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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

#61

Post by Nullabillity »

daqhris wrote: post #15
appplication wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

As an illustration, near the end of last year, bots from a renowned Email API provider spotted in less than 1 hour the leak of a public key from my public GitHub code repo. My account got suspended on their platform. It was stunning to see the speed at which they acted and automated the process to "lose" and "recover" reputation.

That's an official "feature": https://docs.github.com/en/code-security/secret-scanning/abo...

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

#62

Post by gitgud »

I’ve always found GitHub to be quite generous with what functionality they give free users, especially visitors that don’t have an account. They kind of paved the way in that regard…

Some sites would probably put everything behind a login-wall. I can imagine some alternative version of git hosting with the following message:

    Sign in to clone this repo

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

#63

Post by eastbound »

gitgud wrote: post #62

I’ve always found GitHub to be quite generous with what functionality they give free users, especially visitors that don’t have an account. They kind of paved the way in that regard… Some sites would probably put everything behind a login-wall. I can imagine some alternative version of git hosting with the following message: Sign in to clone this repo

Cloning without logging can be seen as important:

- It makes it simpler for millions of CIs to check out the code unauthenticated,

- It enables usecases such as “Here is public data as a JSON, it’s our list of IP addresses, just integrate that to your firewall”,

- NPM. NPM entirely.

- Isn’t it required for open-source? If they restricted it behind a login, could we still say we deliver the code to our customers?

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

#65

Post by tuwtuwtuwtuw »

akkartik wrote: post #56
bhaney wrote: 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 don't actually care whether intent is malicious or not. GitHub has not cared about me or individual devs like me for some time now. Time to drop it.

How does that work? You don't want to sign in to the site so now you will replace it with another site. Presumably you don't want to sign in to that other site as well, so what are you using the service for in the first place?

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

#66

Post by tuwtuwtuwtuw »

msmenardi wrote: post #54
bhaney wrote: 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.

any requirement to log in is done with malicious intent. what other purpose could it hold other than to harvest your data for their own undisclosed purposes? Maybe anti-bots or something, but there are other ways to do that. Besides, a bot might just make an account.

> any requirement to log in is done with malicious intent

Wild!

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

#67

Post by daqhris »

Nullabillity wrote: post #61
daqhris wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an illustration, near the end of last year, bots from a renowned Email API provider spotted in less than 1 hour the leak of a public key from my public GitHub code repo. My account got suspended on their platform. It was stunning to see the speed at which they acted and automated the process to "lose" and "recover" reputation.

That's an official "feature": https://docs.github.com/en/code-security/secret-scanning/abo...

thank you for the enlightment. now it all makes sense in my mind.

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

#68

Post by codegeek »

bhaney wrote: 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 was very unhappy when they did this. The new search btw is shittier than the old one and this was a classic case of breaking the rule of "If ain't broke, don't fix it".

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

#69

Post by voussoir »

tuwtuwtuwtuw wrote: post #65
akkartik wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't actually care whether intent is malicious or not. GitHub has not cared about me or individual devs like me for some time now. Time to drop it.

How does that work? You don't want to sign in to the site so now you will replace it with another site. Presumably you don't want to sign in to that other site as well, so what are you using the service for in the first place?

> now you will replace it with another site.

Or you can self host! Github's changes pushed me to self host recently.

https://voussoir.net/writing/git_dot_voussoir_dot_net

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

#70

Post by akkartik »

tuwtuwtuwtuw wrote: post #65
akkartik wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't actually care whether intent is malicious or not. GitHub has not cared about me or individual devs like me for some time now. Time to drop it.

How does that work? You don't want to sign in to the site so now you will replace it with another site. Presumably you don't want to sign in to that other site as well, so what are you using the service for in the first place?

Oh I'm happy to stay logged in to SourceHut!
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