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Gitlab cancels plan on tracking user behavior on GitLab.com

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Re: Gitlab cancels plan on tracking user behavior on GitLab.com

#71

Post by truthwhisperer »

jbk wrote: post #27

We received an apology email at the same time, well written, explaining what they did wrong, apologizing, promising to do a post-mortem, promising to not send to 3rd party trackers, and saying they did a mistake and waiting for feedbacks on the issue tracker. And with very little BS in the mail. Such level of transparency, of apologizing and clarity, especially written at the first person "I am truly sorry." is very…

Sure we should be very glad that we are the chosen ones to use Gitlab

Next iteration they will put in a voluntary option and the release after it has become mandatory for using "bullshit" reasons such as third parties plugins or to prevent terrorism

Re: Gitlab cancels plan on tracking user behavior on GitLab.com

#72

Post by itronitron »

sjburt wrote: post #45
falcor84 wrote: post #35

Could someone here please explain to me why Gitlab's product managers would be so interested in client-side analytics in the first place? From my familiarity with their service, almost every operation requires an ajax call, or a full page refresh. Is there really that much value for the product managers in these additional analytics?

My guess was that it was just seen as easier to drop in a third party analytics component in as opposed to doing via their own backend.

years ago, at a previous employer of mine, one of the IT staff members was giving a presentation on an internal website/app they created for some widely used business function (i don't recall exactly) and they were rather proud of the fact that they tied in Google Analytics so that they could get a better view on how people were using the site.

I expect that a lot of other companies are also doing this to themselves...

Re: Gitlab cancels plan on tracking user behavior on GitLab.com

#73

Post by heartbreak »

swagonomixxx wrote: post #23
dsissitka wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a screenshot for people that don't feel like waiting for the page to load: https://imgur.com/a/uxaU0h8 How is GitLab still this slow?

Ruby on Rails backend, I think.

Github is also RoR backend, and it's not this slow.

Re: Gitlab cancels plan on tracking user behavior on GitLab.com

#74

Post by function_seven »

falcor84 wrote: post #35

Could someone here please explain to me why Gitlab's product managers would be so interested in client-side analytics in the first place? From my familiarity with their service, almost every operation requires an ajax call, or a full page refresh. Is there really that much value for the product managers in these additional analytics?

Wasn't this proposal to add the client-side tracking to their hosted on-premises product?

They don't have any visibility in how those instances are being used, and wanted to use the telemetry to get that. (Not understanding that often, the entire point of choosing to host your own instance is to avoid this in the first place)

Re: Gitlab cancels plan on tracking user behavior on GitLab.com

#75

Post by tjoff »

stiray wrote: post #38
jbk wrote: post #27

We received an apology email at the same time, well written, explaining what they did wrong, apologizing, promising to do a post-mortem, promising to not send to 3rd party trackers, and saying they did a mistake and waiting for feedbacks on the issue tracker. And with very little BS in the mail. Such level of transparency, of apologizing and clarity, especially written at the first person "I am truly sorry." is very…

What should really be praised... Without further, congratulations to everyone protesting against this gitlab move. This is something that should be done years back when google started with its tracking, same with facebook. This was the behaviour that should be seen each and every time some company wants to take advantage of its users. But to my sadness it is rarely seen. So once again congratulations to each and ever…

It was done. There even was those small banners that said something in the way of "if you have gmail I won't mail you" etc.

Thing is, the broader public don't care. The difference between gitlab and gmail is primarily that developers care more about this stuff and value their code more than most people care about their email. They are also much more informed in the matter, most using gmail haven't got a clue.

Re: Gitlab cancels plan on tracking user behavior on GitLab.com

#76

Post by cwkoss »

Operyl wrote: post #69
tyre wrote: post #58

The reaction to this whole saga has been insane. Chill out people. They fucked up, users gave feedback, they listened. This isn't some corporate conspiracy, some grand ethical dilemma with an evil company on one side and some white knight hackers on the other. Let's imagine for a second that they are people trying to do the right thing, with years of history doing the best they can. They wanted to measure usage to ma…

I think what sparked a bit more outcry in this matter is the way the CFO responded to discussion and early warnings way before it was finalized. EDIT: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/merge_requests/14182#no...

Bit surprised that Paul Machle is still employed as CFO.

Re: Gitlab cancels plan on tracking user behavior on GitLab.com

#77

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

tyre wrote: post #58

The reaction to this whole saga has been insane. Chill out people. They fucked up, users gave feedback, they listened. This isn't some corporate conspiracy, some grand ethical dilemma with an evil company on one side and some white knight hackers on the other. Let's imagine for a second that they are people trying to do the right thing, with years of history doing the best they can. They wanted to measure usage to ma…

> The reaction to this whole saga has been insane. Chill out people.

I very much disagree. I think the outcry was warranted, and right now I see GitLab doing the right thing (and, obviously, the outcry was a huge reason for that).

Changing plans in the harsh light of public condemnation isn't easy, and for that I very much commend GitLab. As someone who was very much against the previously announced change, though ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21350146 ), I'm glad the community feedback was so strong.

Re: Gitlab cancels plan on tracking user behavior on GitLab.com

#78

Post by foreign-inc »

How can you trust a company like GitLab whose default decision is always bad and then they change direction after public outcry.

Either they don't think before they make decisions or they are just trying to figure out what they can get away with.

This really shows their lack of morality. They kind of remind me of Facebook.

Re: Gitlab cancels plan on tracking user behavior on GitLab.com

#79

Post by davidclark22 »

swasheck wrote: post #55
mobee wrote: post #52

The real reason you shouldn't be using GitLab is performance. How is it possible that that page took over a minute to load? Nevermind that the design is completely incomprehensible.

further down the thread are mentioned of ruby on rails. i use gitlab because it allows me > 1 private repo. if there are better solutions then i'm all ears.

I use Bitbucket, unlimited private repos. I believe Github now offers the same, but didn't ~5 years ago.

Re: Gitlab cancels plan on tracking user behavior on GitLab.com

#80

Post by catalogia »

swasheck wrote: post #65
smudgymcscmudge wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have a look at GitHub. It's a similar service with unlimited private repos for free.

thanks. not sure why i was downvoted but the last time i checked, GH only allowed 1

They only started allowing free private repos this year: https://github.blog/2019-01-07-new-year-new-github/
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