
CPython: GitHub migration scheduled for Friday - ReticentMonkey
https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2017-February/147341.html
======
mjolk
As a Python user, I have mixed feelings about this change.

I think this move to corporate hosting is acknowledgment of usability and ease
of use at the expense of political purity -- for a project as important and
major as Python, this further solidifies GitHub's positioning as the place
where open source coding "happens" (consider what a move to GitLab would have
done for the legitimacy of their platform), a position that they've very
successfully used to up-sell "free" into paid accounts.

Python preceded and will outlive GitHub, but this now implicitly means Python
is amplifying and promoting the various political positions[0] of GitHub by
driving more traffic and money to their platform, which is run by a company
that currently employs at least two people to be politically active who have
publicly made questionable/racist statements[1]. If you personally agree with
GitHub's politics, great, but some do not or would prefer their work to have
more apolitical side-effects.

That said, as someone that "source dives" on the semi-official CPython mirror
on GitHub, then verifies on hg.python.org, this makes my life easier, and I'm
only a casually interested party of the CPython source. I do wonder about the
increase in (people) management overhead the ease-of-use will bring in filing
"issues" with the project though, as the prior mechanism acted as a filter for
non-technical people and those unable to follow instructions.

[0] [https://action.github.com/](https://action.github.com/) ;
[https://github.com/blog/2039-adopting-the-open-code-of-
condu...](https://github.com/blog/2039-adopting-the-open-code-of-conduct) (in
contrast with PSF's
[https://www.python.org/psf/codeofconduct/](https://www.python.org/psf/codeofconduct/)
);

[1] "some of the biggest barriers to progress are white women" \- GitHub's VP
of "Social Impact" ; "don't think we'll succeed teaching white, male middle
managers empathy and compassion anytime soon ... so let's limit their scope of
damage" \- GitHub's Technical Director for "Social Impact"

