They still by default send notification metadata to Google & Apple (websocket support exists but drains a fair amount of battery & they refuse to support UnifiedPush). They still ship/use Apple emoji on Android & Linux. It’s still a centralized system you can’t self-host. They still have that missing part of the source code (where I would assume the feds planted something). It still isn’t a good space large chats. And the Electron desktop apps are far too bloated.

XMPP & Gateways

There are several independent options for all of those that, while they suck to go to a different site, often do a much better job than the code forge—think how Gerrit makes PRs look foolish, Bugzilla, Trac, Trello, etc. even the humble mailing list. What’s also important to note is a separate servdce offers different (or even better) organization options. Say you wanted a “polyrepo”… well, new you need a separate issues/review for every repository which often doesn’t fit as concerns can apply to mulitple repos (which now that I think about it might be one of those pressures on folks to create monorepos due to tooling lock-in choices from certain forges). That’s not to say there isn’t a cost/benefit to losing the integration of a central spot or less servers to deploy, but it very well could mean that a small orchestra of independent services could better suit a project compared to opting into every feature a code forge is offering.

That is to say, the one feature you see in all code forges—even the simple ones like cgit—is the ability to browse code/commits.

Sure. I love being able to browse code without checking out your bloated monorepo, but it isn’t a requirement.

Developers can stop using Microsoft products today; say NO to neo-EEE including Windows, WSL, GitHub, Sponsors, Copilot, VS Code, Codespaces, Azure, npm, & Teams

A lot of services like PayPal will block known Google Voice numbers. Screw all these service for even asking. I can do 2FA without a phone so you must be trying to collect more data than you should.

The mailing list or maintainer email can accept your issues. You don’t have to have a code forge.

Gratis vs. Libre

This isn’t to say every project should self-host, but that they could self-host. And if you don’t want to self-host, you can join groups like Notabug, or a server hosted by a foundation like Codeberg, or the privately-held SourceHut, or even the open-core GitLab with its free tier (tho publicly-traded, most of the source is open & one can run the community edition if they wish). To assume if not self-hosted GitLab CE, then one must use a closed-source, US-based, publicly-traded, megacorporate, social media + code forge platform that’s trying to monopolize the developer tooling space is a false dichotomy.

I dunno this lacks nuance… I think this could easily be referring to different economic situations. The concept of donation usually has this implication of not being a for-profit entity or for a indie developer’s side project. These kinds of apps usually are still either open source or source available which is different than closed, proprietary applications. With this focus on money, I would assume that “free” is meaning gratis where users can often be the product & while the source is not available …or some VC-funded product where they are loss-leading a free tier now just eventually charge everyone later which is hardly good, with a dash of open washing to taste.

Or SourceHut, or self-host cgit or Forgejo. Hell, why run Git when Darcs & Pijul are awesome.

GitHub was proprietary, venture-capital, Ruby sludge before Microsoft. They’d either way aim to be bought or be the next Microsoft.