[dijit]

Github is opinionated.

I recall some time in 2016 when they were regex replacing variable names in peoples repositories and pestering them if they didn’t accept the request.

They also worked very hard to change the default branch name for everyone, eventually compromising.

Github definitely has opinions, they might align with yours, for now.

[progval]

> I recall some time in 2016 when they were regex replacing variable names in peoples repositories and pestering them if they didn’t accept the request.

Do you have more details about that?

[dijit]

I'm conflating multiple things over 5 years, my memory seems imperfect. Apologies.

What I've mixed together:

1) The "Alex" bot, which was opt-in and seemed to be everywhere. [0]

2) The "inclusive-coding-bot" which was not opt-in and just inserted itself into everything (which came out later). [1]

3) Github disabling a popular repository for using the word "Retard". [2]

Neither of the first two were actually endorsed by github, I just conflated them because of the "WebM for Retards" controversy and because they'd been very public about other inclusive things like not interviewing white people [3] or calling white women "some of the biggest barriers to progress are white women". [4]

[0]: https://github.com/get-alex/alex

[1]: https://github.com/inclusive-coding-bot

[2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9966118

[3]: https://i.insider.com/56b3d2f12e526555008b505e?width=791

[4]: https://www.businessinsider.com/diversity-guru-discusses-whi...

[inigyou]

my God, even 11 years ago, people had the same stupid political arguments as today:

> I think the fundamental misunderstanding we're having here is that people on the left side of the political spectrum believe the solution to all answers is more government control.

[dijit]

Yes, its really similar and unsurprisingly its still inflammatory.

My girlfriend mentioned that this year is an election year in sweden, which made me realise how bad the propaganda was in 2016- but its all the same stuff.