GiveUpGitHub campaign: main page.
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www/conservancy/static/GiveUpGitHub/index.html
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{% extends "base_compliance.html" %}
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{% block subtitle %}Copyleft Compliance Projects - {% endblock %}
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{% block submenuselection %}GiveUpGitHub{% endblock %}
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{% block content %}
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<p>On Wednesday 29 June 2022, we <a href="FIXME_LINK_TO_BLOG_POST">began
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calling on all FOSS developers</a> to <strong>give up on
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GitHub</strong>. </p>
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<p>We realize this is not an easy task; GitHub is ubiquitous. Through their
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effective marketing, GitHub has convinced Free and Open Source Software
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(FOSS) developers that GitHub is the best (and even the only) place for FOSS
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development. However, as a proprietary, trade-secret tool, GitHub itself is
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the very opposite of FOSS. By contrast, Git was
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designed <a href="http://www.h-online.com/open/features/The-saga-of-Git-Lightning-does-strike-twice-1051559.html">specifically
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to replace a proprietary tool (BitKeeper)</a>, and to make FOSS development
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distributed — using FOSS tools and without a centralized site. GitHub
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has warped Git — creating add-on features that turn a distributed,
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egalitarian, and FOSS system into a centralized, proprietary site. And, all
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those add-on features are controlled by a single, for-profit company. By
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staying on GitHub, established FOSS communities bring newcomers to this
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proprietary platform — expanding GitHub's reach. and limiting the
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imaginations of the next generation of FOSS developers.</p>
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<p>We know that many rely on GitHub every day. Giving up a ubiquitous,
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gratis service that has useful (albeit proprietary) features is perennially
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difficult. For software developers, giving up GitHub will be even harder
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than giving up Facebook! We don't blame anyone who struggles, but hope you
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will read the reasons and methods below to give up GitHub and join us in
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seeking better alternatives! Also, please check back to this page regularly,
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as we'll continue to update it throughout 2022 and beyond!</p>
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<h2>Why Give Up GitHub?</h2>
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<p>There are so many reasons to give up on GitHub, but we list here a few of
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the most important ones:
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<ul>
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<li><a href="https://github.com/features/copilot" rel="nofollow">Copilot
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is a for-profit product</a> — developed and marketed by Microsoft
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and their GitHub subsidiary — that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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techniques to automatically generate code interactively for developers.
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The AI model was trained
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(<a href="https://github.blog/2021-06-30-github-copilot-research-recitation/"
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rel="nofollow">according to GitHub's own statements</a>) exclusively with
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projects that were hosted on GitHub, including many licensed
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under <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/glossary.html#copyleft">copyleft</a>
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licenses. Most of those projects are not in the “public
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domain”, they are licensed
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under <a href="https://opensource.org/licenses"><acronym title="Free and
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Open Source Software">FOSS</acronym> licenses</a>. These licenses
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have <em>requirements</em> including proper author attribution and, in
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the case of <a href="https://copyleft.org/"><em>copyleft</em>
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licenses</a>, they sometimes require that works based on and/or that
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incorporate the software be licensed under the same copyleft license as
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the prior work. Microsoft and GitHub have been ignoring these license
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requirements for more than a year. Their only defense of these
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actions <a href="https://twitter.com/natfriedman/status/1409914420579344385">was
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a tweet by their former CEO</a>, in which he falsely claims that
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unsettled law on this topic is actually settled. In addition to the legal
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issues,
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the <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2022/feb/03/github-copilot-copyleft-gpl/">ethical
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implications of GitHub's choice to use copylefted code</a> in the service
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of creating proprietary software are grave. </li>
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<li>In 2020, the community discovered that
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GitHub <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/01/ice-contract-github-sparks-developer-protests/604339/">has
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a for-profit software services contract with the USA Immigration and Customs
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Enforcement (ICE)</a>. Activists, including some GitHub employees, have been
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calling on GitHub for two years to cancel that contract. GitHub's primary
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reply has been that their parent company, Microsoft, has sold Microsoft Word
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for years to ICE without any public complaints. They claim that this somehow
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justifies <em>even more</em> business with an agency whose policies are
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problematic. Regardless of your views on ICE and its behavior, GitHub's
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ongoing <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2020-06-12/github-ceo-black-lives-matter-employees-demand-end-ice-contract">dismissive and disingenuous</a> responses to the activists who raised this important issue show that GitHub puts its profits above concerns from the community.</li>
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<li>While GitHub pretends to be pro-FOSS
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(like <a href="https://lwn.net/Articles/17822/">SourceForge before
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them</a>), their entire hosting site is, itself, proprietary and/or
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trade-secret software. We appreciate that GitHub allows some of its
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employees to sometimes contribute FOSS to upstream projects, but our
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community has been burned so many times before by companies that claim to
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support FOSS, while actively convincing the community to rely on their
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proprietary software. We won't let GitHub burn us in this same way!</li>
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<li>GitHub differs from most of its peers in the FOSS project hosting
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industry, as GitHub does not even offer any self-hosting FOSS option.
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Their <em>entire</em> codebase is secret. For example, while we have our
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complaints about GitLab's business model of parallel “Community&rdquo:
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and “Enterprise” editions, at least GitLab's Community Edition
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provides basic functionality for self-hosting and is 100% FOSS. Other
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competitors, like SourceHut, do even better by providing their entire
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codebase as FOSS for self-hosting and “dog fooding” by using
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their own platform to develop its software in public! In addition,
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non-profit FOSS hosting sites such
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as <a href="https://codeberg.org">CodeBerg</a> also develop their platform
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publicly as FOSS.</li>
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<li>GitHub has long sought to discredit copyleft generally. Their various
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CEOs have often spoken loudly and negatively about copyleft, including their
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founder (and former CEO)
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devoting <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bAAlPXB2-c">his entire
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OSCON keynote on attacking copyleft and the GPL</a>. There are also examples
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of <a href="https://github.com/BenKallos/legislation/issues/2#issue-46911010">GitHub
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employees filing bug tickets</a> in copylefted projects to cajole them to
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change to non-copyleft licenses.</li>
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<li>GitHub is wholly owned by Microsoft, a company whose executives have historically repeatedly attacked copyleft licensing.</li>
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</ul>
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<h2>How Do I Give Up GitHub?</h2>
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<p>The reason that it's difficult to leave GitHub is a side-effect of one of
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the reasons to leave them: proprietary vendor lock-in. We are aware that
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GitHub, as the “Facebook of software development”, has succeeded
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in creating the most enticing walled garden ever made for FOSS developers.
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Just like leaving Facebook is painful because you're unsure how you'll find
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and talk with your friends and family otherwise — leaving GitHub is
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difficult because it's how you find and collaborate with
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co-developers. GitHub may even be how you find and showcase your work to
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prospective employers. We also know that some Computer Science programs
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even <em>require</em> students to use GitHub.</p>
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<p>Accordingly, we call first on the most comfortably-situated developers
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among you — leaders of key FOSS projects, hiring and engineering
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managers, and developers who are secure in their employment — to take
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the first step to reject GitHub's proprietary services. We recognize that
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for new developers in the field, you'll receive pressure from potential
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employers (even those that will otherwise employ you to develop FOSS) to
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participate on GitHub. Collective action requires the privileged developers
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among us to lead by example; that's why we're not merely asking you leave
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GitHub, but we're spearheading an effort to help everyone give up GitHub over
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the long term. You can help protect newcomers from the intrinsic power
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imbalance created by GitHub by setting the agenda for your FOSS project and
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hosting your project elsewhere.</p>
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<p>As such, we're speaking first to the hiring managers, community leaders,
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and those in other positions of power that encourage the use of GitHub to new
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contributors and existing communities. Once someone in power makes the choice
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to host a project on GitHub, the individual contributors have little choice
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but to use these proprietary and damaging products. If you are making
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decisions or have political power within your community and/or employer, we
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urge you to use your power to center community efforts through FOSS platforms
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rather than GitHub. If you're an individual contributor who feels powerless
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to leave GitHub, read our (growing) list of recommendations below on how to
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take the first steps.</p>
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<p>Long term, we'll develop this stable URL (that can always be reached
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by <a href="https://GiveUpGitHub.org">GiveUpGitHub.org</a>) to include links
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to resources to help everyone — from the most privileged developer to
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newcomers and members of underrepresented groups in FOSS — to give up
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on GitHub. If you don't feel that you or your project can yet leave GitHub,
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we ask that you raise awareness
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by <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/docs/SupportGiveUpGitHub-README-snippet.md">adding
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this section to your README.md</a> to share your concerns about GitHub with
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your users. If you're ready to leave GitHub, you
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can <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/docs/GiveUpGitHub-README.md">use this
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README.md template</a> to replace your current one.</p>
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<p>
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<blockquote><p>千里之行始於足下<br/>The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.</p></blockquote>
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<div style="text-align: right"><p> — <cite>老子 (Lao Tsu) in Chapter 64
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of 道德经 (Tao Te Ching)</cite>
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</p></div>
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</p>
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<h2>Resources to Give Up GitHub</h2>
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<p>Here are some resources to help you quit GitHub. We'll be expanding this
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list regularly as we find more resources. If you'd like to suggest a
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resource not yet listed, you can discuss it on
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the <a href="https://lists.sfconservancy.org/mailman/listinfo/give-up-github">Give-Up-GitHub
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mailing list</a>.</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Alternative Hosting:
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<ul>
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<li><a href="https://codeberg.org">CodeBerg</a></li>
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<li><a href="https://sourcehut.org/">SourceHut</a></li>
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<li>Self-Host (or join a group that self-hosts) with:
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<ul><li><a href="https://gitea.io">Gitea</a></li>
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<li><a href="https://sr.ht/~sircmpwn/sourcehut/">SourceHut</a></li>
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<li> <a href="https://gitlab.com/rluna-gitlab/gitlab-ce">GitLab
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Community Edition</a> (note, the GitLab Enterprise Edition, which is
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provided to the public on gitlab.com, is (like GitHub) trade-secret,
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proprietary, vendor-lock-in software)</li>
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</ul></li>
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</ul></li>
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(We'll be adding tutorials soon on how to self-host!)
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</ul></p>
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<h2>Ways To Help Even <em>Before</em> You Give Up GitHub</h2>
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<p>Here are some ideas of how you can help raise the importance of this issue
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even while you're still a GitHub user. (We'll publish longer tutorials in
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future about these and other ways to help.)
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<ul>
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<li><a href="https://sfconservancy.org/docs/SupportGiveUpGitHub-README-snippet.md">Add
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this section to your README.md</a> to share your concerns about GitHub
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with your users.</li>
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<li>Respectfully and kindly ask, before you contribute to a project on
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GitHub, if they could provide alternative means to contribute other than
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using GitHub.</li>
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<li>Explain to your employer the dangers of relying on GitHub's proprietary
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vendor lock-in products.</li>
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<li>Join
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the <a href="https://lists.sfconservancy.org/mailman/listinfo/give-up-github">give-up-github
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mailing list</a> and start threads about your difficulties leaving GitHub.
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This will help us explore solutions with you and add material to this
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page.</li>
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</ul>
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</p>
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{% endblock %}
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