[bayindirh]

Like how you buy a standards committee.

Just research about Office formats' ISO standardization process.

I'm not insinuating MicroSoft will buy Codeberg, but I just wanted to say that, they are not foreigners to the process itself.

[matrss]

Are there standards committees with 786 voting members, of which you would have to convince at least 2/3 to betray the ideals of the association they chose to actively take part in to get the association to disband or otherwise stop it from pursuing its mission?

I don't think your comparison works out.

[bayindirh]

~800 members? That's great to hear actually. I like Codeberg and want them to succeed and be protected from outside effects.

That's said, I believe my comparison checks out. Having ~800 members is a useful moat, and will deter actors from harming Codeberg.

OTOH, the mechanism can still theoretically work. Of course Microsoft won't try something that blatant, but if the e.V loses this moat, there are mechanisms which Microsoft can and would like to use as Codeberg gets more popular.

[matrss]

I took the number from here: https://blog.codeberg.org/letter-from-codeberg-onwards-and-u...

I think another big "moat" is actually that Codeberg is composed of natural people only (those with voting rights, anyway). Real people have values, and since they have to actively participate in Codeberg in some way to get voting rights those values are probably aligned with Codeberg's mission. I don't actually now the details of the standardization process you cite, but I think this is a big difference to it.

Additionally, from skimming the bylaws of Codeberg I'd say they have multiple fail-safes built in as additional protection. For one, you can't just pay ~1600 people to sign up and crash a general assembly, every membership application has to be approved first. They also ask for "support [for] the association and its purpose in an adequate fashion" from its members, and include mechanisms to kick people out that violate this or are otherwise acting against Codeberg's interests, which such a hostile attack would surely qualify as.

Of course it's something to stay vigilant about, but I think Codeberg is well positioned with regard to protecting against a hostile takeover and shutdown situation, to the point that DDoS is the much easier attack against them (as was the initial topic).