Summary of the #Github debacle so far:
- My account seems to have been flagged and shadowbanned, based on the symptoms, but it doesn't actually say this anywhere in the UI
- The reason is unclear; I've received no notification or explanation of any sort from Github, and had to find out through someone at $customer not being able to see my comments
- I sent a support ticket 16 hours ago, and have gotten zero response or acknowledgment so far.
- *All* of my content, except for commits, is hidden without notice; it looks deleted to anyone not logged in as me.
- My repos are gone. Any PRs and comments I've made in other repos over the past decade+ are gone. My Gists are gone.
- This includes at least one Matrix MSC that's entirely gone, and many review comments on other Matrix MSCs and NixOS RFCs. There's just entire chunks of the standards process history missing now.
- Github's account data export only includes my own repositories; all contributions to other projects are missing. Gists are completely missing.
- I can no longer do my job for $customer, that pays my income; because anything I post in their private company repositories(!!) is also invisible - including everything I've worked on over the years, retroactively.
Like, mistakes happen, an account can get flagged for erroneous reasons, fine. But it's slowly dawning on me just how much impact this is having, with seemingly no recourse. And it begs the question of how many other people this has happened to.
> Any PRs and comments I've made in other repos over the past decade+ are gone. My Gists are gone.
Were these also inaccessible to you? Or you could see them but others couldn't?
@akkartik I mean, I understand there being a moderation function, and it is unfortunately definitely necessary.
The problem, though, is *how* that moderation function is implemented (no visibility, no notice, retroactive, etc.), and how little recourse there is for anyone involved.
@joepie91 Yeah. Not saying it doesn't make sense, just that having it on my radar changes how I think about my risk exposure to Github. It's more like Google now in my head.
@joepie91 Moderation is hard! It's not clear anybody does it perfectly. It seems worth keeping stuff you care about out of other people's moderation blast radius.
@akkartik Ahh right, I get what you mean now. Yeah, this definitely caused me to mentally recategorize Github as well. I'd always rationally *known* of this risk of course, but it never quite 'landed' in a visceral way, so to say.
@joepie91 Thanks! This is very helpful data. Sucks that you had to go through it, but might as well maximize what we learn from it, and spread the lessons far and wide.
Like, it never occurred to me that Github would have a moderation function! This isn't fucking Twitter! WTF! Github is, above all, an archive. With backups in an Arctic seed vault! There is no fucking excuse for changing the ACLs on years-old contributions.