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VS Code inserting 'Co-Authored-by Copilot' into commits regardless of usage

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Re: VS Code inserting 'Co-Authored-by Copilot' into commits regardless of usage

#841

Post by EnglishMobster »

dmitriv wrote: post #268

I am the person who approved this PR and would like to acknowledge and apologize for the mistake of turning this feature on by default without sufficient upfront validation. There was no ill intent by evil corporation, but rather a desire to support functionality that some customers expect of VS Code w.r.t. AI-generated code. As folks mentioned here - many similar tools do this as well. Obviously, it should not be on…

Respectfully -

You are working for one of the largest companies on the planet. You push code that gets used by millions of people.

How on earth are you not thoroughly testing your changes??? How can something like this slip into a real build? Like, this is egregious.

I work somewhere that makes software for a lot of users (although not as many as Microsoft!). We also need to ship quickly. But we work on a 45-day cycle, with 15 of those days being dedicated to ensuring we didn't add any awful bugs (and fixing them ASAP before it goes to users - or reverting the change until it is ready).

I would expect Microsoft to have AT LEAST that amount of care. We can't trust that you are shipping software that even works anymore!

What other changes are going in that are broken in more subtle ways? It used to be that VS Code was rock solid, and any issues were likely third-party extensions - but now it's a crapshoot, and I can't be sure if crashes etc. are the fault of extensions or Microsoft themselves!

The VS Code team needs to use this mistake as motivation to lead the charge on making a quality editor. Not an editor that gets half-baked, untested changes pushed weekly. An editor that is dogfooded and where a mistake like this going to prod is unacceptable.

Because if you don't, people won't trust your editor anymore. Just like people have stopped trusting your OS, and now users are fleeing it in such numbers that the Windows team has recognized they have a problem and are changing course.

That WILL happen to VS Code and GitHub soon unless you actually start owning mistakes internally and fixing them before users find them.

Re: VS Code inserting 'Co-Authored-by Copilot' into commits regardless of usage

#842

Post by allarm »

someguynamedq wrote: post #487
alemanek wrote: post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Changing the default behavior for all of your users with no notification is pretty unforgivable. Even if this feature worked correctly, it obviously doesn’t, this should at minimum be a prompt after upgrade to let the user confirm that this is what they want. But honestly should be opt in for those that want it. To have it silently just start adding marketing copy to git commit messages is pretty bad. To have that ad…

"unforgivable" is a little melodramatic

No, it's fine. I really hope that more people will switch to something else, like Neovim, Emacs, or any other open-source editor where such unacceptable situations are practically impossible. I hope more people will start to value their privacy and right to choose, and find the courage to say gtfo and switch to something else. Because this is unforgivable.

Re: VS Code inserting 'Co-Authored-by Copilot' into commits regardless of usage

#843

Post by allarm »

dmitriv wrote: post #560
anvuong wrote: post #446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't you understand that the default shouldn't be changed at all in this case? It improves nothing and affects every single user. If an org/project wants this behavior then it can enforce this flag for its contributions. The only valid reason for this change is someone's performance somewhere in Microsoft is dependent on VS Copilot usage metric.

Good feedback, there needs to be a more explicit opt-in into this for teams that want it. FWIW nobody's performance here will improve from having this metric :-)

> FWIW nobody's performance here will improve from having this metric

It's even more frightening if so. Meaning you really thought it's something users wanted.

Re: VS Code inserting 'Co-Authored-by Copilot' into commits regardless of usage

#844

Post by OutOfHere »

tardedmeme wrote: post #461
OutOfHere wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is more of it that's going on. For me, Microsoft's SwiftKey keyboard app sabotages the use of a competing search engine (DuckDuckGo) in Firefox in Android for me. When typing a multi-word double-quoted search phrase, it doesn't allow it to be typed correctly.

DuckDuckGo is not a competitor to Bing. It is a sub-brand of Bing for the purpose of market segmentation. While Bing attracts users who install Windows and click on internet, DuckDuckGo attracts users who feel concerned about privacy. It's the same engine under the hood.

Last I read, Microsoft pays DuckDuckGo somewhat proportional to its user count.

Re: VS Code inserting 'Co-Authored-by Copilot' into commits regardless of usage

#845

Post by OutOfHere »

LtWorf wrote: post #554
OutOfHere wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's 100% nonsense.

Thanks for putting the time to articulate why the AI GPUs cannot possibly be used to fork the blockchain and obtain the majority.

Because they're needed to run AI. Newer hardware is increasingly specialized for AI too. Moreover, if funds start disappearing, the price will crash, negating the point.

Re: VS Code inserting 'Co-Authored-by Copilot' into commits regardless of usage

#846

Post by geekone »

dmitriv wrote: post #539
somebehemoth wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the constructive criticism is best directed at whatever process you are following. That process allowed a very visible user facing change in a widely used piece of software. How did this change make it to production without some process catching the impact of this change? Was there really no internal discussion from a code review at least? This seems hard for me to believe. I expect more from Microsoft.

Fair point. We did catch it internally in testing (as we use VS Code for all our work, so some folks did stumble on it), but I think we underestimated the impact and should do a better job at that.

You say in another comment this slipped through testing. Can you elaborate on exactly what was caught in internal testing?

Re: VS Code inserting 'Co-Authored-by Copilot' into commits regardless of usage

#847

Post by bitwize »

jazzypants wrote: post #771
danlugo92 wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember a time, way back, around 2010 maybe?, where Microsoft was referred to as "M$" in this place and generally perceived as an evil corporation o.O

I still remember when he got hit with a pie on the face in the 90s [0] and the internet celebrated and made games. [1] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No%C3%ABl_Godin [1] https://www.mobygames.com/game/2921/pie-bill-gates/

Completely unrelated to that incident, there was xbill:

http://www.xbill.org/

Re: VS Code inserting 'Co-Authored-by Copilot' into commits regardless of usage

#848

Post by anbende »

dmitriv wrote: post #539
somebehemoth wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the constructive criticism is best directed at whatever process you are following. That process allowed a very visible user facing change in a widely used piece of software. How did this change make it to production without some process catching the impact of this change? Was there really no internal discussion from a code review at least? This seems hard for me to believe. I expect more from Microsoft.

Fair point. We did catch it internally in testing (as we use VS Code for all our work, so some folks did stumble on it), but I think we underestimated the impact and should do a better job at that.

A generous read of this comment might be that you did catch it internally in testing AFTER it shipped but shrugged it off as something you'd patch in the next release in a week or two. Is that what you meant here?

Or that it was caught but didn't surface fully before release?

A helpful governance policy here might be that anything that mutates user content without opt-in consent requires a distinct sign-off or a double sign-off. If the goal is to prevent this from happening in future.

Re: VS Code inserting 'Co-Authored-by Copilot' into commits regardless of usage

#849

Post by [deleted] »

liendolucas wrote: post #840
dmitriv wrote: post #542

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am reverting it because there are bug in the feature and it obviously does not work as expected. Any feedback is important, HN or not.

So, you're reverting because of "bugs", not because you had massive backfire? Do you understand that no one wants this, right?

[deleted]

Re: VS Code inserting 'Co-Authored-by Copilot' into commits regardless of usage

#850

Post by tehjoker »

kaashif wrote: post #680
tehjoker wrote: post #510

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, workers build the world. We should run it. Actually. Why does management get to tell us what to do without elections?

Workers are necessary but not sufficient for most businesses. You also need capital. This can be provided by the workers and is for many worker owners businesses, but when the business is very capital intensive that's just not feasible. Are workers going to be able to fund Apple's factories or ExxonMobil's oil exploration? No, so they're not in charge. You absolutely can start a worker owned business right now, or go…

Of course. That is why state guided worker coops are a good idea. Or state incentives to provide loans at good interest rates to worker coops.

The state provides capital, the workers operate the business, make management decisions, and have democratic input like the public does.

You might say, that kind of system isn't a perfect solution, but currently we have a dictatorship of wealthy individuals and businesses who are wholly unaccountable.

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