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Tell HN: GitHub is blocking search unless you are logged in

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Re: Tell HN: GitHub is blocking search unless you are logged in

#42
post #2

This has been the case since the new code search replaced the old one ~9 months ago. The new code search is more resource intensive so Github chose to only make it available to users. I agree that it sucks to not have code search available when logged out, but it's not a new change and I don't think it was done with malicious intent.

I miss the old search, it was able to sort results.

Re: Tell HN: GitHub is blocking search unless you are logged in

#46
On another computer that I was not logged in, something else happened. It didn't say log in, but the search results were displayed and then one second later it removed them and displayed an error message (which did not explain the problem, but it did not ask you to log in, either). I was able to view the search results by pausing execution of scripts using the debugger, though.

Re: Tell HN: GitHub is blocking search unless you are logged in

#48
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this will be the new normal. There are a lot more AI projects hungry for data to train their models on. This puts content companies in an uncomfortable situation: trademark infringement claims, loss of intellectual property, and more.

But Github is not a content company and they don’t really own copyright to almost anything hosted there.

There is a cost to serving up all that content, and if hundreds of AI start ups are all trying to pull in data, that can add up fast. It’s not typical user behavior.

Re: Tell HN: GitHub is blocking search unless you are logged in

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like a good time to mention that (despite anecdotal lack of enforcement) GitHub's terms of service continue to officially forbid having more than one free account for manual use. https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/github-terms/github-t...

Can they let their business customers know that? Companies making their employees create new accounts for their org is not uncommon. I’m not talking about Enterprise instances.

My account through work uses SSO. I didn’t make my account, it authenticates through AD. If I leave the company, I lose access to the account.

Telling employees to make their own personal account to do company work seems like a bad idea.

Re: Tell HN: GitHub is blocking search unless you are logged in

#50

I’ve been running into this too and it’s very annoying. Although I don’t think it’s particularly new either. Just feels like an unnecessary step. Sure I have an account and can log in, but why? I just want to know which file has X function, so i can read the implementation. I don’t want to have to download the repo or sign in.

Most likely anti-scraping measure. So they can detect and shut down bots or really anyone they feel like if activity looks nonstandard. Not suggesting it’s good, but it’s consistent with the in vogue trend to lock down recipient public APIs nowadays.

Wouldn't a scraper just grab whole repos?

If necessary, let's focus on the use case of searching a single repo.

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