[munk-a]

That is somewhat fair - there aren't great alternatives to migrate issues and the like to today. But all of those bits of metadata are easy to pull out of the service via API hooks. If someone wanted to start a serious competitor to github that shares the same basic data model it'd be pretty trivial to write up migration aides.

I don't disbelieve that it's possible for microsoft to severely restrict these - but entirely removing them is off the table unless they cut out a lot of value. Inter-service communication to third party review tools and CI/CD tools all depend strongly on those API hooks.

[merpnderp]

> If someone wanted to start a serious competitor to github that shares the same basic data model it'd be pretty trivial to write up migration aides.

Like Gitlab? I assumed Gitlab would dominate after the MS purchase of Github, but I was incorrect that people wouldn't want to trust their data and personal projects to the epic abusers of privacy that is Microsoft.

[munk-a]

Well I don't think the personal projects are really a significant factor in terms of where MS's paychecks are coming from - they care more about the commercial subscribers. And, speaking as someone employed at a commercial subscriber, objecting to continuing to use github due to the microsoft acquisition when we use office for pretty much all document production is going to be a pretty hard argument.

[gmueckl]

There are really simple ways to play dirty with APIs like making sure that they are incomplete in subtle and inconvenient ways like leaving out some of the metadata. Hypothetical example: make it impossible to query tags on issues. You'd still be able to do most things through the API, but if you have a workflow that's heavily dependent on tags, the data is effectively siloed.

[maccard]

So to be clear, the proof the GitHub is extending is a hypothetical example of an incomplete api that is not based on an open standard?

[gmueckl]

I didn't want to prove anything. I just pointed out what is possible.

[maccard]

Sorry, I misread the username and assumed you were the commentor I replied to. Yes, these things are _possible_ but there is no evidence or indication that they are happening with Github.

[gmueckl]

I agree that there are no signs at the moment. Companies change over time, so a certain risk - however small - is present, as with all 3rd party services.