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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

#81
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…

[deleted]

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

#82
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…

> 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.

When I first saw they had their compliance policy repos set to public so anyone could view internal discussions around changes the lawyer in me just about fell off my chair. That is an almost unbelievable level of transparency. It's difficult for me to assume anything but the best intentions when GitLab has gone out of their way to let people see how the sausage is made.

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

#83

I don't see where it is canceled. The closest thing I see to canceled, is postponed. From the update: 'We will not activate user level product usage tracking on GitLab.com or GitLab self-managed before we address the feedback and re-evaluate our plan.' That leaves a lot of wiggle room.

No 1/2 decent CEO, PR, Legal or any other department at work here would leave themselves without wiggle room. I’ll reserve the pitchforks for if this comes up again.

Yup, and it's not that they plan to backtrack, it's to reserve room for not committing to an exact outcome, but instead a general outcome. What they plan to do is not necessarily what will happen exactly, as anybody that has been in a position of authority or part of a project knows. Things may take a little longer, there may be some detours, etc. It's insurance so somebody doesn't armchair nitpick and shame them.

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

#84
post #76
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Lesson learned here - the CFO is not and should not be responsible for a company's tracking policies and communication thereof.

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

#85
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…

How do we know that they would have changed their plans without the outrage?

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

#86

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.

How can you trust a company that does the same things behind closed doors?

With GitLab we know about everything that's happening and can react before bad things happen. This is awesome.

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

#87
post #75
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There's a difference between gitlab and gmail. People pay for gitlab while gmail is free. Google can easily declare "either you take it for what it is, or leave."

Gitlab can't.

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

#88
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…

[deleted]

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

#89
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…

> 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.

How could a company like this ever think that opt-out is appropriate? It seems like all their engineers knew this was a bad idea and everyone else seemed to think it was okay!

The problem for me was how a company like this couldn't see that this would happen and went along with it, I held Gitlab to a high standard and honestly I've lost a lot of trust with them.

I'm thankful for the outrage, and whilst I will never condemn personal attacks, I feel discussing the matter on places like HN was appropriate.

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

#90
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.

Performance and UI are valid considerations for using or not using any service, but not everyone has the same requirements on either of those.

If you don't find them acceptable, that's legit. Those are the "real reasons" you shouldn't use it. However, those reasons may not apply to others. They don't apply to me, for instance, and as Gitlab has a lot of users, I'm not alone.

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