[JohnTHaller]

It's worth pointing out that SourceForge as we knew it back then ceased to exist quite some time ago. SourceForge was sold to DHI Group, Inc. (DICE's parent company) in 2012 and many of the staff were let go as part of the sale. DevShare came into play in 2014 and was originally billed as a way to help open source developers who wanted to sign up earn an income from their open source work. But then it wound up using dark patterns and then it was morphed into something more and started to be added to projects that didn't want it done (in violation of some trademarks and the like). This destroyed the good will that still existed around the brand even though most of the folks who made SourceForge SourceForge were long gone.

SourceForge was then sold again in 2016 to BIZX, LLC who killed the DevShare program and started scanning all downloads for malware and other baddies.

[loganabbott]

Thanks. Yep we killed the bundled adware and fake download buttons on DAY ONE. Nice to hear that at least some people understand that.

[qz3]

You're obviously very frustrated by how people see the service, but you can't blame them.

The GIMP incident made pretty big news, and for many people, the name "SourceForge" will stay equivalent to a malware-injecting host. Anyone who decided to keep the name should have anticipated that.

[loganabbott]

I'm not frustrated, but these threads show up on HN almost weekly now, with armchair quarterbacks who really are not current on the state of open source opining ill informed opinions. They even know we are new owners who immediately killed all the bad stuff, and still blame us. I cared about SourceForge, so I bought it and removed DevShare, and still get the blame. People know that we having nothing to do with the old owners, but recreational online outrage is fun, so they continue to blame us for saving it. Cognitive dissonance is en vogue right now. I guess if someone's lonely Sunday night is made better by shitting on the people who did everything in their power to save SourceForge, then go for it. I just think people's time can be used better.

[bb88]

Maybe change your name from source forge to something else.

You can rehabilitate the brand, but that will probably take a lot more money than just changing the name.

Edited to add:

On the front page I also see "Business VOIP" and "Cloud Storage" and "Internet speed test". Maybe you want to remove those links and focus on software development.

[masonic]

How fortunate for Apple that they weren't forever condemned in the same manner for how they screwed over Lisa buyers.